MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.
The state Senate Monday voted 27 to 5 in favor of legislation that gives the Christie administration an additional 90 days — until Oct. 1 — to implement New Jersey medical marijuana bill, or as it is officially known, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. This pushes back the implementation of the rules and regulations by the DHSS (Department of Health and Senior Services) until October 1.
NJ’S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW IS ONE OF THE NATIONS STRICTEST.
New Jersey’s medical marijuana law allows for just 6 non-profit Alternative Treatment Centers to start the program. Registered patients are limited to 2 ounces or less of cannabis per month, the smallest amount in the nation. Patients may not grow at home. Residents are not afforded medical necessity defense unless they are carrying a DHSS medical marijuana registry card. Legal protections are not offered to patients unless the marijuana they possess comes directly from a state authorized ATC. This means that if you are in possession without a card, you still face state prosecution.
DHSS has not reported anything on their website but calls to the NJ DHSS reveal that anyone wanting information should get in touch with the director of the Department that will oversee the ATC’s which is Joseph Eldridge.
WHO’S GOING TO GET THE CONTRACTS (ATC’S)?
Quotes from Trenton:
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora has said he favored recent proposals that would make Rutgers University the hub of the state's medical marijuana growth and allow hospitals to operate as dispensaries of the drug, saying the move could bring Rutgers to the forefront of medical marijuana research and cultivation.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said any proposals including Rutgers and hospitals "are just among the options that are out there." "There's reasonable debate going on about what is the best approach" when it comes to implementing the state's medical marijuana law, he said.
Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner said officials haven’t settled on a plan for how the marijuana will be grown, as “the department is continuing to look at all of our options. ”Leusner said that Mingleridge (a premature applicant) isn’t alone in his interest: “There’s been a lot of interest in the program, both on the part of prospective patients and certainly potential vendors,” she said, adding that the department is focused on the “safest and most effective” approach.
The Most Restrictive: Whats NJ’s affinity with New Mexico?
New Mexico does allow dispensaries, but only nonprofit ones. And to date, only five have been approved. One of them, NewMexiCann Natural Medicine, is based in an office behind a restaurant in Santa Fe, N.M. Getting a license to grow and distribute marijuana was a seven-month process, according to Executive Director Len Goodman.
With New Mexico’s tight regulation of the state's medical marijuana program, it took Len Goodman of NewMexiCann Natural Medicine seven months (The DHSS must approve or deny an application within 60 days of its receipt accordingly to the NJ law) and a 100-plus page application to get approval to grow and distribute pot.
"What there is is a long checklist: a two-page, single-spaced checklist," he says.
The state wants to know things like: Who will grow the plants? What is their experience? What will the distribution model look like? And then there are more mundane matters, like what the labeling and invoices will look like, Goodman says.
New Mexico limits Goodman to 95 plants. That means demand is always outpacing supply — and that's just how the state wants it. If supply increases too much, there's a risk legal medical marijuana could be diverted to the illegal recreational market.
NJ DHSS Commissioner Dr. Poonam Alaigh appeared on NJN’s public affairs program On The Record this week. As a medical professional, she fully endorsed the overall scientific and therapeutic value of marijuana. She also said the DHSS staff was spending a significant amount of time on the cannabis program, even reaching out to other states. A reporter has stated the a phone call to New Mexico’s Department of Health’s spokesperson Deborah Busmeyer confirmed that NJ DHSS staffers had made contact about the program.
MORE CENTERS TO COME?
New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, Section 7:
"[A]llow both for-profit and nonprofit ATCs, but require that the first two ATCs in each of the three regions of the State be nonprofit, and direct DHSS to seek to ensure 'a sufficient number' of ATCs throughout the State 'pursuant to need'..."
The bill does include language to allow “for-profit” dispensaries. The ‘pursuant to need’ language opens the door for future “for-profit” ATCs.
So if you are a company for-profit or nonprofit the best advice is to start getting all of your ducks in a row now. Perhaps a good bet would be to make a call to the New Mexico Health Department and acquire one of its applications and supplemental paperwork. It seems that New Mexico’s Medical Marijuana Law is most parallel to New Jersey’s and might be administered similarly. Having all of this information in line will have your company ready to submit, aside from a few additional things that New Jersey may require, as soon as the DHSS starts taking applications.
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