Thursday, January 28, 2010

NJ Becomes 14th State to Allow Medical Marijuana Use

Jake Bruno
The ex- governor for the state of New Jersey, John Corzine, signed a bill allowing chronically ill patients to receive relief by the means of medical marijuana his last day in office. The bill will allow ill people all over the state of New Jersey to receive marijuana from local dispensaries, but only with prescriptions from their doctors. The signing of the bill introduced New Jersey as the 14th state to allow medical marijuana use, but hold it right there. Although New Jersey adopted the bill, they plan on having the strictest medical marijuana laws in the country. Patients will not be permitted to grow their own marijuana, nor will they be able to drive while they are under the influence. New Jersey plans on having their medical marijuana laws be models for other states around the country.
I believe that medical marijuana would a great thing for New Jersey. I think marijuana could be the next big thing in the world of medicine. As long as New Jersey keeps strict laws against operating motor vehicles, and growing your own marijuana, I think marijuana will alleviate many terminally ill people’s pain. One of the big reasons I feel so strongly about this topic is because just a few months ago I watched my grandmother die of brain and lung cancer. It’s so hard watching your loved one’s in so much pain when there is nothing you can do about it. Other medications that are being prescribed leave patients in a “zombie” state. That was one of the worst things about the whole experience. I knew my grandmother was dying, but I never actually got the chance to say goodbye to her because the last couple weeks of her life they had her on so much medication that she was in a coma state. I hated to see her in pain, but I hated even more to see her unconscious. Although I could talk about this all day, I’m getting off topic.
I think in the right hands, marijuana could do great things. However , if I was to pass the law in New Jersey I would have went about it a little different. With marijuana you can be dealing with anything from 2% THC to 20%THC, so I wouldn’t specifically prescribe marijuana. I would extract the THC into a liquid form, so you know exactly how much you’re getting. You’re doctors could also monitor how much your taking much more closely than if they were just giving you a card to buy marijuana. It’s like taking aspirin; of course you want to know how much you are taking, therefore I don’t think it should be any different with marijuana. With the right tweaks, marijuana could be a huge medical breakthrough.

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