No place like home to grow medical cannabis | Opinion

In New Jersey, it is still a major crime for a legal medical cannabis patient to grow a few plants. But I want to thank state Sens. Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, and Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth; and Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, D-Mercer; for sponsoring legislation to change this situation.

Senate Bill 342 and its Assembly companion, A-997, would allow New Jersey’s medical cannabis patients to grow a small number of plants to help supplement their needs. The limits would be four mature plants and four immature ones per medical patient.

Recently, this issue hit the media again when Gov. Phil Murphy said he would be “very open” to reversing the current homegrow ban. But, he said, the legal cannabis market still needs to mature. This echoes legislators who are worried about the impact of home cultivation on the financial stability of commercial dispensaries. At least one legislator has also expressed fears that home cultivation would eat into dispensary sales.

I wish more legislators would concede that medical cannabis dispensaries have had enough time to mature, and that we need to stop delaying home cultivation for the patients. New Jersey is one of only a couple of states that allow adult-use cannabis, but ban home cultivation, at least for medical users. Half of our medical cannabis patients live on disability incomes, while we have some of the most expensive legal cannabis in the United States. This is not sustainable.

I can’t directly address the diversion fears, other than to think that growing a handful of plants is not likely to generate enough diversion of sales from the dispensaries to worry about. This is especially true when we consider that it is legal for any adult in New Jersey to gift an ounce of legal cannabis to any other adult, and to do this repeatedly. Any illegal diversion caused by home growing would be minuscule compared to the gift transfers that are legal.

It is well beyond time to give New Jersey patients the right to legally grow a few plants.

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