Historically marijuana has been the victim of bad press, scary stories about the social and moral impact it had on users. Once consider at gateway drug – the first step towards harder drugs – marijuana has recently received a reprieve. Part of its bad press came from the fact that to buy marijuana, you were often required to seek out dealers who often also dealt harder drugs.
But even this is something of an illusion since many marijuana dealers made up a cottage industry, supplementing their income by selling to people they knew at the local bar or even at their workplace.
Recently some communities like Jersey City have decided to cease prosecuting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana or fining people rather than putting them in jail. This is an element of a possible eventual decriminalization – one option that state could embrace if it fails to legalize it as other states have done.
Even President Donald Trump recently suggested he might support some change in federal policy which still outlaws use and possession. Federal law currently considers marijuana in the same class of drugs as heroin, cocaine and LSD. If New Jersey were to legalize marijuana in the state nobody living in a federal-subsidized building would legally use it in their home.
With a change of perception of marijuana use, many are looking for significant reforms that would not just merely keep people from going to jail for its use and sale, but to actually generate desperately needed tax income for the state. One very optimistic estimate suggested the state might see as much as $300 million. More recent studies suggest this might be far less.
Legalizing marijuana became one of the key campaign promises made by Phil Murphy when he ran for governor in 2017, but one that has faced a number of roadblocks.
But opposition to legalization has been fiercer than many initially expected. While the state Assembly passed the legislation, the state Senate came up three or four votes short. A new move to pass it in the lame duck session later this year would have to budge already determined opponents to change their votes.
This failure to legalize the use and sale of marijuana, and this could result in a referendum being put on the 2020 ballot. Unfortunately, if voters choose to legalize it, the state will have less control over the industry that emerges as a result.