Trenton, NJ: Members of the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee and the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming voted this week in favor of concurrent resolutions to repeal proposed regulations for the state’s yet-to-be implemented medical cannabis program.
In October, New Jersey Department of Health officials released draft regulations regarding the implementation of the state’s Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act, which was signed into law in January. The proposed rules limit the manufacture of medical cannabis to two licensed facilities, restrict the percentage to THC that may be present in the plant to no more than ten percent, and limit the varieties of legally available cannabis to no more than three strains.
Four additional state licensed facilities would be permitted to dispense cannabis.
Under the yet-to-be formalized law, patients would be authorized to possess no more than two ounces of cannabis per month, and would not be permitted to grow their own marijuana or share it with other registered patients. Patients who possess unauthorized amounts or strains of marijuana will still be subject to arrest and criminal prosecution under state law.
Several patient advocacy groups and lawmakers have criticized the proposed program as being unduly restrictive, and “not consistent with the intent of the legislature.”
The concurrent resolutions, if approved by the full legislature, would give state officials 30 days to revise the regulations.
“Failure to publish proposed rules that are consistent with the intent of the legislature may result in the legislature passing a concurrent resolution to prohibit those proposed rules from taking effect in whole or in part,” the resolutions state.
For more information please visit NORML New Jersey at: http://www.normlnj.org or the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey at: http://www.cmmnj.org.