The resolution passed Wednesday by a 3 to 2 vote, with Freeholder Deputy Director Sylvia Petillo and members Carl Lazzaro and Herb Yardley supporting the measure and Freeholder Director Jonathan Rose and member George Graham opposing it.
During a lengthy debate among the five-member board, issues such as marijuana's effects on the minds of users, especially young people, were mentioned repeatedly by those opposing legalization.
"I see no need to validate another substance that alters one's mind," Lazzaro said. "The philosophy that you can't have fun without getting stoned is relatively sick. There's no need for that."
Rose noted that he supports legalizing marijuana, arguing that the "war on drugs" has been extremely unsuccessful and often causes lives to be unfairly ruined by the laws against illegal substances.
"I see people's lives destroyed by the criminal justice system just as much as I see people's lives destroyed by the horrors of drug use and drug addiction, and I think we need to break that and to start treating drug addiction -- not necessarily drug use, but drug addiction -- as the mental health issue that it is," Rose said. "To that end, I think that, at a minimum, decriminalization, and a maximum, legalization, is where we need to head as a society for marijuana."