In New Jersey, lawmakers have focused the ongoing debate on the drug war’s ills. Criminal justice equity has been as important as tax revenue as lawmakers debated the details of legalization. That has required open talk about racial profiling, poverty, the vice trade and the effect of a drug conviction in blocking access to everything from college loans and affordable housing to state licenses needed for jobs like cutting hair.
New Jersey Assemblyman Jamel Holley, who has driven the frank conversation, sponsored a proposal to expunge low-level marijuana convictions, which he insists must be passed at the same time as any recreational marijuana bill.
“I said to myself, OK, you are not going to stand by and watch anyone create and do this big business, which we all know exists, without addressing justice, real and specific justice,” Holley said. “I’ve also said that same thing to my colleagues.”
Raised by his grandmother in a poor section of Roselle, New Jersey, Holley saw almost every aspect of the drug war — the police targeting of petty users and pushers, the heavy sentences and the lifelong difficulty finding legal work after a conviction. It changed the lives of family, friends and neighbors.