Sponsored by:
Senator VIN GOPAL
District 11 (Monmouth)
SYNOPSIS
Legalizes growing or possessing up to six marijuana plants for personal recreational use, and up to 10 plants for personal medical use, by persons aged 21 or older.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning marijuana and amending various parts of the statutory law.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.2C:35-4 is amended to read as follows:
Sen. Vin Gopal’s bill is geared toward anyone who wants to grow cannabis for recreational use. The bill pushes for up to six plants for recreational use and 10 plants for medicinal use.
“Anyone should be able to have access to this plant, whether it is for medical purposes or for your own personal use,” says Susanna Short.
Parents will get word from the police if their kids are caught with alcohol or marijuana if a new bill passed by the Legislature is signed into law.
The Senate and Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would require police officers to notify the parents of anyone under 18 years old when they are found in possession of or using marijuana or alcohol, even on the first offense, patching up what many legislators, police representatives and parents found to be a hole in the legal weed laws enacted last month.
Both chambers passed the bill unanimously.
Even though cannabis is legal, home cultivation is a serious offense in New Jersey. Just one plant can get an offender a three- to five-year sentence. Growing 10 or more plants is a first-degree crime that can put someone away for 10 to 20 years, with one-third of that sentence mandatory.
That is preposterous. It’s botany. It’s weed husbandry. And it is legal in 18 other states, for either medical or recreational purpose or both.
As NJ.com explained, the bill that Murphy signed only a couple weeks ago “removed all criminal penalties and fines for such offenses, replacing them with escalating warnings.” “Under that, the first warning will go to the juvenile only, the second to a parent and the third as a referral to drug education or treatment programs,” the website reported.
Lawmakers in both chambers will introduce a bill allowing police officers to notify the parents of underage marijuana users on the first offense instead of the second.
“While New Jersey has made recreational Marijuana legal in the state of New Jersey, it is still illegal for minors to possess or consume it. If a minor is caught with these substances, we want their parents to know about it right away,” State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch), Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling (D-Neptune) and Assemblywoman Joann Downey (D-Freehold) said in a joint statement.
Provided by state Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), here are photos of the ribbon cutting at Garden State Dispensary in Eatontown last Thursday.
This is the first medical marijuana shop in either Monmouth or Ocean counties. It is located at 59 Rt. 35, near the entrance to the old Fort Monmouth property.
"This medical facility will play an important role in helping thousands of patients in Monmouth County," said Gopal, who attended the ribbon cutting.
NJ CAN 2020, the political committee leading the charge to legalize marijuana in November, announced Axel Owen as the campaign manager for the inclusive and robust effort leading to a “yes” vote on the 2020 ballot question to legalize cannabis in New Jersey.
A vote expected to come as early as March 25 could be a case of “light up” or “lights out” for a landmark bill that aims to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use across the state of New Jersey.
The state legislature is on the brink of this historic vote after the bill was approved by two legislative committees Monday, though local state Sens. Vin Gopal (D-11) and Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) are split on whether it has enough support pass.
If the bill does not pass, it could set the legalization effort back months.
Though the bill now awaits a full vote in the state legislature, state Sens. Vin Gopal (D-11) and Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) say they aren’t convinced it’s strong enough to pass in its current form.
“There’s a lot of discussion that has yet to be had and I don’t think the votes are there yet,” O’Scanlon said in a Nov. 27 interview with The Two River Times. “Both sides need to take a breath and focus on getting answers to legitimate concerns and questions and then legislate on those answers, whether those answers perpetuate our beliefs or not.”