Jersey City is the first in our state to seek to decriminalize marijuana, by letting people have a small amount and treating it like a traffic ticket, instead of arresting them.
But now it's in a legal tussle with the state Attorney General, who says the city doesn't have the authority to do this on its own. However that gets resolved, we're rooting for Jersey City.
Towns can control the priorities of their police and prosecutors. So if such an ordinance is indeed overridden by existing state law, perhaps the city could simply make marijuana arrests its lowest priority.
As Mayor Steven Fulop notes, prosecutors can amend or dismiss charges as they see fit. In practice, Jersey City can carry this out, even if it can't do so by letter of the law.