Political cartoon: Big Weed weeds out the little guy
As far as I can tell, my highly moral state legislature now balances its budget off of its taxes on gambling, smoking and booze. Why not pot, whoops, I mean medical marijuana?
As far as I can tell, my highly moral state legislature now balances its budget off of its taxes on gambling, smoking and booze. Why not pot, whoops, I mean medical marijuana?
“Because medicinal marijuana is not reimbursed by insurance and can be costly for patients, and because many of the patients in New Jersey’s program are either seniors or on government assistance and thus have fixed incomes, the high prices of the product are likely depressing demand,” the report said.
“Lowering prices should be an explicit policy goal of the Division of Medicinal Marijuana. Lowering prices is best accomplished by increasing competition, access and supply in the marketplace, with more options for patients to obtain the therapy.”
New Jersey health officials on Monday recommended a huge increase in the number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries, arguing that the current handful of so-called Alternative Treatment Centers won’t be nearly enough to meet surging demand.
The Department of Health said the state will need 50 to 90 of the centers in the next three years to keep up with the sharp growth in the number of people using marijuana for medical purposes. The proposed total would be at least eight times the current six dispensaries.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
After years of steady growth, Vermont’s medical marijuana registry is shrinking.
Since hitting a high of 5,662 patients on June 7, 2018, the state-run program had shed about 400 people by March 19, according to data provided by Vermont marijuana program administrator Lindsey Wells.
That means that the number of patients has wilted in the months since Vermont legalized possession and home growing of cannabis for adults as of July 1, 2018.
“We were having a very steady growth,” Wells told Seven Days. “We’re definitely not having the growth anymore.”
A New Jersey appellate court has held that a disabled employee may sue his former employer under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) for alleged discrimination based on the employee’s use of medical marijuana. Wild v. Carriage Funeral Holdings, Inc., et al., Docket No. A-3072-17T3 (N.J. App. Div. Mar. 27, 2019).
As state lawmakers try to figure out the next steps on a bill to legalize recreational marijuana, some Cranbury officials are making a stand against the legislation.
In 2018, the Township Committee adopted an ordinance that prohibited the recreational sale of marijuana in town, in an effort to stay a step ahead of the state legislature and executive branch.
The bills were pulled from a vote in the New Jersey State Senate on March 25 for lack of enough votes to pass it.
By November 2017, despite the marathon surgeries and endless rounds of chemotherapy, Jake Honig’s rare form of brain cancer had begun spreading throughout his body. The 7-year-old from Howell came home for hospice care with a slew of painkillers to relieve the pain and nausea.
“Unfortunately those medications did extremely little if anything for his symptom control,” dad Mike Honig recalled. “In fact, the side effects were so brutal and barbaric, it was hard to watch.”
Desperate, Jake’s parents turned to medical marijuana.
Borough resident Josephine Guttadauro asked the council about an application to open a marijuana dispensary at The Galleria saying, “Everyone I’ve spoken with in town has no knowledge of that actually happening. Why would we do that in our community? We have to look at the adverse effects. My question is, “Did you approve to open up a dispensary in Red Bank?””
New Jersey's Qualifying Conditions
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