Top elected officials and cannabis industry leaders say they are so confident that voters will approve a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana in New Jersey, they’ve devoted their energy in the last week toward readying the legislation that will spell out how the legal market will operate.
Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the prime sponsor, said he’s aiming toward introducing the bill on Thursday, with the possibility of a public hearing on Monday. He said the bill is largely the same as the one he introduced in 2019 but did not garner enough votes to pass in the Senate.
“It’s on the front of everybody’s thought process,” Scutari said. The legislation “is very similar to the final draft” from last year, he said. “We are just nibbling around the edges.”
The legislation calls for the state sales tax rate of 6.625% to apply to marijuana purchases plus a 2% municipal tax, which would make New Jersey taxes on legal cannabis the lowest in the nation, Scutari said. Keeping taxes low would help eat into the illegal market and draw customers from surrounding states, he added.