For a panel of lawmakers and advocates at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, it wasn't a matter of if a marijuana market boom was coming to New Jersey. It was just a matter of when.
For Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, it was pivotal that people in his community, who he said have been victimized by drug laws, get to profit from that industry. He was part of an eight-member panel yesterday that discussed marijuana policies to dozens of residents at the church along West Kinney Street.
"It is a problem if you are doing 15 years in jail because of the money you made -- a hundred something thousand dollars on the corner of Clinton and Chadwick -- and now somebody is going to make a billion dollars off of something you're doing 15 years in jail for."
New Jersey’s attorney general asked all municipal prosecutor’s to adjourn marijuana-related offenses in municipal court until September. The move coincides with state lawmakers mulling two separate bills: one for full marijuana legalization and another for decriminalization of small amounts.