Legislature to consider legalizing marijuana for medical use

TRENTON - Legalizing marijuana for medical use, barring funeral protests, weighing the death penalty and dissecting a dwindling fund used to help out-of-work New Jerseyans are among varied topics to be discussed by state lawmakers in the coming week. The Senate health committee is scheduled to meet this week to discuss long-proposed but never-heard legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for patients with serious illnesses. Sen. Joseph Vitale, the committee chairman, said he expects senators will only discuss the bill and hear from experts. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union. It lists cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, wasting syndrome, chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures and persistent muscle spasms as among conditions that would be eligible for medical marijuana usage. ``This is about compassion for people who are at their weakest or on their death beds,’’ Scutari said. The National Academy of Sciences has found marijuana can help patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting. But such legislation is opposed by medical and law enforcement groups. Terrence Farley, an Ocean County assistant prosecutor, considers the bill a veiled bid to legalize drugs, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, American Medical Association, National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and National Multiple Sclerosis Society reject medical marijuana use. Though 11 states allow medical marijuana, in June 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal government can prosecute people who use marijuana, no matter state law. With the funeral protests ban, Assemblyman Jack Conners, D-Burlington, introduced the bill after an anti-gay Kansas church group began protesting funerals of soldiers killed in combat in Iraq. The Westboro Baptist Church contends the deaths are God’s vengeance for American homosexuality. ``Families that lose a loved one who makes the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this country must be spared such intrusions and indignities,’’ Conners said. ``It’s reassuring that this legislation will continue to move forward at an expedited pace.’’ The group hasn’t protested in New Jersey, but has vowed to visit the state soon. The bill, which hasn’t been considered by the Senate, has Gov. Jon S. Corzine worried about free speech. The proposal would restrict protest activities within 500 feet of funerals, funeral processions, funeral homes or places of worship. It would make it a “disorderly persons” offense to protest within an hour before to an hour after a funeral. Such offenses are punishable by up to 18 months in jail and $1,000 in fines. ``Free speech is an important part of our society,’’ Conners said. ``However, this is an instance in which one group’s right to protest is interfering with another’s right to grieve. We cannot allow that to happen in New Jersey.’’ President Bush recently signed a bill curbing pickets at national cemeteries, while 31 states have debated similar laws, with 11 adopting them. The Senate Labor Committee led by Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, will on Thursday convene a special hearing on the fund used by the state to pay unemployment benefits to out-of-work New Jerseyans. The fund is generated from unemployment taxes paid by employers and workers, but the state has diverted $4.67 billion from it since 1993 to help pay for treating people without health insurance. The Corzine administration contends this has left the fund near a trigger that would automatically increase unemployment taxes on employers by as much as $500 million. On Friday, a 13-member death penalty study commission created earlier this year will meet for the first time. The panel is to report on whether the state death penalty is fairly imposed and whether it should be changed or abolished. The state has 10 prisoners on death row, but the bill creating the commission imposed an execution moratorium until the commission completes its work. It has until November to file its report. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, but hasn’t executed anyone since 1963.