Despite months of infighting and stalled negotiations, New Jersey's top lawmaker said Thursday the state Legislature could vote to legalize marijuana in the Garden State as early as next month.
"I think it's gonna be soon," state Senate President Stephen Sweeney told NJ Advance Media when asked if it's possible the state will legalize recreational pot use by the end of the year. "We'll have the legislation done. Then you have to do the regulations and everything else."
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin gave a full-throated endorsement of marijuana legalization on Friday, telling listeners of his monthly “Ask the Speaker” radio call-in program that his chamber is working on two bills to expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program and legalize recreational use.
Until Friday, Coughlin's public approach to legalizing recreational marijuana had been more cautious than that of Senate President Steve Sweeney and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
Sweeney says he’s working with Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin on bills they can advance that would expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program and make recreational pot use legal.
He says the medical bill will be tied to the recreational use measure and won’t move forward without it.
New Jersey officials expect sports betting to bring in $13 million this fiscal year. Legalizing recreational marijuana could mean $300 million a year. And that eventuality moved closer to reality Monday as New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney said he’s oping lawmakers will act by the end of summer on such a bill.
Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin are working to coordinate bills for expanding the state’s medical marijuana program, as well as legalizing recreational use for adults.
New Jersey did not legalize recreational marijuana as part of the state’s newly enacted budget, but Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and a key lawmaker say it will get done soon.
Advocates of legalization say they’re trying to overcome decades of stigma as well as a federal prohibition in an effort to make New Jersey the latest state to legalize cannabis. But they say they remain optimistic that bills will pass the Democrat-led Legislature this year. Opponents point to the legalization effort’s slow going as a sign the effort could stall out.
The probability of an adult-use marijuana bill passing in New Jersey before a June 30 budget deadline reportedly is declining, but lawmakers still look poised to approve recreational MJ within the next year, according to a policy analyst and advocate.
The current effort is hitting a snag because of state budget squabbles as well as lack of consensus over the details of a marijuana industry, according to NorthJersey.com.
Gov. Phil Murphy and top legislative leaders met privately Thursday morning to discuss a potential budget compromise and plan to meet again this afternoon, the first glimmer of hope in nearly a week as the state heads toward a possible shutdown.
Murphy met with state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin for an hour or two inside the governor’s office on West State Street, according to several lawmakers and officials familiar with the discussions. They broke just before noon and expect to resume their talks around 3 p.m. Sources said no deal was cut.
Legalizing weed is something new, and big, and controversial. And the bills are still taking shape. At this stage, it's safer to let the other guy step out of the foxhole first and see if he survives.
"You're not going to jump out and say you're in favor of this when you don't even know what the bill is, and you know you will have people come out against you," says Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester. "But you're going to see the momentum shift."
Caruso said the push to legalize recreational use will have nothing to do with an increase in medicinal use and everything to do with political will on the issue.
And right now, he said, he’s not seeing much.
“There has been a dearth of political action by some of the folks who have been driving this effort in the political and governmental space,” he said. “The governor doubled down again in his budget, but there was a lull for a while on the issue.”
On Monday, the Assembly’s Oversight Committee heard from experts on cannabis legalization, the first action taken in the Assembly on marijuana since new Democratic Speaker Craig Coughlin took over leadership of the chamber this year.
“I’m going to let the committee do its work and I’m going to look at what they’ve done,” Coughlin told the Associated Press prior to the hearing. “Certainly on my own I’ll start to look at the issue and do what we can to get it right.”