Madison NORML

Trenton is next battleground in marijuana fight
Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 05/14/06 click here
BY KIM PREDHAM
STAFF WRITER

TOMS RIVER — With the announcement that a medical marijuana bill will be discussed by the state Senate in June, residents and officials in Ocean County — which has become an improbable battleground for the issue — are once again gearing up for a fight.

Supporters like Jim Miller, a Dover Township resident whose wife used marijuana to relieve the symptoms of her multiple sclerosis, hailed the decision to hold a June 8 hearing.

"It's an important first step," Miller, whose wife Cheryl died in 2003, said.

Miller and other proponents of the legislation say that marijuana alleviates pain and relieves the effects of more traditional medications, perhaps most notably chemotherapy-induced nausea. Indeed, Miller said that he once used marijuana to relax his wife Cheryl's muscles enough that she could continue physical therapy.

"For many really ill people, that (marijuana) is their best medicine," Miller said during a telephone interview this week.

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State Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, who is chairman of a Senate health panel, is expected to hear from experts on medicinal marijuana during the June hearing.

The legislative hearing would be the first for a bill long proposed by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union.

The Assembly hasn't scheduled any hearings on the bill, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine — then a gubernatorial candidate — pledged last year that he would sign a medical marijuana bill into law.

At next month's hearing, the Senate will likely hear from an expert in marijuana in medicine, the head of the New Jersey State Nurses' Association and a representative from a state that already allows medicinal marijuana, Miller said.

Scutari is also expected to testify, Miller said.

The hearing is being held to answer any questions Vitale may have, Miller said. A vote would likely not be held until a second round of hearings, he said.

"I am hopeful," Miller said.

Miller, who co-founded the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey, has remained involved in the struggle to make medicinal marijuana available and does not intend to stop anytime soon.

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Miller is confident that by this time next year, legislation approving medicinal marijuana will be before Corzine.

"I allow myself to get hopeful," Miller said. But, he noted that while a year might seem short legislatively, for those with grave illnesses a year may be too late.

"There are a lot of people that will die in the process," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.