NJ official: Medical marijuana rules not 'hostile'

TRENTON - New Jersey's proposed medical marijuana regulations are not designed to fail or be hostile to prospective patients, growers, or sellers, the state official behind them said Wednesday.

Deputy Health Commissioner Susan Walsh had her first public meeting with medical marijuana advocates since she announced the proposed regulations Oct. 6. In some ways, the regulations would be more restrictive than those in the 13 other states that allow medical marijuana.

New Jersey is going to take public comment for two months before final rules are set. It hopes marijuana will be available to patients legally by July 1.

Wednesday's forum in Trenton was meant for people considering applying to run the treatment centers that would grow and distribute the marijuana, but many people were there to voice their discontent with the rules.

Their anger only grew Tuesday, when Gov. Christie said that while he supported the idea of medical marijuana, he would not have signed the state law had it come to his desk after he became governor in January. Christie's predecessor, Jon S. Corzine, signed the legislation as one of his last acts before leaving office.

"There's a patient belief that the Christie administration is trying to set up this program to fail," said Anne M. Davis, executive director of the New Jersey branch of the marijuana legalization group NORML. Davis is also a lawyer representing a prospective treatment center and consulting with others.

But Walsh said, "Absolutely at no time did the governor or his staff say to me, 'Sue, make this restrictive.' Neither Gov. Corzine before he left, nor Gov. Christie, nor anyone from his office told me to do anything but to implement this plan."

What she came up with has some regulations that other states have not imposed. Among them are limiting the potency of the marijuana, allowing only two growers and four distribution centers, and prohibiting the sale of marijuana cooked into food.

Walsh said the state wanted to make sure legalized marijuana followed a medical program.

Patients use the drug to ease pain and nausea.

Jeffrey Miskoff, a doctor who treats people with terminal illnesses, said limiting tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychotropic chemical in marijuana, to less than 10 percent would make the drug so weak he would be reluctant to recommend it to a dying patient. He said it wouldn't do much to ease pain.

The same regulation also bothered Nadine Stevens, a Wantage organic farmer who plans to apply to grow cannabis. "As a farmer, there's no way to foresee what your crop is going to be like."

Under the regulations, marijuana that tests as too strong would have to be destroyed.

Jason Cogan said the proposed regulations were so tough they would make it hard to go into business, even for a nonprofit. He said he wanted to apply to grow and distribute the drug, but wouldn't under these rules.

"It seems like whether you're trying to be a grower or a distribution center, you've basically taken any economic incentive out of it," Cogan told Walsh. "It seems like anyone would be a fool to want the license."

Walsh said she hoped there would be quality applications.

"I hope that you're wrong and I'm right," she said.