Cities and towns have the ultimate say over whether marijuana businesses are allowed locally, and many are already blocking them, at least temporarily. A related debate is percolating over how much more say the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission should yield to local governments.
Janice Kovach, the mayor of Clinton Town and president of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said the league doesn’t have a position on legalization – but that towns must have local control and discretion and the ability to set stricter rules than the state.
But the coronavirus pandemic is influencing how locals feel about legalization, according to a recent poll from Brach Eichler’s Cannabis Law Practice. Participants who previously planned to vote against the measure in November have since changed their mind. About 21% said the outbreak has reshaped their position on cannabis.
Among those survey, 13.5% said the pandemic caused them to now favor legalization while 7.5% now oppose such action. In total, the poll reported 65% of New Jersey residents strongly supported or somewhat supported the ballot question.
Seventy-two percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Independents, and 56 percent of Republicans expressed support for the ballot question in the latest poll. Overall, only 29 percent of New Jerseyans opposed the measure.
After keeping New Jersey residents quarantined for months, the coronavirus is impacting what voters think about legalizing cannabis for recreational use, according to a new poll conducted by the Cannabis Law Practice of the New Jersey law firm Brach Eichler LLC. One out of five likely voters said their opinions on cannabis have changed, due to the pandemic that has disrupted everyday life.
Two-thirds of likely voters say that they back a November ballot initiative to legalize the adult-use cannabis market, according to polling data commissioned by the law firm Brach Eichler LLC and initially reported by Marijuana Moment.
Sixty-six percent of respondents — including 77 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents, and 56 percent of Republicans — said that they support adult-use legalization. Those percentages are similar to those reported last month in a separate poll, which determined that 67 percent of those surveyed endorse the ballot measure.
New Jersey voters are strongly in favor of a referendum to legalize marijuana that’s on their ballots this November—and most support of setting a tax rate for cannabis that’s higher than the standard sales tax—according to a new survey.
The poll, commissioned by Brach Eichler LLC, showed that 66 percent of likely voters back the legalization measure, which was placed before voters by the legislature. That’s about five percentage points higher than when residents were surveyed on the issue in April.
New Jersey voters across the political spectrum strongly support the legalization of cannabis and former Vice President Joe Biden for the November ballot.
That's according to a new poll from law firm Brach Eichler LLC that surveyed some 500 registered voters in the Garden State.
Up to 68% of the respondents said they would vote in favor of the initiative to legalize the purchase of cannabis from licensed businesses. Some 26% of those who responded said they would oppose it, while just 6% said they were "unsure."
Registered voters in New Jersey are expected to vote in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization in November — but uncertainty surrounds the pending legislation.
"Cannabis advocates looking forward to creating an adult use regulated and taxed cannabis marketplace have reason to be cautiously optimistic as we approach the consideration of the issue in the form of a public question on the ballot for the voters in November," says Charles Gormally, co-chair of the Brach Eichler LLC cannabis practice group.
As industries start to total their respective losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, legal representatives of cannabis businesses are hoping their still-growing industry isn’t taking a hit.
But Charles Gormally, who co-chairs Brach Eichler LLC‘s cannabis law practice, said one of the major issues for the industry is that it’s caught in a struggle to access banking services. And, although pending federal legislation would help that cause, current restrictions on bankers mean cannabis businesses missed out on coronavirus relief programs.
Charles X Gormally, a New Jersey attorney and co-chair of the Brach Eichler cannabis group, has been closely following cannabis legislation in the state. His law practice, Brach Eichler, has a cannabis group with numerous attorneys who assist in cannabis-related legal matters.