MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN N.J. / TOO CUMBERSOME

We don't blame Gov. Chris Christie for trying to craft a
medical-marijuana program that does not become a farce, like
California's or Colorado's programs, which make it far too easy for
just about anyone to get "medical" pot.

But Christie's proposed regulations governing the program go too far,
and Monday's announcement of the six "alternative treatment centers"
that will be allowed to legally grow and sell marijuana only added to
the problems with the program.

The six medical-marijuana dispensaries will be in Montclair in Essex
County, Secaucus in Hudson County, Manalapan in Monmouth County, New
Brunswick in Middlesex County and Bellmawr in Camden County, with the
final center to be in either Burlington County or a second one in
Camden County.

No alternative treatment center will be located in coastal southern
New Jersey - and we and others have a problem with that. "We're a
little concerned there's nothing in Atlantic County," said Roseanne
Scotti, director of the New Jersey Drug Policy Alliance.

When you consider that the proposed rules - which the Legislature has
said do not comply with the original legislation - do not allow home
delivery and place a number of roadblocks in the way of caregivers
picking up pot for registered patients, the lack of any treatment
center in Atlantic, Cape May or Ocean counties is a major problem.

These are sick people we are talking about. New Jersey's law wisely
specifies the diseases and conditions that will qualify someone for
medical marijuana. We have no problem with that. But it does mean
these will be seriously ill people who are seeking the drug. And this
plan will certainly will not make it easy for such patients on the
Jersey shore.

There are a number of other problems with the Christie
administration's proposed rules. Most patients and/or caregivers, who
can pick up the marijuana, would have to pay a $200 fee. Doctors would
be required to undergo additional training before prescribing the
drug. And, worst of all, the state's rules would limit the potency of
the marijuana to a 10 percent THC cap.

As Dr. Jeffrey Pollack, of Mays Landing, has noted, the THC cap will
simply force patients to smoke more of the drug or to continue buying
more potent marijuana illegally.

The public comment period on the proposed rules does not end until
April 24, at which point the rules could be changed. The Legislature
can also require a rewrite of the regulations. Either way, at the very
least, a seventh treatment center should be added in either Atlantic
County, Cape May County or Ocean County, and the THC cap should be
lifted.