By the way … I think marijuana should be legal for two reasons: One, because if booze is legal, there is no good reason why weed shouldn’t be.
The second reason? Because while we wait for the legislature to make sure this gets on the ballot - you’re not gonna fudge this one up, are you legislature? - New Jersey residents continue to be arrested in record numbers for simple possession.
According to an ACLU study, the number of marijuana arrests for possession went up 35% from 2013 to 2017.
This comes out to 95 marijuana possession arrests a day, according to 2017 numbers. That’s nearly 35,000 arrests over the course of the year. Including babies and great-grandmothers, that means one out of every 250 New Jerseyans were arrested for holding marijuana in 2017. Take out babies and great-grandmothers, and make a crazy assumption that most of the arrests were for people between 18 and 64, and it becomes about one in 150 New Jerseyans.
Now really, ask yourself: If that many people are being arrested for simply smoking pot, maybe the problem is with the law, and not the people?