The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) launched the physician registry for the Medial Marijuana Program today. No other state with a medical cannabis access law has this requirement.
CMMNJ press release below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey CMMNJ
www.cmmnj.org
CONTACT: Ken Wolski or Chris Goldstein 609 394 2137 media@cmmnj.org
NJ DHSS starts doctor registry for marijuana
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) launched the physician registry for the Medical Marijuana Program today. No other state has this requirement. The details emerged in draft regulations DHSS released earlier this month.
LINK https://njmmp.nj.gov/njmmp/
Ken Wolski is a Registered Nurse and the executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey. He issued the following statement today:
“The entire physician registration program is unnecessary and was created in the draft regulations from DHSS and not the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. The law only calls for a patient registry, not a physician registry.
The DHSS says that there will be a public comment period on the draft regulations after they are published in the NJ Register in November. This new registry has no input from patients, legislators or the public.
Moreover, the physician registration program is even more limiting. A new requirement says that physicians must certify that they have completed medical education in Addiction Medicine and Pain Management within the past two years. Physicians must include the course title that covers these two areas, or they will be rejected from the registry.
This is a curious add-on. Marijuana is approximately as addictive as caffeine. Physicians should not be required to take a course in addiction medicine for recommending a substance with documented low addiction potential.
The physician, as part of the registry process, must further certify that the patient has not responded to conventional medical treatment for all qualifying conditions. This goes far beyond the law, which currently requires only a few diagnoses to be resistant to conventional treatment.
The physician is also required to attest that; ‘I have provided education for the patient on the lack of scientific consensus for the use of medical marijuana.’ This is a blatantly political statement, at odds with the law itself, and shows open hostility to the use of marijuana as medicine.
Finally, it appears that DHSS has also added a new Debilitating Medical Condition to the list that will qualify for medical marijuana. ‘Agitation due to Alzheimer’s Disease’ is now included, arbitrarily, with no public comment.
While it is entirely appropriate to add this condition, it is entirely inappropriate to stop there. Why must tens of thousands of chronic pain patients wait a minimum of two years to be included in NJ’s law, when the DHSS clearly has the power to add qualifying conditions so easily?”
CMMNJ is holding a Patient Advisory Group meeting at the Collingswood Public library at 7:00PM on Wednesday October 27th.
More information at www.cmmnj.org
CONTACT: Ken Wolski or Chris Goldstein 609 394 2137 media@cmmnj.org