It’s been one month since the New Jersey legislature passed a bill to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with medical marijuana, and patients who could benefit from the policy shift are still hanging in the balance. Gov. Chris Christie (R) has yet to approve or veto the bill, and his past reluctance to change marijuana rules doesn’t bode well for those who want to broaden the scope of medical treatment.
With Assembly Bill 457’s fate up in the air, close to 18,000 people have signed a petition circulated by The Joint Blog on Change.org, asking the governor to support the legislation. The petition points to studies published in two health journals, the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy and Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, which concluded that cannabis produces medical benefits for patients with PTSD, including veterans.
To date, New Jersey’s Department of Health allows doctors to prescribe medical cannabis for 12 conditions, such as terminal cancer, seizure disorders, and multiple sclerosis. Despite scientific research and overwhelming support from state lawmakers, Christie, whose time as governor comes to an end in January, has been slow to make PTSD the next treatable condition.
If Christie doesn’t take any action, the bill will automatically become law on September 16. But if New Jersey residents want him to vocalize support, they are likely fighting an uphill battle. During his time as governor, Christie has opposed the expansion of the state’s medical marijuana program, which went into effect in 2010. And patients have paid the price.
In 2013, 4-year-old Vivian Wilson became a mascot for medical marijuana due to Christie’s hesitance to make edible marijuana available to minors. Wilson suffered from aggressive seizures, but it took immense public pressure from lawmakers and constituents for the governor to ease the restrictions that effectively prevented minors from accessing treatment. In the end, he signed a bill permitting dispensaries to produce edibles for children, but Wilson’s family was forced to move to Colorado in 2014 because production was far too slow.
During his presidential campaign last year, Christie said he supported medical marijuana. But he quickly changed his tune during a tense exchange with a nurse, when he said he would not reschedule marijuana. He supports the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance with no medical value, regardless of studies that say otherwise.
More recently, Christie refused to add debilitating menstrual cramps to the list of conditions approved for cannabis treatment and reduce the price of already-permitted treatment. The exorbitant cost of medical marijuana — roughly $489 per ounce — currently prevents most qualifying patients from using it.
“The reason why it hasn’t gotten the response it’s gotten in other states is because ours is a truly medical-based program for only people who have true illnesses that require medicinal marijuana,” Christie said in April. “Other states have programs that are faux medical-marijuana programs that allow for recreational use.”
In addition to the high price of medical marijuana, as well as Christie’s reluctance to support it, access is extremely limited because of physician restrictions. In order to prescribe cannabis, doctors are required to complete a special course, register, and evaluate patients’ needs every 90 days. According to the Marijuana Policy Project, approximately 380 of New Jersey’s 27,000 physicians are able to prescribe the substance.
Twelve states currently approve cannabis treatment for patients with PTSD. But the push to expand treatment to the 7.7 million people in the country with the condition got a big boost last May, when the federal government issued support for prescribing marijuana to veterans. Previously, the federal government prohibited the Department of Veterans Affairs’ physicians from offering cannabis treatment.