Nj Gov Linked To Half Of State Run Dispensaries

[+EdwardGlen]

fyi;

 

He put people in prison for cannabis and now he's skimming money from the sick, probably same people he jailed.

 

http://420.com/headlines/single/18535?utm_source=rss_home&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

Half of NJ Medical Marijuana Tied to Gov Christie

 

Michael Symons at the Asbury Park Press revealed the deep political ties at half of the approved operators. David Knowlton who led Christie's gubernatorial transition team on health care issues chairs one of the non-profits and Webster Todd, the brother of former governor Christine Todd Whitman, is on the Board at another successful applicant.

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A little background on Gov.Christie

 

http://blog.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/2009/10/gubernatorial_candidate_christ.html

 

After spending seven years throwing bad guys in prison, Chris Christie doesn’t have to worry much about looking like a wimp.

 

So he is free to speak honestly about New Jersey’s harsh tactics in the drug war, and just how crazy it is to throw an army of non-violent addicts into prison every year without the needed drug treatment.

 

"It’s naive, and it’s stupid," says Christie, the Republican candidate for governor and former federal prosecutor. "We are in the Dark Ages in New Jersey." (He could of resigned at any time if he didn't like putting people in prison

 

It may come as a surprise, but New Jersey’s tactics in the drug wa)r are among the nation’s harshest.

 

At last count, our state prisons held roughly 7,000 non-violent drug offenders, one-quarter of the total, the highest proportion in the country. Most were addicts who were not getting treatment.

 

 

And if history is any guide, most will wind up back in prison at a cost of nearly $50,000 a year -- about twice the cost of intensive treatment.

 

"We’re still way behind the curve," said Bruce Stout, who served as a senior advisor to Govs. Jon Corzine and Christie Whitman on these issues. "We could cut crime, save lives, and save money. But no politician will step up and make it happen on a scale that it needs to happen."

 

Which brings us back to politics, and this campaign.

 

Corzine has been timid on this issue, taking only baby steps. He’s started a few crime prevention programs, and a few pilot projects to help ex-prisoners adjust. He’s expanded the drug courts, where offenders are diverted into treatment. And the prison population has dropped on his watch thanks mostly to reforms in the parole system.

 

But even his political allies express frustration, sometimes openly, at the small scale of these changes.

 

"I agree with Christie totally," says Sen. Ray Lesniak, a Democrat. "It is my mission to change this. It’s not like we’re not doing anything now. We just have to do more of it -- a lot more of it."

Enter Christie. He proposes a package deal -- tougher measures on violent crime matched with a more sensible approach to the drug war.

 

For criminals who use guns, he would ban parole or time off for good behavior. And he would allow judges to deny bail to prisoners who are deemed a threat to the community, even if they don’t present a risk of flight.

 

But non-violent drug offenders would get treatment and vocational training, either in the prisons or in halfway houses.

 

Look at this through a political lens, and Christie is trying to win votes in the cities, to take a slice of Corzine’s base. This plan is part of an urban agenda that also includes education reforms, like a big push for more charter schools.

 

But maybe this is more than politics. Because people who see the damage of this drug war up close tend to get religion about it. It’s not hard to find cops who think this is crazy, or prosecutors and judges.

 

Long before this campaign, Christie was a board member at Daytop Village, a drug treatment center in Mendham that specializes in adolescents. He met a young man there who was addicted to heroin, but who sobered up and went to law school. Christie hired him as a summer intern at the U.S. Attorney’s office.

 

"He was competing with all the other great kids we hired, and I was the only person who knew where he came from," Christie says. "I couldn’t help but think that if the judge had not sent him to Daytop, he wouldn’t have been there. I have seen these miracles happen. That’s why I feel so strongly about treatment."

 

You can still feel the tug of politics at Christie’s sleeve. He says rescinding the school-zone drug laws that shovel so many non-violent addicts into prisons in the first place would "send the wrong signal." And he opposes any new gun laws, which would include a pending bill to ban armor-piercing rifles, as if those would make a nice addition to our city streets.

 

Still, politicians love to pose as tough on drugs, to pound their chest by making our policies more and more harsh. That has created this monster.

 

Christie is pushing back hard, when most politicians just take cover. On this issue, at least, he is showing us some of that strong leadership he promised.

[stopgo]

It's a sad sad system we have.