Both houses of the Legislature approved a bill today legalizing medical marijuana.
The New Jersey Assembly approved the by a vote of 48-14, and the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 25-13, with no debate.
It now goes to the desk of Gov. Jon Corzine who has said he would sign the bill before leaving office Jan. 19.
Before the vote, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), a bill sponsor, said he believes the legislation will satisfy Gov.-elect Chris Christie, who expressed concerns about the drug’s availability under the proposal, and serve as a model for other states.
“This will be the strictest medical marijuana law in the nation,” he said. “We have a good bill that will be very strict and will not decriminalize marijuana, but will allow doctors to prescribe the best treatment for their patients.”
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8 Responses
I’m totally for this. Marijuana may turn people’s brains into mush after prolonged usage, but it’s a great pain killer and anti-coagulator with really no side effects with responsible use. If I were terminally ill and in pain, I’d much rather take marijuana than morphine, etc.
Marijuana also kills the lungs, if this was just about pain control and not liberal hippie mentality then they can just extract the chemical in Marijuana which aids in pain control and give it in pill form like they do already with all the opiates you dont shoot heroin for a toothache you take a percocet.
Eric55: there are many different medical potentials to marijuana, pain killing being but a small aspect. They have yet to isolate all of the chemicals that would be effect and in fact it is theorized that any single component would be ineffective (see marinol, a synthesis of delta9-tetrahydrocannibinal, viewed as relatively useless by many medical professionals). As per your analogy, what you should have said is “they don’t smoke opium for a toothache”. Not that these two chemicals are in any way similar, as marijuana is essentially benign in nature, whereas opium can very easily result in death.
What we should actually do is entirely legalize marijuana, as the drug war is proven to be dangerously ineffective both in preventing use and in helping those with addictions.
The pasuk says “ushartem es nafshoseichem” you shall gaurd your souls. THis reffers to your life as well. Marjuan=aveira
Keeping this illegal is a scam by which the U.S is wasting billions of tax payer dollars and losing billions in uncollected taxes. Lungs ? Red meat is dangerous for your heart. Should we make burgers illegal? There is no logic behind keeping it illegal.
Congratulations New Jersey!!
You have no idea of how much revenue will be flowing into the state as a result of this legislation. Finally a little common sense in Trenton. This has deep ramifications for the economy. First, it will lower the demand for illegal pot, so police can focus on harder, more dangerous drugs. Second, The criminals will have one less thing to make money on. Third, tourism from nearby states where it is illegal will find a way to bypass the residency requirement (if there is one) and purchase the “medicine” there. People from New York and Pennsylvania will be spending more time at Atlantic City and Long Beach Island because now they have a real reason to go. Fourth it will raise revenue which will hopefully go to good use, or even lower your present taxes. However, most importantly, the state has given a right back to the people, that is the most important reason of all. Now the people can make the decision whether to smoke, not some corrupt politician. Any law that gives freedom back to the people is fine by me!
One hypocrisy down, and countless to go. There are already much more concerning substances used for prescriptions. Codeine, morphine, etc. Heaven forbid anyone needs those. But banning medicinal properties of the Marijuana plant was just silly politics.
Frankly, is it clear that alcohol is much more dangerous in all areas.
Statistics show the majority of murders, auto fatalities, home-wrecking via the alleged disease of alcohol, are due to alcohol use. The MAJORITY of these social problems are committed while one is intoxicated.
to ‘eric55’, and ‘grada’, whomever else is interested:
marijuana use for its psychological, its physical and even its recreational effects are very well documented for thousands of years. it was totally legal in america until the early part of the 1900’s when laws were passed that would make difficult the lifestyles of immigrants. we find its use in archeological findings in ancient israel, we find it mentioned by the radvaz as a recreational drug.
in fact, r’ aryeh kaplan claims that it was in the shemen hamishcheh, and was called kanei bossem (the hebrew analog to the greek cannabis).
there are ample studies showing that marijuana is a great medicine for nausea, pain, depression, and many other health issues. it is not addictive, there are studies from harvard university that show that it does not have a permanent effect on the thought process, and there was even a study published in the journal of neuroscience that shows that it is a neuroprotectant.
there are no problems with medical marijuana, and in regard to halacha, i have not found one tshuva before r’ moshe feinstein, or one simman or se’if in shulchan aruch that says that it’s assur. don’t be so quick to call something an aveira, when you know that many frum jews do it.
‘koicha d’hetera adif’