| State legislators are no doubt patting themselves on the back for passing the medical marijuana bill less than 24 hours before the end of the session. They can finally say that they passed one of the measures they had promised for the lame duck.
The bill they passed isn't exactly something to brag about, considering 13 states, including Montana and Alaska, already allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Its sponsors boast that it is the most restrictive medical marijuana law passed in any state. Doctors can prescribe marijuana only for a specific list of conditions; no "off-label" prescribing is allowed. New Jersey physicians may prescribe methamphetamine, cocaine, PCP, morphine and anabolic steroids off-label, but they can't prescribe marijuana except where either political appointees to the department of health or the board of medical experts that is the New Jersey State Legislature deems it appropriate. The law also limits the amount that may be prescribed to two ounces per month and does not allow patients to grow their own marijuana. Canada's national health department, by comparison, merely recommends that doctors prescribe not more than 5 grams per day, or about 5.3 ounces per month.
The legislature deserves more censure for what they didn't pass yesterday than credit for what they did. A bill which would allow illegal immigrants who were brought here without their consent by their parents and graduated from New Jersey high schools pay in-state tuition at the state's public colleges and universities. Nine states, including such liberal hotbeds as Texas and Kansas, already do this, but leaders in the New Jersey Legislature couldn't even be bothered to post the bill for a vote. |
