Marijuana legalization
Easily the most controversial matter lawmakers are likely to tackle during the next two months is whether to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use.
Murphy and legislative leaders already tried and failed to wrangle enough votes to push a legalization bill through the Legislature in March and appeared resigned to putting a marijuana referendum on the November 2020 ballot. But in recent months Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3 of West Deptford, has said he’d like to try again to garner the votes needed to legalize the drug through legislation alone.
Murphy and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19 of Fords, have also said they are on board with trying again to approve a legalization bill, although it’s still unclear when votes in either the Senate or Assembly might be scheduled or if any changes to the legislation lawmakers rejected in the spring would be considered.
It took months before Murphy, Coughlin and Sweeney agreed to a basic framework for the legislation, including how much to tax the drug and the makeup of a commission that would be formed to regulate both recreational cannabis and medical marijuana, which is already legal.
Comments
I hope so
I hope so
John