New Jersey Governor Okays Medical Marijuana For Sick Children

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie agreed Friday
to ease access to medical marijuana for
chronically ill children. The governor
offered provisions to a bill allowing
marijuana cultivators to produce more than
three strains of the drug and for state- approved dispensaries to sell ingestible
forms of pot for children to consume. According to Christie’s tweaks in the bill: “Qualified minors should be allowed
access to products in appropriate edible
forms to ensure that children can receive
treatments consistent with their age and
medical needs, as well as the individual
preferences of their guardians. As I have repeatedly noted, I believe that
parents, and not government regulators,
are best suited to decide how to care for
their children.” He conditionally vetoed an existing bill,
leaving one provision which requires
referrals from a pediatrician as well as from
a psychiatrist. A third doctor’s approval is
required if the pediatrician is unregistered
with the medical marijuana program. Wilson was not happy with Christie’s
conditional veto. He told CNN’s Jake
Trapper: “Everyone expected a conditional veto,
but this is kind of even lower than the
worst-case conditional veto that we
thought. So while it is a small victory, he
kind of put himself all over it and really
just maintains the idea of making one of the worst medical marijuana programs in
the country and one of the most unsafe
medical marijuana programs in the
country. The psychiatrist is a roadblock. You’re
talking about sick kids who aren’t even
necessarily capable of talking. To keep that in is just telling parents who
are suffering with these horrible diseases
with children, ‘I’m going to make it more
difficult for you to get treatment for your
child.’”