Medical Marijuana Advocates Protest Ordinance

AVALON – All appeared to be going smoothly as Avalon Borough Council prepared Feb. 13 to adopt an ordinance banning marijuana-related business within the borough.
Had it done so, Avalon would have joined about 60 other municipalities in the state which have moved to prohibit marijuana sales, manufacturing, and farming in advance of the likely passage of state legislation to legalize adult recreational marijuana use.
An error that left the ordinance consideration — and required public hearing — off the agenda forced the borough to readvertise the ordinance and move consideration of its adoption to the Feb. 27 meeting.
In anticipation of the vote on the ordinance, a small group of medical marijuana advocates from as far as Brick Township attended the meeting to express their “disdain and disgust” for the proposed ordinance and to urge the borough to show “more compassion.”
No one who spoke argued on behalf of the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. The issue they protested was the wholesale ban which would include the sale of medical marijuana.
Each individual who spoke against the ordinance did so from the perspective of a medical marijuana user, claiming that the access to marijuana helps them deal effectively with severe medical problems and with opioid addictions caused by traditional medical practitioners who overprescribed opioid-based painkillers.
Using both the public comment periods of the council work session and meeting and the open public hearing on the ordinance as opportunities to rail against the ordinance, the comments by advocates for medical marijuana use were heated enough that two Avalon police officers entered the council meeting room, standing silently in the back.
Council heard about one individual’s 10-year struggle with heroin addiction, incurred, he said, as a result of medically prescribed opioids. He credited medical marijuana availability with “giving me my life back.”
The advocates pointed to the fact that medical marijuana has been legal in New Jersey since 2010 when Gov. Corzine signed the Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act (CUMMA) just before leaving office.
Never winning the support of Gov. Chris Christie, the medical marijuana program in New Jersey is one of the most restrictive in the nation, and one of the smallest in terms of participation.
An individual who described himself as a Stage 4 cancer patient spoke about “another ignorant town meeting.” He accused the council of not understanding the value of medical marijuana, “leaving cancer patients without effective treatment.”
One theme that ran through the comments was the benefit to a community that houses an “alternative treatment center” for the dispensing of medical marijuana.
Assistant Business Administrator James Waldron tried to make the case that the ordinance allows for legal medical marijuana sales provided they are under the umbrella of a pharmacy, run by a licensed pharmacist and done in response to a prescription from a licensed physician.
Waldron’s argument was dismissed immediately by those protesting the ordinance. They made the point that medical marijuana is not dispensed through pharmacies. Rather the only places that can dispense the drug are treatment centers that have obtained state contracts for that purpose. 
Medical Marijuana in N.J.
A patient seeking to use medical marijuana as part of a treatment protocol must first find a doctor who is registered with the state as a licensed participant in the program. The physician must establish a bona fide physician-patient relationship.
The state lists a series of qualifying conditions for which medical marijuana can be used. The physician certifies that the patient’s condition meets the requirements that allow the patient to register in the program and receive an identification card.
A reevaluation by the physician must be done as frequently as 30 to 90 days depending on the initial certification.
The patient can then register with an alternative treatment center where a variety of products can be obtained to meet the care standards.
The treatment centers have counselors to help with the product line available for sale.
The scene could be from a retail establishment selling jewelry or perfume or almost anything else. A person behind the counter is the Dispensary Agent, or in some states that individual is known as a Budtender.
Currently, there are six treatment centers in the state, with the closest one to Cape May County being in Egg Harbor Township.
In an attempt to expand medical marijuana use, Gov. Murphy has called for an additional six alternative treatment centers.
The treatment center often has a daily menu available in-store and online. 
Products may vary by the method to use the product. A look at the menu of one center shows that the patient may elect to smoke the product, inhale it with a vaporizer, eat it, apply it as a lotion, oil or cream, or use it as a liquid with a few drops under the tongue.
State law limits the maximum amount for 30 days to 2 ounces. The product can get expensive.
Curaleaf, a treatment center in Bellmawr, posts prices on its website showing flower prices that vary by strain.
A quarter ounce of Purple Urkle is listed at $75, while Silvertip costs $100 for the same amount. 
A “ready to roll” Summer Lemon Haze will run $40 for a quarter ounce. The website urged visitors not to miss the “Presidents Day Sale.”
Other features are listed on websites as the treatment centers compete. Compassionate Care Foundation in Egg Harbor promises computerized tracking of the product from “seed to sale.”
Health plans do not cover the cost of medical marijuana, including Medicare and Medicaid. 
Protest’s Purpose
Accusing Trenton lawmakers of only seeing dollar signs as they debate the legalization of recreational use of marijuana, those who went to Avalon to speak out for the merits of medical marijuana argued that towns that reacted to Trenton’s efforts with outright bans on all forms of marijuana sales were “playing football with the sick and the dying.”
What the advocates hoped would come from a protest in Avalon was not self-evident.
If the medical marijuana advocates were trying to keep Avalon’s ordinance neutral on the potential for such an alternative treatment center in the borough, they never made that argument clearly and succinctly.
Nor is it at all likely that Avalon would be a comfortable home for such a center. All evidence is that the state will continue to limit the number of treatment centers leaving them to serve large areas, not single towns.
Those who traveled to Avalon to speak out against the ordinance wanted the borough to kill it, or at least table it. No one spoke about the legalization of recreational marijuana. The thrust of the Avalon ordinance is to ban recreational sales and to divorce the borough from any recreational marijuana-related business should the state legalize marijuana use.
Several polls have shown that New Jersey residents favor the legalization of recreational marijuana sales, with a Quinnipiac University poll showing the margin being 50 percent in favor and 45 percent opposed.
A Rutgers poll demonstrates even greater support noting that 60 percent of the state’s adults favor legalization and 66 percent think that legal sale of marijuana, taxed and regulated, would benefit the state.
However, the divide is much more pronounced when those polled are asked their party affiliation. Then polls show 66 percent of Democrats in favor and only 28 percent of Republicans joining them. 
New Hearing
Even though the error with the public agenda prevented any final action on the ordinance, the borough council allowed the public hearing to be opened, giving those who had traveled to the meeting their opportunity to speak.
That public hearing was adjourned at the end of the Feb. 13 meeting. It will be reopened Feb. 27, when a final vote is expected on the ordinance.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.