Even though cannabis is legal, home cultivation is a serious offense in New Jersey. Just one plant can get an offender a three- to five-year sentence. Growing 10 or more plants is a first-degree crime that can put someone away for 10 to 20 years, with one-third of that sentence mandatory.
That is preposterous. It’s botany. It’s weed husbandry. And it is legal in 18 other states, for either medical or recreational purpose or both.
But while there is already a smart bill moving through Trenton that eliminates the penalties for a medical marijuana patient who chooses to grow his medicine at home, we need one that covers consumers who wish to grow recreational cannabis, just to prevent their lives from being wrecked by the same outdated rulebook that helped fill our prisons for decades.
So as long as New Jersey is fixing the byzantine mess of our marijuana laws, it makes sense to eliminate the Draconian penalties for home grow, and we applaud Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) for moving that discussion forward.
The bill he introduced Monday allows adults 21 and over to grow up to six plants for recreational use or 10 plants for medicinal purposes. One household could have as many as 12.