The New Jersey legislature voted Monday to make that state the 14th in the country to approve marijuana for medicinal use, pending the governor’s signature. Gov. Jon Corzine, who leaves office next week, has said he would sign the bill. Two years after the bill was introduced to the legislature, the New Jersey Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act was passed by the state Assembly in a 48-14 vote. It received Senate approval just hours later in a 25-13 vote.
According to the news release from the state Senate, the bill would allow doctors to give to patients with state-issued identification cards prescriptions to buy marijuana legally from registered alternative treatment centers. The identification cards would be issued by the Department of Health and Senior Services
Only patients with proven “debilitating conditions” would qualify for ID card. Such conditions include “cancer, glaucoma, positive HIV/AIDS status or other chronic, debilitating diseases or medical conditions that produce, or the treatment of which produces, wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe and persistent muscle spasms,” according to the Senate news release.
“Out of the 14 states that have similar bills, New Jersey’s will be the strictest,” Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, one of the bill’s sponsors, told CNN. “I believe that this bill will be model legislation for states here on out that will look to (be) legalizing marijuana. We looked at the pitfalls of California and made a more restrictive bill.”
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