One company that has proactively anticipated this market is Choom Holdings Inc. (CHOOF[OTCQB] - $0.51 0.017 (3.21%) ) (CHOO:CNX[CNQ] - $0.69 0. (0.00%) ). This Canadian elevated dispensary company recently closed a deal with an unnamed New Jersey medical dispensary. Choom would acquire equity interest in the retail dispensary and then rollout full recreational expansion if legalization passes in the Garden State, which is expected by next year.
In the same week that Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders finally reached a deal on legislation for recreational marijuana, another New Jersey community moved preemptively to block sales of weed.
As of March 2019, there are more than 50 local ordinances banning either all marijuana sales and growth, or just recreational forms of the drug. There are also a couple of resolutions discouraging legalization and one municipal referendum, which showed a narrow divide among residents regarding legal weed.
The marijuana legalization package now before the Legislature seeks to make expungements of past drug convictions simpler, quicker and more expansive.
But it won’t make them automatic, even if eligibility for such relief will be.
The main bill due to be considered by Senate and Assembly committees Monday would make people eligible to seek an “expedited expungement” in Superior Court and creates an e-filing system by early 2020. A companion bill makes more people eligible to erase their records once they go 10 years without a conviction.
While the recent expansion of cannabis laws will certainly affect society as a whole, the effect that this societal change will have on the workplace presents unique challenges for employers. New Jersey, like the majority of states, has loosened its laws to permit the use of medical cannabis. In addition, many have speculated that the passage of Senate Bill 2703, currently known as the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory and Expungement Aid Modernization Act (“SB 2703”), is imminent, which will legalize adult-use cannabis.
What Rice now represents is an unsettling crack in Murphy’s effort to unite Democratic support behind his plan to legalize marijuana as a social justice initiative to keep the disproportionate number of African-Americans who are arrested on minor pot possession charges from going to prison.
Rice does not buy Murphy’s message.
“It’s not about social justice,” he told me. “It’s about money.”
You'll be able to have it delivered to your home. If you have a prior bust, it would likely be expunged. And you could get a job even if you still have a marijuana offense on your record.
New Jersey is offering a lot more than you might expect if – or once – marijuana becomes legal in the state by the end of the month, according to a new draft of the bill provided to Patch.
And lawmakers are also establishing a bunch of parameters, too. Patch has a list of 16 things you need to know below.
$42: THE ANSWER TO THE ULTIMATE QUESTION TO LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING — Lawmakers finalize work on marijuana bill: State lawmakers have finalized a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey and open up new ways for former offenders to clear their record of old offenses, according to a copy of the measure obtained by POLITICO. The new draft features language that outlines the agreement struck by Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, including the $42 per ounce tax on cannabis cultivators.
The bill to legalize marijuana in New Jersey will be up for discussion in legislative hearings on Monday, a crucial step that could lead to a legal weed vote as soon as the end of the month.
The Assembly Appropriations and Senate Judiciary Committees will hear bills on marijuana legalization, medical marijuana expansion and expungement reform. The Assembly committee convenes at 10 a.m., while the Senate committee is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.
“This bill (2703) does nothing for those victimized by the current prohibition for providing marijuana to the state’s ½ a million potheads for decades because the state enforced a racist prohibition and now is swapping that out for racist legalization,” Forchion said in a statement. “This law NOW EXCLUDES US (US = minorities, current black-marketeers), all of those arrested for distribution or for having more than 50grams aren’t eligible to participate in this new Government industry.”
The new draft of the 163-page "New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory and Expungement Aid Modernization Act" spells out all the details of a possible new marijuana industry: everything from the types of ingredients that must be listed on the packaging of cannabis products sold in the Garden State, to the salaries of the five commissioners who would be charged with overseeing the industry if the bill gets the General Assembly's approval. (Up to $141,000 for the chair, and up to $125,000 for each of the other four commissioners.)