While New Jersey lurches toward legalizing recreational marijuana, one Newark lawmaker is leading the conversation against it.
State Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex), who on Monday hosted a town hall in Hillside, believes the current legalization bill would lead to more foreclosures in Newark, drive up health care costs and do little to address the racial disparities in the criminal justice system for past - and future - marijuana convictions.
Rice, a former Newark councilman and police officer, is staunchly opposed to state Sen. Nicholas Scutari’s (D-Union) bill that would legalize recreational marijuana. Instead, Rice is sponsoring a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of the drug.
“The Senate President is trying to fast track a bill Senator Nick Scutari and outside wealth investors [have pushed] under the auspices of social justice and helping black and brown people,” Rice wrote in a letter addressed to taxpayers that was passed out at the town hall. “If truth be told, it’s not about helping us. It is, as always, people making money at our expense.”
Rice participated in a separate, earlier town hall in Newark to discuss the marijuana issue on Aug. 23, and he plans to stump for his bill in other municipalities around the state too.
The New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, which Rice chairs, hasn’t taken a stance on legalization or decriminalization, the state senator said.