But as with so many things in New Jersey, there was a catch.
After a series of compromises, the law also would direct a portion of cannabis state revenue to local police departments to train more officers to identify impaired drivers — known as Drug Recognition Experts (DREs) — whose methods were being challenged for being scientifically unreliable.
Even as the decades-old methods were being challenged in court, the Legislature committed more funding to the programs anyway, a move seen by many as a way to win the support of law enforcement and additional legislators.
This week, Scutari, who also has a background as a prosecutor, supports the DRE protocol.
While the science behind drug recognition experts is not settled, he said, “We also have an overarching obligation to the motoring public to protect the general population on the roadways — that people are not driving cars in an intoxicated manner.”
Scutari asserted that there was a shortage of DRE officers. After being told in an interview that New Jersey was estimated to have had some of the highest numbers of DRE officers in the nation, according to data from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), he claimed not to have been aware of that fact.