As explained in an earlier blog, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has prepared a significant collection of regulations associated with the administration of New Jersey's medical marijuana/pot law, which are considered by some as rather restrictive.  Most critics complained that New Jersey's medical marijuana/pot law and these newly conceived regulations make New Jersey the most restrictive of all the medical marijuana law in the country.

One of those regulations require physicians who are to administer marijuana/pot under the statute to qualified patients and register them with the state government. This regulation is beyond the four corners of the statute.  Indeed, no other state requires either conditions. 

It is said the regulations also require the physician to state, "I have provided information to the patient on the lack of scientific consensus for the use of medical marijuana."    Moreover, doctors are required to make reasonable efforts to wean patients off the drug every three months.  Advocates of the statutes vociferously complained that the statement is at complete odds with the law and scientific evidence.

One of the other issues associated with the law is that the dispensaries are required to produce 100% of the marijuana/pot they distribute. Since dispensaries are severely limited by the regulations, most  facilities will be required to cultivate in excess of 100 plants. This creates a significant problem because the federal government’s statute states that crop cultivation in excess of 100 plants require a mandatory five-year prison sentence. The problem is confounded, because the new regulations require a physician to be on an advisory board of the dispensaries and not many physicians may be willing to expose themselves to five-year prison term. Another component of the regulations limit the THC potency to no more than 10%.   Marijuana sold on the street has a potency factor that is high as 18% higher and even in some exotic strains.  New Jersey is the only state that seeks to control the potency of the marijuana pot.