“Emboldened by the failure of New Jersey lawmakers to pass a bill to legalize marijuana, opponents are hitting the measure’s main sponsor where it hurts: his own community.”
That sentence, written by James Nash of the North Jersey Record in an August 24, 2018 story, points to the thus-far successful effort by opponents of legalization to lobby the Linden City Council to ban marijuana business in Linden.
Linden is home to state Senator Nicholas Scutari, a leading advocate for legalizing recreational use of marijuana.
The effort in Linden appears to be part of a lobbying campaign by opponents of marijuana legalization to gain support among New Jersey’s communities for their anti-legalization stance.
More than 30 municipalities have passed ordinances forbidding the sale of marijuana within their jurisdiction. Most likely, substantial lobbying took place to achieve the passage of those ordinances. The problem is no one knows except the lobbyists and their clients.
Under current state law, lobbyists have no legal obligation to disclose their efforts to influence local officials or the amount they earn from such efforts. Current state law requires this disclosure only if state officials are the target of lobbying efforts.
Granted, 30 municipalities is but a small percentage of the 565 municipalities throughout the State. But it has a direct bearing on efforts to enact state legislation and if the number of communities prohibiting the sale of marijuana continues to grow, the effort to legalize and implement becomes more complex.
The public has a right to know what individuals or firms are hiring lobbyists to undertake this effort to influence local law-making and how much they are spending. Just like it does now in regard to the state legislation.