John lives with MS and used cannabis therapy for treatment. He now faces 15 years in state prison for growing 17 marijuana plants. Read more about John’s case here
John’s case has garnered national attention for the aggressiveness of the prosecution. New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General is pursuing the case.
A state appeals court rejected the attempt by his attorney, James Wronko of Somerville, to challenge that ruling while the case is ongoing. It could be the subject of a future appeal, he said. The two legislators are not only seeking the pardon but also pushing a bill titled “New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.” The bill would decriminalize possession and use of marijuana by state registered patients with debilitating illnesses. It would also establish treatment centers where patients can purchase the drug.
It passed the Senate in a 22-16 vote in February and awaits a vote in the Assembly.
Members of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey stood outside the Somerset County Courthouse Friday morning as Wilson was appearing before Reed in a pre-trial conference. The members held signs advocating that marijuana for medicinal purposes be legalized.
Toms River resident Jim Miller, who co-founded the organization, became involved when his late wife Cheryl faced arrest for using marijuana to relieve her pain, said the organization will be stationed outside the courthouse when Wilson goes on trial in December.
Next to Miller on the sidewalk was an empty wheelchair that held his wife’s picture.
“This entire block is going to be lined” with demonstrators during the trial, he said. “It would be nice if the governor steps in,” he said. READ IN FULL
More about medical marijuana in New Jersey at www.cmmnj.org
Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 am | By: Chris Goldstein
10/30/2009 by Chris Goldstein
On October 19th the Ocean County College in Tom’s River, NJ hosted a debate on medical marijuana. A professor of Social Science, Brad Young, moderated. The opposition was Terrence Farley, a former county prosecutor and the now head of the NJ Narcotics Task Force Commanders Assn. Farley is a vehement prohibitionist and we’ve sparred over this topic on television programs before.
Neither of us saw the questions prior to the debate and this question was particularly interesting. As an added bonus you get to see me address some of the reefer madness we encounter locally.
Essentially, “Should medical marijuana be covered by health insurance.”
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 6:11 pm | By: Chris Goldstein
John Ray Wilson and Jim Miller in New Jersey
10/25/09 by Chris Goldstein
Scoop: Staffers at Americans for Safe Access met with Department of Justice officials before the memo on medical marijuana was released last week.
My role with several marijuana reform non-profits in New Jersey and Pennsylvania requires interaction with the national reform groups. One that has represented patients with great passion and success is Americans for Safe Access.
They have aggressively pursued issues related to medical marijuana laws and then the rights of patients under those laws. ASA has chapters in several states with main offices in California and Washington DC.
On Wednesday I called ASA’s DC office to check in about some literature for events. Their Director of Government Affairs is Caren Woodson. She’s an experienced beltway player who has led protests on the street and meetings on The Hill. We’ve interviewed many times for podcasts and radio and have been working together as advocates this year.
After talking business I asked her what she thought of the Department of Justice memo. Caren’s usual, very professional tone changed and there was excitement in her voice: She and Steph Sherer, ASA’s Director, had been invited for a meeting with DOJ officials the week before. This was the only known meeting of advocates with the DOJ on this issue.
That morning I had just happened to have wrapped up a telephone radio interview with an author of a book on public education. I asked Caren for an interview right away. The recording took 12 minutes and it aired that night on KSFR 101.1FM with my show Active Voice Radio.
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In the past, ASA was protesting in front of the Department of Justice: Loudly and very visibly protesting at that. Now they are invited in for meetings. There was no stronger indicator this week of this tangible shift in federal policy on medical cannabis.
The impact of the DOJ memo is already being felt locally in NJ/PA. Two major editorials were published in the immediate wake of the news. The NJ General Assembly is expected to see The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act in a floor vote this fall.PA should have the first public legislative hearings on the issue soon.
The Obama administration’s new policy on medical marijuana should make it easier for New Jersey and Pennsylvania to legalize its use for seriously ill patients. The Justice Department has removed a major legal hurdle by issuing a memo directing federal prosecutors in states that allow medical marijuana not to target patients or their sanctioned suppliers when the drug is purchased for legitimate purposes. Read Full Editorial
New Jersey legislators, poised to vote on the issue, may be encouraged by the federal change of heart. It reflects the opinion of a majority of Americans — and 82 percent of N.J. residents — who favor dispensing marijuana to patients. With the new federal policy in place, there is no reason for New Jersey to any longer delay legalizing medical marijuana. Read Full Editorial
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 3:04 pm | By: Radical Russ
TRENTON – Calling the prosecution of a self-medicating Somerset County man with multiple sclerosis (MS) a “severe, inappropriate, discompassionate and inhumane application of the letter of the law,” Senators Nicholas P. Scutari and Raymond J. Lesniak today urged Governor Jon Corzine to pardon Franklin Township resident John Ray Wilson, and called on the Assembly to quickly move legislation to decriminalize the medicinal use of marijuana by New Jerseyans with chronic and terminal illnesses.
“It seems cruel and unusual to treat New Jersey’s sick and dying as if they were drug cartel kingpins. Moreover, it is a complete waste of taxpayer money having to house and treat an MS patient in a jail at the public’s expense,” said Senator Scutari, D-Union, Middlesex and Somerset. “Specifically, in the case of John Ray Wilson, the State is taking a fiscally irresponsible hard-line approach against a man who’s simply seeking what little relief could be found from the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. Governor Corzine should step in immediately and end this perversion of criminal drug statutes in the Garden State.”
“Without compassion and a sense of moral right and wrong, laws are worth less than the paper they’re printed on,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “New Jersey’s tough criminal drug laws were never intended to be used against patients suffering from chronic and terminal medical conditions. The prosecutors and presiding judge have set up a scenario where Mr.
Wilson is no different than a common street thug in the eyes of the law.”
In August of 2008, a training fly-over by a New Jersey National Guard helicopter spotted 17 marijuana plants in the backyard of John Ray Wilson’s Franklin Township home. Wilson, now 36 years old, was diagnosed with MS in 2002 and at the time, had no health insurance coverage or means to pay for the pharmaceutical drugs needed to keep the symptoms of his disease in check. According to his lawyer, Wilson turned to natural substances to relieve his suffering, including bee-sting therapy and marijuana purchased illegally.
Unable to afford purchasing expensive pharmaceutical drugs to ease his pain, Wilson attempted to grow marijuana for his own personal, medical use in the backyard of his home. Now, he’s being charged with multiple counts of possession and manufacturing of illegal drugs, the most severe of which – first degree maintaining or operating a drug-production facility – carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and disqualifies him for the Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program, an alternative to incarceration for non-violent offenders. State prosecutors have offered a plea agreement of four years imprisonment, but the Union County lawmakers called on Governor Corzine to pardon Wilson of the drug-production facility charge in order to make him eligible to participate in PTI and avoid a prison sentence.
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm | By: Chris Goldstein
Georgine DiMaria speaks at the NORML Freedom Forum 2009
NORML-NJ Asks Jay Leno for Apology
On the Oct 22 episode of the Jay Leno Show the iconic host mentions NORML-NJ Board member Georgine DiMaria in the opening monologue.
Jay Leno- “Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker reports this week that the 2006 Miss NJ winner Georgine DiMaria – Miss New Jersey- She uses medical marijuana to treat asthma. Smoking to treat asthma really? Isn’t that like eating at Taco Bell to control your diarrhea? Let me tell you something, you know If Miss New Jersey wants to help her breathing Move out of New Jersey.”
Georgine DiMaria is Miss New Jersey 2006 and serves on the Board of Directors at NORML-NJ, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
In April of this year, Georgi revealed for the first time publicly her personal experience with medical cannabis to treat asthma though vaporization.
Washington post columnist Kathleen Parker mentions that fact in her article this week: A woman’s crusade to legalize marijuana READ HERE
While pleased at the mention in the Jay Leno Show there were a number of inaccuracies contained in the short joke. NORML-NJ is asking that an apology be issued to Ms. DiMaria by NBC Universal, the Jay Leno Show and Mr. Leno himself.
Georgine issued a full statement today. “Even though Mr. Leno’s remarks were misinformed about my personal use and took a tiresome shot at New Jersey’s air quality it’s another indication of just how mainstream medical cannabis has become. The whole reason I originally went public with my medical marijuana experience is to advocate for the compassionate use of marijuana and our rights, as patients, to feel healthy.” READ FULL STATEMENT
Georgine does not advocate personally for the smoking medical cannabis. She has found that the most beneficial and effective way to ingest medical marijuana is through vaporization, which has served as her method of treatment.
Frederic DiMaria, Jr., Esq., Chairman of NORML-NJ said today, “As a practicing criminal defense attorney, every day I am forced to witness the arrest, vicious prosecution and jailing of countless sick and dying New Jerseans for doing nothing more egregious than turning to the enormous medicinal benefits of natural marijuana for relief. Unfortunately, not even Jay can make that fact funny.”
NORML’s national office in Washington DC issued the following statements about Leno’s remarks.
NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, “To the uninformed and the non-afflicted the medicinal use of marijuana as a bronchodilator may sound humorous, but to those stricken with asthma the issue is no laughing matter. Even a cursory reference of the scientific literature will reveal that marijuana inhalation has historically been used as an asthma remedy, as the compounds in cannabis open the airways rather than constrict them. This effect is just the opposite of that experienced by those who inhale tobacco. A key word search on the site Pubmed using the terms “marijuana” and “asthma” reveals over 60 references in the scientific literature on the subject, among them: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1099949
Effects of smoked marijuana in experimentally induced asthma: After methacholine-induced bronchospasm, placebo marijuana and saline inhalation produced minimal changes in specific airway conductance and thoracic gas volume, whereas 2.0 per cent marijuana and isoproterenol each caused a prompt correction of the bronchospasm and associated hyperinflation.
Jay Leno should stick to the subject he knows best: comedy, and leave the medical discussions to the experts — physicians and their patients.”
NORML’s National Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said, “Ironically, the use of medical cannabis for asthma, and other respiratory conditions, are some of the oldest reported uses of the drug for medicinal purposes, and the subject of numerous scientific papers going back to the late 1880s.”
NORML-NJ Executive Director Chris Goldstein welcomed the attention to the medical marijuana legislation moving ahead in New Jersey. “Medical cannabis is a serious issue and patients may soon have legal protections for their use of cannabis therapy. We need to pass our bill this year.”
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 4:39 pm | By: Chris Goldstein
10/8/2009 – NORML-NJ Executive Director
Last week New Jersey Network’s NJN News took their cameras to the street looking for questions to pose to the candidates for Governor. Rick Cusick, a NORML-NJ Board Member and the Associate Publisher of High Times Magazine, took the opportunity to ask the candidates their view on medical marijuana.
The question ended up being posed directly to Democrat Jon Corzine, Republican Chris Christie and Independent Chris Daggett. Video of Rick was shown during the first televised debate of the 2009 election on NJN. All three supported medical cannabis access. The surprise was Republican Christie, who in the past had criticized any concept of medical marijuana.
Candidates on medical marijuana
The media picked up on the candidates’ answers to the issue from The New York Times to network television news.
The Newark Star-Ledger printed the transcript of those answers
Corzine: “I’d sign that legislation. I want to make sure, as it goes through the Assembly, that it has the right constraints on it but I think we’re in the zone. I need to actually run through it with my counsel, all of the alternatives, but I think we’re close. I think we ought to move to this quickly. I think the people who would benefit from it, we would want to get to that sooner rather than later. I don’t think this, in any way, should be allowed to be a back-door access to recreational marijuana and we’ll make sure any bill that comes to my desk that gets my signature, we’re secure in that.”
Christie: “I do think that we can do a little bit better on the restrictions. I do favor allowing folks who have serious illnesses — in a restricted number of illnesses — to have medical marijuana to alleviate suffering. I do want to make sure that we don’t have what’s gone on in California, where you have marijuana shops all over the place and people who are not really using it for serious illnesses. The current legislation, I think, is still a little bit weak on restrictions. I’d want to see it tightened up a little bit, but assuming that we could do that I would support it. I would take an active part in trying to make it the best bill we could so that I’d be able to sign it. It’s something that I would like to have be available to people who have significant pain and suffering issues connected with tragic illness.”
Daggett: “I don’t know all the details of the bill. I generally support the use of marijuana for medical purposes as long as it can be done in a way that targets its use by the intended patient and has adequate safeguards against misuse or illegal use. I would be willing to consider being actively involved but I tend to also agree in the separation of various parts of the government. The Legislature will likely want to put its stamp on it in its own way and we need to let that process have its own course.”
NORML-NJ’s Board and volunteers would like to thank Rick for making medical marijuana a priority in the debate! This was a great example of how effective speaking up can be for the vital issues of marijuana reform.
NORML-NJ would also like to point out to the candidates that The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act would already be the most conservative marijuana program in the United States. The restrictions already included into the bill far exceed anything that exists in the 13 states that already allow for safe cannabis access.
Though some work still needs to be done, there is nothing more sensible than passing the medical marijuana bill in 2009.
Rick Cusick will be speaking on behalf of NORML-NJ at Rutgers University New Brunswick on October 19th. More information is available at www.normlnj.org .
NORML-NJ will be having an open public meeting on October 20th at 7:00PM. We will gather at the Dog House Saloon 270 Pascack Road Washington Township, NJ 07676.
Medical marijuana information and how NORML volunteers can support the local effort will be the lead topic at the meeting.
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 2:42 pm | By: Chris Goldstein
9-15-09 Chris Goldstein
The Newark Star-Ledger has been producing some online video profiling the medical marijuana effort here in New Jersey. It takes great bravery for these patients to appear on camera locally.
The first is a recent short documentary and the second is a news piece on our John Ray Wilson courthouse demonstration.
Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 4:00 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Daily Record) LINCOLN PARK — A Newark man who allegedly placed a plastic container holding marijuana into a bin intended for metal objects at the Municipal Court on Wednesday night was arrested on drug possession charges, police said.
Jerome M. Polite, 19, was accompanying a friend to court, and put the container into one of the bins while going through the metal detector at 6 p.m., police said.
When Officer Greg Bosland, who was working courtroom security, inspected the container, he discovered the bag of marijuana. Polite, who then allegedly attempted to grab the item from Bosland, was arrested, charged with possession of marijuana and brought back to the court for his first hearing, police said.
Police also discovered two outstanding warrants for Polite’s arrest totaling $679. He was unable to post bail and turned over to the Irvington Police Department.
So, let’s see, you put your plastic container full of weed on the tray because you were about to go through a metal detector. Is that stupider than Damon Stoudamire’s famous attempt to get weed wrapped in tinfoil through a metal detector?
Yes, it is, because Stoudamire was traveling through an airport, but you were tagging along with a friend to go to court! Never did you think, hmm, state-and-federally-illegal contraband plus armed officers of the law equals free room and board at the Graybar Hotel?
How many times do I have to tell tokers to not take their weed to court or the police station or the jail? Apparently once was not enough, twice was not enough, three times was not enough…
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Jim Miller and Ken Wolski, founders of Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey and Chris Goldstein, Executive Director of NORML New Jersey, on the trial of multiple sclerosis patient John Wilson, facing 20 years for growing 17 plants for medical purposes. Wilson is not only not allowed to mention his medical use of marijuana, the judge has forbidden him from even mentioning that he has multiple sclerosis.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
mr reuben: I don't respect her opinion bluzguy.
Missippi Hippy: Something about the last year in a contract... folks become more ballsey... and Oprah has big ones.
Adam: Oprah won't actually go off air for over a year, 2011 sometime. Maybe with here leaving the network soon, she'll be more likely to speak out about MMJ.
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
NJ: Wilson Trial Support Rallies Planned
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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