New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he’s open to new legislation on medical marijuana expansion and criminal records expungement after legal recreational marijuana failed to get enough legislative support this spring.
Murphy made his comments Wednesday, hours after state Senate President Steve Sweeney said voters would be asked to decide next year if recreational use of marijuana should be legalized.
- Creating separate permits for cultivators, processors and dispensaries, thus increasing potential business opportunities. Currently, licensed dispensaries must grow their own cannabis. Recent forecasts estimated the market will need 15 additional growers and 50-90 dispensaries by 2022.
- Streamlining the process to add qualifying medical conditions to the program. The rule removes the requirement that the petitions for new qualifying conditions must first go to the Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel.
Separate permitting systems
The rules also provide new guidance to the Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel, which advises the state on cannabis policy, and create separate permitting systems for cultivation, manufacturing and dispensing operations in an effort to make more marijuana available to the public and at more locations. Until now, these three aspects of the business were bundled together under a single permitting process.
A push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York and New Jersey this year appears all but dead in both states, a dramatic fall for an effort that just over a month ago seemed inevitable.
For months, the two states were locked in a race to legalize, vying for millions in tax revenue and progressive bragging rights. But at the end of March, the campaign in New Jersey abruptly collapsed, hours before a vote was supposed to take place.
From the New Jersey Department of Health:
Implements Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 6 Regulatory Recommendations
The New Jersey Department of Health today announced amended medical marijuana rules that establish standards by which the Department implements the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. The rule changes follow the Department’s recommended regulatory actions in response to Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order #6, which charged the Department with reviewing all aspects of the program to expand access and eliminate bureaucratic barriers.
THE COMBATANTS
Phil Murphy: New Jersey’s 56th governor, he’s a former Wall Street executive who also served as U.S. ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama. Murphy didn’t hold elected office until he easily defeated his Republican rival in the 2017 election.
It was a gaffe, but it was telling.
Hours after a well-orchestrated push to pass a legal-weed bill died in the Trenton statehouse, Gov. Phil Murphy announced to the clicking of cameras that a “postmortem” would be done.
The men standing next to him at the lectern — Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin — chuckled and quietly corrected him.
Over a year after reform advocates first began predicting swift legislative victory, the recreational use of cannabis remains illegal in New Jersey, but efforts to legalize marijuana continue to push forward.
When Governor Murphy and Senate President Sweeney agreed on a $42 per ounce flat tax in February, legalization supporters once again hoped for quick adoption of New Jersey Assembly Bill 4497 (A4497). Once again, the much-publicized March 25th vote was called off due to lack of support. Now legislators have a limited window to act before the state budget deadline on July 1.
Legislation that would legalize marijuana for recreational use in New Jersey appears to be dead — at least for now.
The Democrat-controlled Legislature no longer expects to vote this month on a package of three bills that would legalize cannabis for recreational use, expand the state’s medical marijuana program and create new ways to expunge old records of criminal charges, according to two legislative sources familiar with the discussions.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, is skipping a meeting with Gov. Phil Murphy to legalize marijuana over his frustration with the governor’s intense scrutiny of a multi-billion dollar tax break program which Sweeney championed, according to several sources who requested anonymity.