New Jersey governor signs executive order to review medical marijuana policy News
New Jersey governor signs executive order to review medical marijuana policy

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order [text, PDF] on Wednesday to expand access to medical marijuana in the state.

The order, signed one week after Murphy took office, seeks to remove barriers to access for individuals with “debilitating medical conditions” that may be successfully treated with medical marijuana.

The Department of Health and Board of Medical Examiners are now required to complete a review of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program within 60 days and to recommend which rules and regulations should be added or eliminated from existing law. In addition, Murphy seeks to remove the stigma from doctors prescribing medical marijuana. Under the current law, doctors have to publicly register as a physician who prescribes marijuana, which further perpetuates the stigmas surrounding its prescription. Finally, Murphy asked for the review to include an updated list of conditions in which a marijuana prescription may be appropriate and to give physicians more discretion in prescribing it.

Murphy stated in a press release [text]:

We cannot turn a deaf ear to our veterans, the families of children facing terminal illness, or to any of the other countless New Jerseyans who only wish to be treated like people, and not criminals. And, doctors deserve the ability to provide their patients with access to medical marijuana free of stigmatization.

He went on to say that his goal is to modernize the 8-year-old law, implementing the extensive research conducted since the law’s passage.

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