February 26, 2009 - Trenton, NJ, USA
Trenton, NJ: Members of the state Senate voted Monday 22 to 16 in favor of SB 119, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.
The measure would permit authorized patients and state-licensed "alternative treatment centers" to use and legally produce cannabis under state law. If enacted, New Jersey would become the fourteenth state to allow for the state-authorized use of medical marijuana.
Members of the state Assembly must vote on a companion measure, Assembly Bill 804, before the proposal can go before the Governor.
On Wednesday, New Jersey Democrat Governor Jon S. Corzine reiterated his support for the bill, saying that he would "absolutely" sign the measure into law if it is approved by the state assembly.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org or Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500. Additional information about this bill is available by visiting NORML New Jersey at: http://www.normlnj.org or The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey at:http://www.cmmnj.org .
Contact information for the New Jersey Assembly is available at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=12767456
Holder Says Feds Will Stop Medical Marijuana Raids.
USA - For those of you keeping score at home, add another major policy shift by the Obama administration to the tally. Breaking with precedent set under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the Department of Justice will not raid medical marijuana dispensaries allowed under certain state laws.
President Obama had promised this during the campaign, but a recent raid - conducted before new officials were in place - led some to question whether that promise would be kept. On Wednesday, Huffington Post's Ryan Grim reports, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that it would be.
Huffington Post: http://drugsense.org/url/UODTocOC
It's a common misperception that, in states like California which have passed measures legalizing it, medical marijuana is completely legal. It's not. Federal law takes precedence, and federal authorities have made no secret of their belief that any user or distributor - even one authorized by the state - can be arrested at any time.
There are, at most, only a handful of people who can legally use medical marijuana whenever and wherever they please - marijuana supplied to them by the federal government, no less. They were part of a program that ran from the late 1970's until the 1990's, when the first Bush administration shut it down, and they were grandfathered in. When last I checked, there were an estimated five patients still remaining, but that was a few years ago, and one or more may have died since. | 
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