What’s Inside New Jersey’s Proposed Cannabis Legalization Bill?
AUTHOR: Patrick McKnight
PUBLISHER: CANNABIS LAW REPORT
AUTHOR: Patrick McKnight
PUBLISHER: CANNABIS LAW REPORT
Apparently there’s a deal to legalize cannabis in NJ.
Senate President Steve Sweeney told an audience at Monmouth University that a vote is imminent.
“Our goal is March 25th,” Sweeney said.
If true, NJ would become the second state (after Vermont) to legalize cannabis legislatively. Ten states + DC have ended cannabis prohibition at the ballot box.
With budget hearings and discussions beginning to ramp up in Trenton, the current month might be the last best time to throw a marijuana-legalization bill over the finish line, the state Legislature’s top Democrat said Thursday.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, speaking to a select group of reporters in Trenton, said a vote needs to be held this month to hold an election on a measure legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana for adult-use.
The governor’s proposed budget calls for $60 million of tax revenue on legal marijuana for half the year, assuming lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy can agree on a bill.
If legalized adult use cannabis and the surrounding bureaucracy is implemented on Jan. 1, 2020, the budget projects $39 million in net revenue over the course of six months.
Twenty-one million dollars would go towards the first-time costs of getting the administration set up, according to Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio, but over time that amount would flatten out at roughly $12 million a year.
Even if cannabis were somehow legalized, say, tomorrow, it’s gonna be a while before any sales actually happen. Have you seen a whip count? Me neither but say the votes are there and that our legislature passes S2703/A4497, the “New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory and Expungement Aid Modernization Act” and Governor Murphy signs in into law within the next few weeks.
(It might happen, y’all!)
That would mean a lavish bill signing ceremony sometime in March of 2019.
New Jersey’s governor and legislature agreed to terms earlier this month to allow S830 to move forward, the bill that would legalize marijuana for adults and create a regulated marketplace in the state.
It has been Governor Murphy’s mission since he took office – legalize marijuana like beer and reap the benefits of the tax revenue. It’s a scheme that has been implemented and is working in several other states, including Colorado and California. Yet, when it comes to New Jersey, nobody seems to agree on how marijuana taxes should add up. Murphy says it’s “complicated” because the state has to create “an entire industry from scratch.” It’s a situation that is getting closer to being resolved. He told reporters this week that feels “optimistic” that the deal will get done soon.
Although Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers recently struck a deal on some of the major points of legal cannabis, don’t expect to be able to buy legal marijuana in New Jersey any time soon.
Speaking to reporters following a Thursday Senate session, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, said the soonest that option might be possible would be next January.
“I think, best case scenario, you’re going to have marijuana available legally [in] January,” Sweeney said. “I’ve got to tell you guys, honest to God, the bill isn’t finished.”
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.
The people who smoke dope aren’t necessarily dopes.
I hate to poop on New Jersey’s pot party, but I have a question: Why would anyone buy legal marijuana when the state is planning to place a $42-an-ounce tax on the stuff?
You probably heard that Jersey is about to legalize marijuana so that adults can buy it for recreational use. It’ll be just like booze, which anyone over 21 in the state can purchase. Only difference is that New Jersey doesn’t tax liquor as onerously as it will pot.
get your FL Office of Medical Marijuana Use card!
get your MD Medical Cannabis Commission card!