State House in Trenton – photo by C. David Freitag
9/28/2012 – Governor Chris Christie was on his favorite FM radio station last night, NJ 101.5, trying to avoid responsibility for delaying the Garden State medical marijuana law. But he may have come clean about something more serious.
Christie: “This bill was passed in a rush in January of 2010 because they wanted to get it in under the wire while Governor Corzine was still here. The bill was without much thought – they didn’t know how they were going to enforce standards or anything else. We essentially had to remake the bill by regulation because it was so poorly written…”
Ken Wolski, executive director of The Coalition for Medical Marijuana- New Jersey (CMMNJ) pointed out that the governor is far outside of his authority.
“Governor Christie just admitted that he re-wrote the law through the regulatory process with the NJ Department of Health. This is inappropriate: advocates have been pointing this out for two years. An Executive Agency like the Department of Health is not authorized or empowered to re-write the statute and substitute its judgment with that of the Legislature.”
Back in 2010, Christie pitched a monopoly contract on all growing and distribution by none other than Rutgers University. Then he worked the Legislature for a 6-month implementation delay. Somewhere in between the corporate pharmaceutical and medical interests in the Soprano State smelled cash in the water.
Now the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP) stands as one of the worst examples of government because not one single ounce of marijuana has been made available to patients.
The New Jersey Department of Health issued a massive set of regulations in late 2010 that were absurdly overbearing. They limited THC to 10%, required that physicians join a special registry and made the dispensaries treat natural cannabis as if it were radioactive material.
Christie repeatedly went to bat for the harsh provisions from his bully pulpit at press conferences and behind the scenes by sending his Counsel into meetings at NJDOH.
But the cannabis rules were so bad that in 2011 both the NJ Assembly and the Senate passed resolutions (SCR130) declaring the regulations to be outside the “intent of the law.” The step was almost without precedent. Yet the NJ Legislature lost the resolve to make the final move and invalidate the regulations.
Jay Lassiter of Cherry Hill, NJ lives with HIV and is one of the 240 currently registered patients in New Jersey.
“I think I’m patient number 127.”
Still, Lassiter can’t get his MMP card or the legal protections of the compassionate use law just yet.
New Jersey was the first state that passed a medical marijuana law cutting off home cultivation by patients or caregivers. Instead all the patients would be forced into a state-licensed “Alternative Treatment Center (ATC).”
Just six of the ATC contracts were put out to bid by the Christie Administration. None of the ATCs have been fully permitted to open for patients. Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, NJ is the closest to opening.
Jay’s ID card, along with 239 more, will be shipped from NJDOH to Greenleaf for the patients to pick up…if they ever get final permits.
Like most of the NJ patients who have been waiting for the law, Lassiter holds the governor responsible.
“I wish Chris Christie would take the same zeal with which he’s fought this program and apply it to my skyrocketing property taxes instead.”
Contact Governor Chris Christie 609-292-6000 or @GovChristie
Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions? [email protected]