Restrictive medical marijuana policies leave New Jersey residents relying on drug dealers.
A couple years after New Jersey joined 18 states in allowing medical marijuana, Governor Christie has been trying to severely weaken if not downright nullify the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, a final act of power by outgoing Governor Corzine. Governor Christie has created bureaucratic hurdles that have brought medical marijuana to its very knees, begging for mercy. Christie has been waging a very public war on education in NJ, but he’s also been waging a more subtle and smaller war on medical marijuana as well.
So here are three reasons why it’s better for NJ medical marijuana patients to go to pot dealers:
1. Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles with no end in sight for people already under considerable stress. The state requires all patients “develop an ongoing relationship” with a doctor who specializes in palliative care. This relationship must be established over the course of four in-person appointments. Usually patients are too infirm to jump through all of these hoops, so that means that either a spouse or partner will have to help out. But the state requires that both the applicant intending on using the medical marijuana apply for identification cards as well as the spouse or partner, Further, one as a patient and one as a caretaker, which can cost upwards of $200.
2. Excessive costs. One 64 year old woman of Cliffside Park evidently had to drop $200 for an ID card and $500 in doctor’s bills (insurance won’t cover ‘experimental treatment’) and yet she’s barely even been able to get on the waiting list at the state’s only licensed dispensary that’s naturally swamped. Hence this explains why Suzzete Roberts of Cliffside Park is deciding to go through a good old reliable dealer since it’s way cheaper and expeditious. Roberts has stage 4 breast cancer and simply cannot wait. But there are many more who share Roberts’ frustration. For example, Jersey City resident, whose wife was suffering from a rare form of cancer, also decided that it was easier to get it illegally than face the costs and asphyxiating bureaucracy. under Christie’s medical marijuana program.
3. Registration fees and Sales Tax. According to a Star Ledger Analysis, New Jersey is tied for second for the costliest registration fee ($200 for two years), has the third-highest sales tax (7 percent) and the steepest marijuana prices, according to state and dispensary websites. Further, it can cost $700 for an ID card and an measly ounce of marijuana for a patient to just get started, compared with $300 in Colorado, $510 in Washington, D.C., $531 in Arizona, and $460 in Michigan. (NJ.com)
Michael is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire, who co-wrote an award-nominated comedy, produces a chapter of Laughing Liberally, wrote for NY Times Laugh Lines, guest-blogged for Joe Biden, and writes a column for MSNBC.com affiliated Cagle Media. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook, and like NJ Laughing Liberally Lab if you love political humor from a progressive point-of-view. Seriously, follow him or he’ll send you a photo of Rush Limbaugh bending over in a thong.<
Photo by Matthew Kenwrick released under a Creative Commons No Derivatives license.
