Christie's overt refusal to accept reality of science results in creating medical cannabis refugees and some who never left the state and became deceased while waiting for laws to catch up with science.
Potential for cannabis legalization in NJ;
"Progress is slow, but reformers are not giving up
In 2014, several important marijuana policy reform bills have been introduced, though none has advanced out of committee yet. These include: Assemblyman Reed Gusciora’s decriminalization bill, A218, which would impose a civil fine for the possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana; S1896, Senator Nicholas Scutari’s bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol; and several proposals to improve New Jersey’s existing medical marijuana program.
Earlier this summer, several local editorial boards called out the “dysfunction” of the state program. Currently, it serves only about 2,000 patients out of an estimated tens of thousands, through only three operational treatment centers, despite having been made law more than four years ago. Gov. Chris Christie has attributed this to a lack of demand for medical marijuana. However, the low participation is more likely caused by unreasonably strict requirements.
Fortunately, Assemblywoman Linda Stender and a number of her colleagues have recently introduced legislation that is expected to dramatically improve the program. A3525 would expand the list of qualifying conditions, allow home cultivation, remove the cap on the number of dispensaries, eliminate the sales tax, and add limited anti-discrimination protections for patients.
Voters are ready for reform. A poll released in June 2013 found that 67% of New Jersey voters favor reducing penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil fine, with no possibility of jail time. In the past, Gov. Christie has threatened to veto such measures if they passed. So it is especially important for your representatives to know that you stand behind them in supporting A218. Please email them today! Make sure to sign up for MPP alerts to get the latest updates on marijuana policy in New Jersey."
http://www.mpp.org/states/new-jersey/ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2014/Bills/S2000/1896_I1.HTM "Is it Time to Legalize, Tax and Regulate Marijuana in N.J.?"
Wednesday, 18 February 2015 23:02
By Trish Graber
"TRENTON – N.J. Senator Nicholas P. Scutari yesterday issued the following statement on the launch of a campaign by New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform – a broad-based coalition of individuals from public safety, medical, civil rights and criminal justice reform communities – to control, tax and regulate marijuana in New Jersey.
Senator Scutari is the sponsor of legislation (S1896) to regulate, tax and legalize the possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana in New Jersey for those who are 21 years of age and older:
“The prohibition of marijuana has been problematic on a number of levels. In New Jersey, millions of dollars have been spent on enforcement, our neighborhoods have become increasingly dangerous, and the ability of countless people to get a job, go to college or buy a home have been hindered by criminal records from minor drug offenses. It is well past time New Jersey move forward with a commonsense program for regulating marijuana in this state.
“Many residents support the legalization of marijuana, but we must continue to educate the public about this issue and the burden the current laws place on our residents and on the criminal justice system. I welcome this diverse group of individuals to that effort and look forward to working with them on reforming our marijuana laws in New Jersey. Regulating the sale and consumption of marijuana will mean a safer and more responsible way of treating this drug and a more humane way of treating our residents. It will also create jobs in sales, production and related services and generate much-needed revenue that can be used to fund important programs for our state.”
"
comments;
Cancer Patients Can't Wait
1. Thursday, 19 February 2015 04:41
(PhDScientist)
For Cancer patients, for kids suffering from Seizures, and for so many others, safe, legal, access to Medical Marijuana is a matter of life and death. Its critical that Marijuana be removed from Schedule 1 immediately. Please call the whitehouse comment line at (202) 456-1111 and ask that the President get that to happen, to protect the health and safety of Americans that need Medical Marijuana. Have everyone else you know call them too, and ask them to have their friends do the same thing.
I'm a Scientist with a strong interest in Cancer research. The clinical evidence of the value of Marijuana as a life saving medicine is now so strong that the need to remove Marijuana from Schedule 1 has become a moral imperative. Google Medical Marijuana testimonials. Google Medical Marijuana Cancer Patient Testimonials.
This weekend over 3,000 Americans died, in pain, of Cancer. Today, tomorrow and every day after that, 1,500 more Americans will die, after suffering horribly, from it. Every single minute another American dies of Cancer. Every American Cancer patient deserves the right to have safe, legal, and economical access to Medical Marijuana. Every single one.
Oncologists have know it for more than a quarter of a Century that Marijuana is a "wonder drug" for helping Cancer patients.
The American Society of Clinical Oncologists wants Marijuana removed from Schedule 1. So does the American Medical Association, the professional society of all Physicians. A strong majority of Americans want Physicians in all 50 states to be able to prescribe Medical Marijuana. So do their Physicians., Cancer patients can't wait.
"Charlottes web" is NOT the solution. Cancer patients and people who suffer from chronic pain need THC, not just CBD. The "Berkeley study", where 96% of stage 4 Cancer patients who had a wide variety of Cancers achieved remission, used high dose Medical Marijuana oil, 72% THC, 28% CBD, 1 gram/day (oral) over a 90 day course of treatment. It was a small study, and not placebo controlled, but those kinds of results are clearly remarkable, have been widely reported on in the press, and demand the need for immediate large scale clinical trials.
More and more present and former members of law enforcement agree about the need to end prohibition, and have formed a rapidly expanding group of current and former undercover cops, FBI, DEA, prosecutors and Judges, from all over the world, called
LEAP -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
because they've seen the damage prohibition causes to America and the world.
See
http://www.leap.cc/ I'm a Scientist. Not a politician, not a cop.
But as a Scientist with a strong interest in Cancer research, I feel even more strongly about the need to ensure that no Cancer patient is denied it, because I'm so impressed with its benefits for Cancer patients.
I urge everyone reading this to PLEASE call and email the Attorney General, the press, Congress and the President today.
Medical Marijuana helps with Alzheimer's, Autism, Cancer, seizures, PTSD and chronic pain, and has helped many Americans, including many veterans, stop using Alcohol, and hard drugs, both legal and illegal ones.
Every minute an American dies of Cancer.
Every 19 minutes an American dies of a prescription drug overdose.
Many vets become addicted to prescription opiates and die from them.
NOBODY has ever died from smoking too much pot.
It is immoral to leave Marijuana illegal, for anyone, for even a second longer.
For Cancer patients, its a matter of life and death.
Cancer patients can't wait.
Medical Marijuana has an unmatched safety profile, and for people who suffer from so many diseases, of so many kinds, its a medical miracle -- and the scientific evidence behind it is rock solid.
For Cancer patients, Medical Marijuana encourages apoptosis and autophagy of Cancer cells, while leaving normal cells untouched, is anti-angigogenic, anti-proliferative, and is anti-angiogenic.
Its also synergistic with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, making both more effective.
For many Cancer patients its meant the difference between life and death.
For everyone else, its a far safer alternative to Alcohol, and infinitely safer than Cigarettes.
Either take them off the market too, or legalize Marijuana right now.
2016 is too far away, Its too long to wait. Every year we lose more Americans to Cancer than died in WWII.
Between now and the 2016 elections, roughly 1 MILLION Americans will die of Cancer.
And Its a horrible way to die.
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/is-it-time-to-legalize-tax-and-regulate-marijuana-in-nj "The Ballad of Chris Christie and Sabina Rose"
By Chris Simunek · Fri Feb 07, 2014
"To the governor’s chagrin, the conversation turned to another Senate bill -- one that sought to allow registered New Jersey medical marijuana patients to buy cannabis in another state and bring it home. The bill was inspired by Meghan and Brian Wilson -- Brian being the father who had confronted Christie face to face the previous August, lambasting the governor for not allowing medical marijuana access in New Jersey for children. Wilson’s 2-year-old daughter, Vivian, suffers from Dravet syndrome, a drug-resistant form of epilepsy that certain cannabis strains have proven effective in controlling. It would prove to be an embarrassing TV moment for the future candidate, his hemming and hawing on the subject of medical marijuana later spliced with video of Vivian’s seizures.
In response to his confrontation with Brian Wilson and the bad press that followed, Christie had signed an expansion of New Jersey’s medical marijuana bill that would allow children to be treated with cannabis, but inserted into it the need for additional doctors to sign off on the decision, including a psychiatrist -- an unnecessary roadblock when you’re talking about a 2-year-old like Vivian Wilson.
In Christie’s mind, the medical marijuana movement had already strong-armed him once, and he was clearly displeased that the subject was being brought up again during this first press conference after his landslide re-election victory.
“See, this is what happens,” he fumed. “Every time you sign one expansion, then the advocates will come back and ask for another one. Here’s what the advocates want: They want legalization of marijuana in New Jersey. It will not happen on my watch, ever. I am done expanding the medical marijuana program under any circumstances.”
A Loss in Livingston
On that same day, 46 miles away from the governor’s press conference in Trenton, Paula Joana was in a hospital in Livingston, NJ, singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to her 15-month-old daughter Sabina Rose, in an attempt to elicit some sort of reaction that might prove to the doctors that her firstborn child was not, as feared, brain dead.
“Monday, December 2, 2013, was the worst day of my life,” Paula recalls. “I slept at my best friend Kelly’s house, and when I woke up, I called my husband Phil. I heard the urgency in his voice, and Kelly and I sped to the hospital. Her husband, Rob, took my infant son Rocco to my parents’ house for me. The doctors performed tests to see if Sabina was brain dead. I was hoping they would see a sign. They never did.”
Paula and Phil had made every effort to comply with New Jersey’s existing medical marijuana laws, but there were so many doctors to see, so many applications to file, that the process took months -- and Sabina didn’t have months. She died waiting for the cannabis tincture that could have alleviated her suffering."
http://www.hightimes.com/read/ballad-chris-christie-and-sabina-rose So the question to Chris Christie is why? How many more people need to die from a lack of obtaining medical cannabis? Are pharmaceutical corporations threatened by a loss of their monopoly on treatment?
Here's a hypothetical telephone call on a secure line to Gov. Christie a few days before he gets the latest bill S1896;
Christie: Hello?
Caller: Hey buddy, it's your friend. How's the Presidential campaign going?
Christie: Great, thanks. What can I do for you?
Caller: We're very concerned about this S1896. People are using this plant to treat cancer, seizures, glaucoma, mental illness and all kinds of other medical problems. There's no way for us to patent this plant and we're going to lose profits. If we lose profits we're going to lose jobs and money. That means no extra money to support your Presidential campaign. So we need you to veto S1896. Is that clear?
Christie: Perfectly clear. That Bill will never make it past my desk. Have a nice day.
Caller: Excellent decision, see you in the White House! Bye for now!
After that phone call Gov. Christie smiles and dreams of entering the White House. Not before long the phone rings again.
Christie: Hello?
Caller: Hey pal. It's your old buddy from New York.
Christie: How are you? What can I do for you?
Caller: The families have been discussing this bill S1896 and are very upset. We could lose a lot of business if there's a legal market for that plant. That means we would have to make up our profit losses from that plant with prostitution, cocaine, heroin, loansharking and other activities. This will worsen quality of life your state and could stop you from getting into the White House. Got it?
Christie: Crystal clear. That bill's going nowhere but in the garbage. Which I'm sure you'll see is properly disposed of.
Caller: Ha Ha! We'll dump that shredded bill so far out in the ocean it'll never see the light of day!
Christie: Bye-Bye then.
Caller: We'll be in touch.
After the calls, Christie makes his speech while vetoing S1896;
"After getting numerous calls from my constituents, I have decided it is in the best interest of the people of New Jersey to veto S1896. This bill would have done more harm to my constituents then good. It's going in the garbage."
Any guesses who the caller were?