Yet Murphy, who as a candidate promised passage of a legal marijuana bill within his first 100 days, has been burned on this issue from the moment he took office. On Tuesday, he refused to ratchet up hopes that any compromise would quickly become law.
If Murphy was ready to pass the peace pipe in celebration with his legislative antagonists, he gave no sign of it during a bill-signing ceremony in Piscataway.
"This is complicated. We’re starting an entire industry from scratch,'' Murphy said when pressed about details of the new accord, which apparently ironed out thorny disagreements over taxing cannabis sales, supervising the program and expunging the records of minor marijuana offenders.