Mayors from some of the largest cities in New Jersey today warned that recreational marijuana dispensaries wouldn’t be welcomed in their boundaries unless people with marijuana convictions were released from jail and their records get expunged.
Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla met in Newark City Hall to tell lawmakers that those provisions and others needed to be passed in order for them to get behind recreational marijuana.
“In some states, they legalized cannabis and for 10 years they have not had expungement,” Baraka said. “So while people were making money off of cannabis, there were people in jail for 10 years while people were making millions of dollars off of this. If that's not the heart of hypocrisy, I don't know what else is.”