New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals Want To Sell Pot – Potential Model for Other States

Rutgers University's School of Environmental and Biological Sciences would grow the pot and provide to 16 teaching hospitals. Patients would be registered by the hospitals and place orders online to pick up at the pharmacy. Interesting enough too is that they would provide pot in in pill form and the strains would be labeled according to what they are.

The proceeds would enable improving doctors for research to demonstrate how pot relieves pain and muscle spasms, and/or other areas where effective. It’s an interesting concept and some are worried about Rutgers having the monopoly on growing the weed. The federal government too would still need to approve the plan as well as the state legislators, so there’s a lot more work to be done before this gets closer to becoming a reality. Who would have ever thought that pot one day could contribute to hospital financials. BD

New Jersey's teaching hospitals are campaigning to be the sole dispensers of medical marijuana in the state by touting their secure buildings, connection to patients, and "legitimacy" in the community.

The New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals' pitch is the leading proposal Governor Christie's administration is considering as it wrestles with implementing the controversial law within the next six months, said state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, one of the law's sponsors.

"The program not only will make New Jersey a model for the nation in how to implement a safe and sane medical marijuana program, it could bring significant new dollars to the teaching hospitals to fund graduate medical education therein addressing New Jersey's physician manpower shortage," according to the council's proposal.

The patients registered by the hospital would place orders online and pick them up at the in-house pharmacy. The product itself would be sold in prescription pill bottles, with specific strains like "White Widow" and "AK-47" renamed to eliminate reference to "pot culture terminology," the proposal said.

Even after the state designs its medical marijuana plans, the planning is far from done. The hospitals and the university would need permission by the federal government to possess and dispense what is still an illegal drug.

NorthJersey.com: N.J. hospital group wants to sell pot