Though the state's first legal medical marijuana dispensary is set to open in the coming months, some fear it could be much longer before registered patients in Warren and Hunterdon counties have local access.
The site of what is scheduled to be New Jersey's first medical marijuana dispensary in Montclair is pictured.
Having seen a handful of potential patients come into his office and be denied for not meeting the program's requirements, Gutkin wishes more people knew that a simple backache wasn't a sufficient reason to request medical marijuana in New Jersey.
"That's great but that only works in California," Gutkin recalls telling a possible patient. "Not New Jersey."
The state's first medical marijuana dispensary is set to open in Essex County in the coming months, and some experts and officials have differing opinions on the state of the program and guesses as to just how long it will be before registered patients in Warren and Hunterdon counties have local access to the plant.
Four physicians, two each in Hunterdon and Warren counties, have registered for the medical marijuana program, according to the New Jersey Department of Health website.
Montclair will serve as the first of six dispensaries planned across the state. John O'Brien, program director with the health department, said that while the decision where to locate rests ultimately with the operator itself, one of the five remaining dispensaries will open in either Hunterdon or Somerset county.
Details on the facility's exact location are not public and will be announced at the discretion of the operating organization, O'Brien said.
Gutkin, who specializes in pain management, said that even when the Montclair dispensary does open, it's a "little ridiculous" to think about potential patients having to drive so far to fill their prescriptions. He added that the highly regulative nature of the program isn't necessarily a bad thing as it helps to prevent casual patients seeking marijuana treatment.
'Bureaucratic malaise'
Ken Wolski, chief executive officer for the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, called the program thus far a failure, blaming Gov. Chris Christie for essentially filibustering the implementation process with an extensive set of regulations and restrictions. For residents in northwest New Jersey and other areas that would have a lengthy commute to Montclair, Wolski said he doesn't see local access to medical marijuana coming any time soon.
"We don't expect to see any great strides in the availability of medical marijuana during the Christie administration," he said.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that progress in the state's program, signed into law in 2010, has suffered from a "pure bureaucratic malaise." He pointed to Christie's background as a prosecutor as one of the main reasons the program hasn't been able to become fully operational nearly three years after its adoption.
"It's just not part of his DNA makeup to embrace this," St. Pierre said of the governor.
O'Brien said that any assertion that the Christie administration is not fully supportive of the state's program is simply not true. Defending the pace at which implementation is moving, he said that New Jersey's program is unlike those in other states in that it's medically based and requires stricter enforcement codes.
Qualifications for the program include a lengthy patient and doctor relationship not shorter than at least four visits and a diagnosis of one of the approved debilitating medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and terminal cancer.
"The program is not a referral system," O'Brien said.
In "building the program from the ground up," O'Brien said, time is needed to ensure that proper regulations are in place to make sure the marijuana gets to the people who really need it most.
"We want to make sure the program stands the test of time," he said.
Progress expected
New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a primary sponsor of the medical marijuana bill, said that while he was disappointed at the slow rate of progress, he's optimistic that the pace will speed up in the coming months following the election.
Gusciora, D-Hunterdon/Mercer, argues that "political concerns," primarily the vetting of Christie for a role on the national stage, kept the program from moving forward. Now that it's over and Christie isn't going anywhere for the near future, he expects progress to be made.
"I think now that that's all behind us, I think the administration will move ahead with due diligence," Gusciora said.
They just want to make sure it's a safe and well-regulated program that's in place," he said of the administration.
Gusciora, who also supports the decriminalization of a small amount of marijuana, added that he'd be in favor of a dispensary in Hunterdon County.