Yesterday, the New Jersey General Assembly passed a bill that would facilitate palliative care for children by allowing them access to certain marijuana-related drugs. The bill next goes to Governor Christie's desk where he will decide whether or not to allow parents to access these drugs in order to ease the pain and suffering of their children. These small kids suffer seizures and other medical conditions and often require expensive hospitalization. The drugs would not cure these symptoms, but would make the little children's lives less unpleasant and do not produce the "high" that is associated with marijuana.
After the bill passed, several parents asked for an audience with the Governor, presumably to urge him to sign the legislation. Incredulously, the Governor refused to grant them even a few minutes - instead pawning them off on a staffer.
It's difficult to understand the Governor's priorities. He apparently has time to gallivant across the country to promote himself and his education-industrial complex buddies. But he doesn't have the time to meet with parents of New Jersey kids suffering from debilitating diseases. He has the time to be in photo ops celebrating Federal dollars that Senator Menendez and the late Senator Lautenberg secured for hurricane relief, but says the use of medicinal marijuana is a slippery slope to making New Jersey more like California.
I don't see the right-wing using the term "compassionate conservative" any more. Perhaps even they can't live with that lie.
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"The American Academy of Pediatrics ... opposes the use of marijuana to treat young children, citing its addictive potential and the many unknowns about how it may affect developing bodies".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/health/medical-marijuana-children-time/
Thank goodness the New Jersey legislature possesses a higher level of medical knowledge than these guys.