Efforts to legalize and tax the recreational use of marijuana have so far stalled in the state House, but New Jersey legislators aren’t giving up yet.
On Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers from the state Senate met to discuss a bill that legislative leaders say will bring their legalization efforts to fruition.
As The Record reports, Senate President Steve Sweeney has said he wants to have a bill passed by the end of the month, and Democrats are working to meet that goal.
However, not everyone in the Democratic caucus is pleased with what’s being proposed, with The Record reporting the meeting was “fractious.” And there’s still a question of whether Gov. Phil Murphy, who wants to impose a 25 percent tax on legal weed, will go along with the bill’s call to start out taxing marijuana at 10 percent—with towns able to tack on a two percent tax as a sweetener to convince them to allow for sales—in an effort to choke off black market sales. The tax would then rise to 25 percent over four years, according to the report.