| state.nj.us |
| New Jersey Governor Chris Christie isn’t sympathetic to severely sick children. |
Yesterday was the original deadline for a New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to sign a bill increasing access for medical marijuana for sick and needy children in his state, and here we are today with no signature.
Thankfully, Christie has been given an extension of sorts until August 19. We say thankfully, but every day that this asshole holds off on signing the bill is one day longer that children have to suffer and pushing the signing back by even an hour is despicable at this point.
Current New Jersey law makes parents jump through numerous hoops to gain access to medical cannabis for their children. The program is so restrictive – three doctors have to sign off – that children are basically eliminated from the program due to red tape and doctors being wary of federal prosecution for recommending a Schedule 1 controlled substance.
Adults, by comparison, only need one physician to sign off on a medical cannabis recommendation in Michigan.
The bill, passed last June, would reduce the number of recommendations as well as increase the number of strains available to patients from three to an unlimited number. It would also expand the state edibles laws to allow for more varied forms of ingesting cannabis orally.
But at least one New Jersey mom is looking on the bright side of things, even though she has every right to be ripshit-pissed at the guv for ignoring lawmakers who worked hard to change a controversial law they saw needed fixing. Jennie Stormes, whose son has Dravet’s syndrome and suffers from hundreds of siezures weekly, says the extra time gives the governor no excuses.
“It’s kind of good because it doesn’t allow Gov. Christie the ability to be ignorant,” she told LehighValleyLive.com.
And she’s right. If Christie really is doing the research on the bill he says he is going to do, then he should be coming to the conclusion that so many others – including CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta – have come to over the last few years: marijuana can be a very beneficial medicine for everyone, including children.
Christie’s has been vocally opposed to signing the bill, saying he doesn’t want to be seen as increasing access to cannabis for children and that he doesn’t want to turn Colorado into “a Colorado or California” (no offense, guv, but you could use a few of our Western ideals, like compassion for starters).
Christie now has until the senate meets on Aug. 19 to sign the bill – or not.