A bill making its way through New Jersey’s state legislature would allow patients to use medical weed to treat sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell is a genetic blood disorder that affects the amount of red blood cells generated by the body. The condition can usually lead to swelling and periodic bouts of pain.
The condition is disproportionately prevalent in those of African descent.
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The bill, A913, was sponsored by Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, D-Mercer, and Assemblyman William Spearman, D-Camden. A companion bill, S2392, was also introduced in the Senate.
Out of an estimated 100,000 people in the U.S. with sickle cell anemia, more than 90 percent are Black, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics.
Advocates said adding sickle cell to the list of conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana is overdue.
“Praise God,” said cannabis activist Leo Bridgewater. “It should have been on there a long time ago.”
Bridgewater also argued patients with sickle cell and other painful conditions should be able to grow their own weed at home, which is not permitted under New Jersey’s cannabis law. Many patients could use cannabis to treat conditions that might not be covered by the state under the medical weed law, he said.
“When you find a strain, there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to carry it,” Bridgewater said of the medical cannabis program. “If somebody finds the thing that’s working the best for them it’s not like the dispensary will continue to carry that strain.”
An analysis by the Office of Legislative Services, the legislature’s fiscal monitor, said passing the law allowing medical weed as a treatment for sickle cell anemia wouldn’t result in any large cost to the state.
“Given the well-established regulatory infrastructure for the medicinal cannabis program, the addition of sickle cell disease patients to the program’s current patient population, which approximated 64,000 individuals in 2024, would have a modest impact on state expenditures,” the office said in an analysis statement.
The Assembly version of the bill was approved the Assembly Health Committee in a 9-1 vote and by the Assembly Appropriations Committee in a 9-0 vote earlier this month. It still needs to be approved by the full Assembly.
The bill also must make its way through the Senate, where it hasn’t had a hearing yet, then be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy to become law.
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Jelani Gibson may be reached at [email protected].
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