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Anthony Anzalone consults medical marijuana patients from his Rutherford medical practice

(Bob Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

Anthony Anzalone is a New Jersey-based obstetrician and gynecologist who underwent a career pivot when New Jersey started its medical marijuana program. Now he and his staff manage more than 200 patients either enrolled or looking to enroll in the program.

He and Brian Gillis, a medical marijuana researcher and a consultant to Anzalone's practice, are also developing FDA-approved topical treatments derived from the cannabis plant.

We spoke to Anzalone about how New Jersey's program has been working so far and what's in store for 2014.

Q. What's the biggest challenge for patients trying to navigate the program?

A. You know, now the real challenge that comes about as far as patients [are concerned] is actually getting the product. Because before, they weren't getting the product — not so readily. There was a waiting list for like a year.

I had patients calling me up, oh man, calling me everything in the book. I said, 'Listen, I had nothing to do with the program.' They were blasting it. But now, there's three centers open.

Now my job is cut out to find out how the patients are doing when they come back, to see if it is working or not. And then to figure out another plan, OK, you need this, this and this. I'm looking to write a recommendation to that center or even bring it to that center with you and see what these guys can give you.

Q. What's the biggest challenge for doctors looking to prescribe it?

A. One of the challenges is communication with other physicians. So in other words, I'll say to Mrs. Jones, 'Mrs. Jones, I am not your private physician. I am not your specialist, OK, I'm here to evaluate you and to get you registered. I'm doing what your doctor may not want to do. I'll take that step. But the point is you have to go back to that doctor and tell them, 'Look, I'm on this program.' So if you're getting some sort of opiates, I want you to start getting weened off those opiates.

I want them to replace one medication with the other. And this is a medicine. I know it grows in nature and this and that, but I'm treating it as a medication. That's the thing that I want to make sure the other physicians are aware of, OK? If you don't agree with it or not, I don't care. That's your business. But for pete's sakes, don't kick the patient out of the practice because of that. You're a doctor first. Live with it.

So I want you to start getting off their medication. I don't want you on both the opiates as well as the cannabis. I want you getting off it eventually.

Q. What has to happen in 2014 for the program to improve?

A. I think the first thing is, you're going to have to have better oversight. I want more oversight as far as the medical community is concerned. I think you're going to need more dispensaries, too. I don't want these people waiting more than a week. You shouldn't even wait that long.

I would like to have more control myself as a physician to say, OK, these are the strains I think that you need, because we have that ability here. Right now, you're dealing with the people over there [at the dispensaries], that they're not pharmacists. Yes, they do know a lot from their growing experience, but I'd like to have more control over it. Maybe I want to change it to this strain, change it to that strain, depending on how the patient feels, and I want to do further studies as far as is it real improvement or is it something the patient wishes?

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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