New Jersey
Perhaps the state with the best chance of legalization is the Garden State. In December, New Jersey's two legislative houses voted very decisively in favor of putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would legalize recreational marijuana. Similar to the other states to have OK'd the recreational consumption and sale of adult-use weed, adults 21 and over would be allowed to purchase cannabis, and an excise tax would be collected on all sales.
Registered voters in New Jersey are expected to vote in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization in November — but uncertainty surrounds the pending legislation.
"Cannabis advocates looking forward to creating an adult use regulated and taxed cannabis marketplace have reason to be cautiously optimistic as we approach the consideration of the issue in the form of a public question on the ballot for the voters in November," says Charles Gormally, co-chair of the Brach Eichler LLC cannabis practice group.
A bill introduced in the state Senate Thursday afternoon would ban arrests for possession and distribution of up to a pound of marijuana, instead replacing it with written warnings and fines.
Under Senate Bill 2535, possession and distribution of up to a pound of cannabis would still be illegal, but it would only be met by a written warning for the first offense. Any further offenses would result in a civil penalty of $25, or community service.
As of February, the state’s marijuana program has more than 72,000 patients served by seven dispensaries, as well as more than 2,000 caregivers and 1,000 doctors.
“Support for the marijuana ballot measure is widespread in part because many who have no opinion on whether legalization is a good idea figure they might as well vote for it,” Pat Murray, the institute’s director, said in the Thursday morning report.
Six out of 10 New Jersey voters, or 62%, said that legalizing cannabis would help the state’s economy, while 21% said it would have no impact and 10% said legalization would harm the economy. Just over a quarter, or 27%, said that they believed legalizing marijuana will lead to an increase in other drug crimes and 22% believe it will actually reduce crimes related to other drugs. Almost half, or 46%, said they don’t believe legalization will have an impact either way on other drug crimes.
Details to Follow
At the start of 2020, more than a dozen states seemed very likely to legalize marijuana for recreational or medical purposes by the end of the year. Now that a coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed just about every aspect of American life, it seems only a handful of states will be able to enact marijuana reform.
More than six in ten registered voters say that they intend to vote for a statewide ballot measure this November to legalize the adult-use cannabis market, according to polling data compiled by Monmouth University.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said that they will vote for the measure, which amends the state Constitution to permit the possession, production, and retail sale of cannabis to those age 21 or older. Lawmakers in 2019 overwhelmingly voted to place the measure on the 2020 November ballot after similar legislation failed to gain majority support in the Senate.
“To the best of my knowledge, we’ve not had any discussions about fast-tracking weed legalization,” the governor said.
Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the legislature cleared a ballot initiative to legalize weed during the lame duck session in December after multiple failed attempts to legalize marijuana through legislation.
Legalizing now could provide the state with some additional revenue to make up for budget shortfalls created by the pandemic.
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.
New Jersey voters will also be asked to weigh in on whether the state should legalize marijuana. Currently, 61% say they would vote for and 34% would vote against a November ballot measure to amend the state Constitution “to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called cannabis for adults at least 21 years of age” in a market overseen by a state commission. Just 5% have no opinion on this. Support comes from 74% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 40% of Republicans.