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Giving the Green Light to Medicinal Marijuana: An Overview of NJ’s Program and Evidence

New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal will begin a series of special Grand Rounds lectures on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 in New Brunswick to provide health professions students, faculty, and clinicians with an overview of the Department’s Medicinal Marijuana Program and a review of research regarding the use of medicinal marijuana to treat certain medical conditions.

The continuing education accredited lecture will be presented at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick at noon in the Clinical Academic Building, 125 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, 08901. The lecture will be broadcast live to Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark and to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

On July 11, 2018, Dr. Elnahal will also present the grand rounds lecture at Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack and St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson.

Three are currently 22,000 patients, 614 physicians and 940 caregivers participating in the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Program. The Murphy Administration expanded the program two months ago to add five new qualifying medical conditions: Anxiety, migraines, Tourette’s Syndrome, chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders and chronic pain of visceral origin.  More than 3,000 patients with these medical conditions are already participating in the program.

Patients can choose from more than 100 different strains available at five dispensaries in Montclair, Woodbridge, Cranbury, Bellmawr and Egg Harbor Township. Three Alternative Treatment Centers have requested satellite locations.

During the 40-minute lecture, Dr. Elnahal will discuss various medical conditions which are appropriate for treatment with medicinal marijuana as well as the various forms of medicinal marijuana available at New Jersey’s Alternative Treatment Centers.

He will also provide an overview of New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program and reforms that have been made under the Murphy Administration. In addition to the five new qualifying medical conditions, registration fees have been reduced for patients and caregivers, dispensaries are adding satellite locations and mobile access is available so patients, caregivers and physicians can register, make payments and upload documents on their Smart phones and tablets.

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