*Please Share & Encourage Others To Do The Same* Our Family's response to today's denial of 'Jake Honig's Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act'. We want patients, caregivers, siblings and parents to know that we will NEGU (Never Ever Give Up) #belikejake Posted by Jake Honig on Monday, March 25, 2019

When state lawmakers named the bill expanding New Jersey’s medical marijuana program after 7-year-old Jake Honig, who used cannabis oil to control excruciating pain before he died from cancer last year, his parents were deeply grateful.

But gratitude turned to frustration this week after top leaders in the state Senate and Assembly postponed a vote on the medical marijuana bill many lawmakers agree could have passed overwhelmingly months ago.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, are adamant that until they’ve secured enough votes to pass a bill legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and older, they will not post the medical expansion bill for vote. They’ve publicly acknowledged they are “tie-barring,” or linking, the two bills, hoping support for improving the restrictive medicinal program will bring some yes votes for the recreational weed.

The legislators’ priorities are misplaced, said members of the Honig family and friends via Facebook.

“We are putting patients in New Jersey behind pleasure-seekers,” Mike Honig said in the 3-1/2 minute video. “We are putting our own personal agenda ahead of the terminally ill child.”

“We ask that you untie medical marijuana from recreational. Because whether you think recreational marijuana is a good thing or a bad thing for the state is irrelevant,” Honig said in the video. “Everyone can agree a patient, especially a child, deserves the medication they need to be comfortable.”

Jake was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in 2012, a cancer that traveled to his brain. He underwent dozens of rounds of chemotherapy, proton radiation and surgeries at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

His parents, Mike and Janet Honig of Howell, bought dried cannabis and made their own oil for their son, and would run out of medicine halfway through the month. The medicinal marijuana law enacted in 2010 set a strict two ounce monthly purchasing limit.

The “Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act” would allow terminal and hospice patients unlimited amount of cannabis. Other patients would be able to buy 2.5 ounces a month for the first six months after the law takes effect and rise to 3 ounces six months later, according to the bill (S10).

Knowing how his son suffered when the cannabis oil ran out, Honig said he is “frustrated” that lawmakers would delay relief for other patients.

“When Jake was off his medical marijuana, he would vomit, he would be nauseous. He was would be in so much pain, he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t sleep. He was agitated," Honig told NJ Advance Media.

“When we would start to run low, we would substitute it with oxycotin or morphine and he became angry and belligerent. The side effects ... would make him cry,” he said.

Jake died Jan. 21, 2018.

Spokesmen for Sweeney and Coughlin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Leaders are hoping to post the recreational weed bill, the medical cannabis bill and the expungement bills in May.

On Wednesday, Murphy backed off a plan to expand the number of cannabis providers from the current six at Sweeney and Coughlin’s request, so not to detract from the efforts to pass the legalization bill.

There is language throughout the medical marijuana expansion bill that ties it to the passage of the legalization bill. One example includes includes the creation of an independent commission contained in the recreational cannabis bill, which will oversee the medicinal program.

If the delays in passing both bills continue, said Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, one of the prime sponsors of the medicinal legislation, he could envision portion of his bill could move separately.

“There are elements of the medicinal bill that are outside the purview of the commission,” which include expanding the amount of cannabis patients may buy every month, Vitale said.

Asked if he, too, is frustrated the two bills have been packaged together, Vitale replied: “It is what it is. I understand the strategy. I can’t change the ways things are.”

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.