With New Jersey's endorsement of medical marijuana, there may be no stopping the rehabilitation of cannabis from illegal drug to legitimate therapy.

Late yesterday, Gov. Corzine signed a law making New Jersey the fourteenth state to legalize medical pot. Four more states and the District of Columbia are expected to follow suit by year's end.

Story continues here.

“I can’t vote for this because of all the legal threats,” warned West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon.  He was referring to the city’s medical marijuana dispensary ordinance.  It was a very tense situation. No actual legal threats had been issued.  But many cannabis advocates and lawyers alike notified the City of West Sacramento that its draft ordinance had numerous legal vulnerabilities.  

For starters, the city is attempting to force dispensary patrons to purchase a state issued identification card.  That will not pass legal muster, because the California state I.D. card program is explicitly voluntary.  

Testimony on the Legalization of Marijuana

To the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety

By Dale H. Gieringer, Ph.D.

Director, California NORML – www.canorml.org

October 28, 2009

I thank the members of the California Assembly Public Safety Legislative Committee for holding this hearing on the legalization of marijuana. I am here today representing California NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a public-interest lobby representing the interests of the millions of responsible adult marijuana users .[1]

Marijuana should be legal for the same reason that alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and other substances are legal: (1) millions of Californians value and enjoy its use; (2) their use poses no inordinate hazards to society; (3) the prohibition of marijuana artificially creates crime and black-market traffic in the same way as alcohol prohibition and (4) deprives our economy of legal business and revenues.

The laws against marijuana wrongly criminalize millions of otherwise law-abiding Californians. Three million Californians used marijuana last year and over 15 million have done so in their lifetimes.[2] Among them are noted professionals and business people, Nobel Laureates, artists and musicians, sports and entertainment stars, and luminaries in this Capitol.[3]

Despite California's 1976 (partial) decriminalization law, possession of one ounce or less remains a criminal misdemeanor punishable by a fine. Marijuana use may also be punished by loss of employment, public housing, child custody, security clearance, student loans, revocation of parole or probation, etc.

Michael Oliveri, 25, of Oradell, has been wheelchair-bound since he was 18 due to muscular dystrophy. Years of powerful prescription drugs have left him permanently nauseous, but there is one medication he says helps relieve his pain and gives him an appetite. The only problem is that it's a federally banned substance -- marijuana. Oliveri and other patients suffering from debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis or AIDS wasting syndrome have been fighting for a medical marijuana law in New Jersey. State lawmakers are widely expected to vote on the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act before the end of the year and Gov. Jon Corzine has indicated he would sign the bill. If enacted, New Jersey would become the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medical use. Opponents of the bill point to abuse of the law in California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana, as a precursor of what's to come in New Jersey. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)