A driving desire to steer control over a multi-billion dollar industry has forced politicians to withdraw marijuana legalization legislation in Trenton, but advocates from the ACLU-NJ and allies say they will redouble their efforts to pass a bill that places racial and social justice at the fore.
Entrepreneurs are watching for the billion-dollar marijuana industry to emerge if pot becomes legal, an economic opportunity unrivaled in modern Newe Jersey history. Politicians are hoping to capitalize on the action, which has gummed up the process of doing justice.
“With each day without legalization, we grow more committed to ending prohibition. We will get it done,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha. “As legalization comes closer within reach, every stride forward in the Legislature only demonstrates the urgency of ending the harms of prohibition now. We will stand even stronger, knowing that the lives of 30,000 people arrested each year for marijuana possession hang in the balance.”
The ACLU-NJ, along with its partners in the New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR) coalition, have worked toward a legalization plan that puts racial and social justice first.
NJUMR is a partnership of public safety, medical, civil rights, faith, political, and criminal justice reform organizations and individuals committed to changing New Jersey’s laws to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older.
“We need to make marijuana legal in New Jersey now to stop tens of thousands of unfair arrests a year and to be able to adequately compete with other states that have had legal, regulated cannabis industries for years,” said Evan Nison, Board member of NJ NORML. “I support this bill as a good first step, and we’ll be back to push for home grow next year.”