New Jersey readies for first legal medical marijuana

From The Star-Ledger Statehouse Bureau:

If all goes according to plan, New Jersey’s first legally grown marijuana plants will be harvested this fall from greenhouses, where they will have been growing for months under the gaze of cameras and security guards. The plants will be dried, packaged and readied for purchase at six licensed facilities by thousands of registered patients who have debilitating illnesses.

The product will not be called Garden State Red or Jersey Gold or anything like that. But when that first joint is lit, New Jersey officially will have ventured where none of the other 13 states that legalized marijuana consumption for medicinal purposes has gone before: taking the lead role in the pot manufacturing and distribution business.

Queasy over the idea of filling the Garden State with scores of backyard pot plants, lawmakers in January passed the most restrictive medical marijuana statute in the nation by banning patients, their families and other caregivers from growing their own. But for state officials who must implement the law, this tough stance raises questions so complicated they wonder if they’ll be able to meet this fall’s deadline.

Consider:

• In the next six months, state health officials must decide who should be permitted to grow the drug and where, how it should be tested for potency and safety, and in which communities it will be sold. The health department has informally approached Rutgers University’s School of Environmental and Biological Sciences to play an unspecified role, but no discussions have taken place.

• Officials will have to devise a system to screen the hundreds of aspiring marijuana entrepreneurs who have called looking to break into an industry that has been thriving in other states.

• And they will have to make sure they don’t run afoul of the federal and state laws that still recognize marijuana possession and distribution as crimes.

Advocates say at least 5,000 New Jerseyans with debilitating diseases are waiting for the state to implement the new law. One group predicts that number will eventually top 30,000.

"I am tired of feeling like a criminal when obtaining and using marijuana — which I always use responsibly and away from my children — just to lead a normal life," said Chuck Kwiatkowski of Hazlet, a 38-year-old father of three who left his computer programming job at AT&T when multiple sclerosis disabled him. "Each day that goes by, at least 5,000 people miss their medication."

Speaking at her Senate confirmation two weeks ago, acting Health and Senior Services Commissioner Poonam Alaigh acknowledged the department was still in the early stages of designing the program and was "having some issues."

"We are rigorously trying to meet the time frame, but the first priority is to create a structure" that will be the "most restrictive, in the way the law was meant to be," said Alaigh.

Bill sponsor Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) said both Alaigh and Gov. Chris Christie asked to extend the nine-month start-up period required under the law.

"I said no," Scutari said. "I want to see them make progress. I’m confident the new commissioner will take the bull by the horns."

A wary supporter at best, Christie, a former U.S. attorney, inherited the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act from Gov. Jon Corzine, who signed it into law the day before Christie’s inauguration.

Nancy Fedder (pictured), a 62-year-old Hillsborough resident with multiple sclerosis, said she has bought marijuana illegally for 20 years to relieve the fiery pain and muscle spasms in her legs and feet. She said she is discouraged that the law’s implementation is in the hands of a governor who has expressed concerns about it.

"I know a lot of people who are waiting for this law," Fedder said. "We are not holding our breath, because Mr. Christie is not going to push this along. He’s a cop by nature. I find it hard to believe he will implement it. All he has to do is slow this down."

Michael Drewniak, Christie’s press secretary, insists the governor’s request for an extension to implement the law is not about "trying to slow anything down."

"There are security and legal issues that have to be attended to," he said. "We don’t want to become the California model."

Angst over California — where dispensaries are as commonplace in some communities as coffee bars, and federal officials have launched raids — is one reason New Jersey lawmakers said registered users will not be allowed to grow pot at home.

Clamping down on the supply will make New Jersey the first state in the nation to provide medical marijuana through its own centralized production and distribution system.

The law initially limits the distribution sites, also known as "alternative treatment centers," to six locations run by nonprofit organizations, with the state deciding whether to license more centers run by both for-profit and nonprofit entities.

"We are in very new territory," said Bradley Hillman, senior associate director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers. "Every other state has some level of growth allowed by individuals. It butts up against some major issues — how state law will butt up against fed law. It’s my understanding even in the various states that have state laws allowing growth for personal use, you can still run afoul of federal agencies."

New Mexico, for example, scrapped plans three years ago for a state-managed system to produce and distribute medical marijuana and decided to allow people to grow their own because officials feared state employees would be "subject to potential federal prosecution." The state, which still allows people to grow their own, recently licensed five dispensaries that serve about 800 registered medical marijuana users.

Robert Goodman, executive director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers, said there are many ways the school could help. It could oversee the growth and cultivation, provide land and teach inexperienced growers, or offer guidance through research. Any facility that grows pot, they cautioned, would require 24-hour safeguards against theft.

But Rutgers University officials say they are wary of federal laws.

"We wouldn’t even attempt to proceed with this unless we first checked it out legally," said associate director Margaret Brennan. "In New Jersey where you talk about just six locations that are growing huge quantities, the state itself may have an issue with the federal government."

Last fall, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder eased states’ anxiety by announcing that raiding medical marijuana facilities would be a low priority for federal agents. Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said his office "will not focus our federal law enforcement efforts on ... individuals who are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing New Jersey law." But, he said, the office will prosecute those who try to use the law as a cover.

As state officials sort through these legal issues, they plan to set rules to deal with people who are looking to make money from medical marijuana.

"I am sure state government is going to be hugely under pressure to let entrepreneurs find their way into this new opportunity," Goodman said.

Brennan added: "The economics are huge. There is a tremendous amount of potential for the state and whoever is awarded contracts to be growing it."

J.B. Woods and his wife, Mary, operate a Colorado insurance company that is one of five in the world specializing in policies for marijuana dispensaries. He said they hope to break into the New Jersey market.

Woods said the law will bring an "enormous economic benefit," because growing and dispensing pot requires facilities, workers and spin-off businesses.

New Jersey’s major business groups won’t say who wants to get in on the medical marijuana industry, and state officials won’t disclose who is knocking on the door.

Scutari said the economic benefit is another reason New Jersey should implement the law on time. He believes New Jersey, like other states, should tax medical marijuana. The law doesn’t provide any state funding for the program; he said it would pay for itself through charging fees for participants, dispensaries and even registered caregivers, who will need police background checks.

The Coalition for Medical Marijuana NJ has held meetings for patients, entrepreneurs and health care workers, but chief executive director Ken Wolski says the state has not responded to the group’s request to help craft the rules.

One of the first steps the state is expected to take is creating a patient registry, allowing people to apply once their doctors attest they suffer from one of a list of specific serious illnesses and cannot be helped by traditional medicine. Chris Goldstein, a coalition spokesman, said a registration card would be "the most important thing from a law and public safety standpoint. They want to see registered patients with the card in their pocket so there is no question about who is registered."

Kwiatkowski said his doctor has promised to write a recommendation for him when it comes time to apply. For now, he’ll continue risking arrest by buying pot illegally because he says it helps him function — and makes him a better parent.

"They have no idea what’s going on," Kwiatkowski said of his three daughters, ages 9, 7 and 4. "Piggyback rides — that’s what my 4-year-old wants. And she’s getting them."