Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the bill’s lead sponsor, called Monday’s signing “a new era of social justice.”
“Today, we’re taking a monumental step forward to reduce racial disparities in our criminal justice system, while building a promising new industry and standing on the right side of history,” Murphy said.
Let’s start with the first cannabis question on everyone’s mind: How soon will people be able to buy legal recreational marijuana in New Jersey?
I suspect this time next year will be the earliest you’ll be able to walk in and buy recreational cannabis at a retailer or order online for home delivery in New Jersey.
Can small businesses and mom-and-pops without previous experience join in the green rush? The law calls for 37 initial licensees.
Despite approval of three cannabis bills, including adult use legalization, following a four hour hearing held before the joint session of the New Jersey Senate and Assembly Budget and Appropriation Committees on November 26, 2018, it appears unlikely that marijuana legislation will be voted upon in 2018. December 17, 2018 is the latest voting day of the legislative year and work still remains on gaining consensus on key issues in the bills including the tax rate, expungements and whether the proposed Cannabis Regulatory Commission would be a full-time commission.
As the debate about legalized adult use cannabis continues to take place in Trenton, a new proposal to the legalization bill represents an intriguing potential opportunity to cannabis entrepreneurs: microbusinesses.
No home-grow
As much as some marijuana advocates want to be able to grow at home, this bill does not allow home-grow.
Lawmakers have said that it's a nonstarter.
Now, the DPA-led New Solutions Campaign, a broad coalition of New Jersey-based advocacy groups, is on the brink of helping enact a new law that would allow broad legal cannabis sales in the state.
The New Jersey coalition has focused on civil rights and an equitable approach to the cannabis industry. The political wind is at their back: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ran on legalizing cannabis during his 2017 campaign, framing it as a Civil Rights-era wrong.
New Jersey could see marijuana delivery, “immediate” expungements and more dispensaries than previously allowed if the bills legislators are crafting make their way through the Legislature.
For the last several weeks, a handful of state lawmakers, some of the most powerful politicians in the state among them, have been drafting new marijuana legislation from the tangle of plans previously introduced this year.
Hours after Gov. Phil Murphy announced plans that could double the size of the state’s medical marijuana program, a state lawmaker bashed the proposal and unveiled his own medical marijuana bill that he said does more to help both patients and small businesses.
“The governor’s approach is the opposite of mine,” said Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, D-Somerset, who shared the bill with NJ Advance Media. “He’s not catering to patients; he’s catering to the rich white man.”