NJ CAN 2020, the political committee leading the charge to legalize marijuana in November, announced Axel Owen as the campaign manager for the inclusive and robust effort leading to a “yes” vote on the 2020 ballot question to legalize cannabis in New Jersey.
Two members of a criminal justice task force organized by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) recently discussed why they feel the criminalization of marijuana is an untenable policy, with one—a former U.S. attorney general—suggesting that even drugs such as opioids and cocaine should be removed from the criminal justice system’s purview.
A majority of registered voters in New Jersey are in favor of a proposal to legalize marijuana for adult use that will appear on the state’s November ballot, according to a poll released Thursday.
Monmouth University’s survey asked respondents to weigh in on the cannabis legalization referendum question that lawmakers placed on ballot and to give their opinions on the potential risks and benefits of the policy change.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said they would vote in support of the proposal, while 34 percent said they’d vote against it.
The poll will also include a polling data on a November ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana.
In addition, the Monmouth Poll will include a generic ballot test of candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, with a focus on the four congressional districts that flipped from Republican to Democratic in the 2018 mid-term elections. These are the seats currently held by Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), Andy Kim (D-Marlton), Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair).
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have announced plans to form working groups with a mix of ideological views to develop policy solutions to a wide range of issues, including criminal justice and drug policy reform.
During a livestream on Monday, the two former rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination laid out a shared agenda heading into the November election. Biden became the presumptive nominee after Sanders dropped out of the race last week, and the senator has now offered his endorsement.
Today, talk of legalization knows no bounds. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have reportedly flirted with the idea of forming a "bloc" that will legalize adult-use marijuana at the same time and by imposing the same statutory scheme. Activists are pushing measures to put legalization on the ballot in 2020 in Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, and Oklahoma.
Here we go again. State lawmakers Monday will have another opportunity to take a position on recreational marijuana — this time on whether to place an up or-down question on legalization on the ballot in 2020.
A number of states aim to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2020
However, this hasn't stopped individual states from legalizing cannabis in some capacity over the past 23 years. Beginning with California in 1996, a grand total of 33 states have legalized medical marijuana. Of these 33 states, 11 have passed legislation allowing for the legal consumption and/or sale of recreational weed. And this could be just the beginning.
How does he plan to legalize marijuana?
Sanders‘ proposes to deschedule marijuana, which would completely remove it from its classification under the Controlled Substances Act as highly dangerous and without any medicinal value.
Marijuana is now classified in the most restrictive category under federal drug laws — Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act — along with heroin and LSD.