The magic numbers are 24 and 48
Those are the number of votes needed in the Senate and Assembly, respectively, to place legal weed on the ballot in November 2020. There's speculation those totals are within reach, but the picture won't be made clear until the actual voting.
If the Legislature doesn't hit those numbers, lawmakers will have to vote on it in another session next year. In both votes, there would need to be 21 "yes" votes in the Senate and 41 "yes" votes in the Assembly.
The Legislature is expected to pass the ballot question, whether it's in one or two sessions. It's a different environment than in March, when many moderate Republicans were against it.
"Having sat in their seats, I think this is a Republican issue. It should be a Republican issue," said Scott Rudder, president of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association and former Republican assemblyman. "We're going to allow the voters, the people, to decide.
"If a certain legislator has reluctance because they're not quite sure where their district is (in supporting legal weed), this should alleviate that concern by just allowing them to vote for or against it."