A state lawmaker who visited Colorado and saw how the first state to sell legal recreational cannabis deals with motorists driving under the influence wants to create a marijuana enforcement division under the state Attorney General’s Office.
Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Essex) said she wants the new division to compile data to give law enforcement officers some clarity on the state’s cannabis law, which she said has left them confused over when they can and can’t charge drivers with a marijuana offense.
STILL ILLEGAL: And you still can’t grow your own cannabis.
New Jersey is the only state that doesn’t even allow its medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis at home. And when it comes to recreational customers, we’re joined by Washington.
Growing even one marijuana plant is still a third-degree crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $25,000 fine. It’s just as illegal today as it was on Feb. 21, 2021, before weed was legalized in New Jersey.
Ten states that have legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes collected almost $2.7 billion in taxes on pot products last year as sales surged and more regulatory structures came online.
A new report from the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization group, estimates that states have collected a total of $7.9 billion in tax revenue since the first states — Washington and Colorado — began allowing recreational pot sales in 2014.
As a New Jerseyan seriously harmed by cannabis prohibition, I’m concerned with the fact that even though we legalized it, people in the state can still go to jail for growing it.
I’m also concerned that people who’ve been disadvantaged by prohibition may have a hard time affording legal or medicinal cannabis and feel that home grow is an equity provision that’s an integral part of legalization for social justice.
Nine years ago, voters in Colorado and Washington became the first to approve recreational marijuana, over the objections of top Democrats in those states.
This week, legislators in Democratic-led New York and New Mexico struck deals that will make them the 16th and 17th states to legalize pot. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) even went so far as to call New Mexico’s legislature back into special session to pass the measures this year before she faces voters in her 2022 bid for a second term.
The decision could put two competing dispensaries just a block apart in the city. The state only has 15 medical marijuana dispensaries currently. Some are more than an hour away from a competitor.
Terrapin, which has dispensaries in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado, sued the Hoboken Planning Board and Harmony last fall. It claimed Harmony lacked valid approval because it bypassed a newer municipal law requiring applicants to come before the review board.
Marijuana opponents, frustrated by the growing number of legalization victories across the U.S., are increasingly trying to rein in the industry by proposing state-level caps on THC potency.
The push involves at least six bills introduced in four state legislatures: Florida, Massachusetts, Montana and Washington.
A bill was derailed in Colorado before it could be introduced because it triggered a backlash.
Lawmakers previously passed the bill, SB21-111, by a vote of 19-15 in the Senate and 40-23 in the House.
The so-called marijuana entrepreneur program will be funded initially with $4 million from the state’s marijuana tax cash fund.
The program will include:
Last month, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed three bills making it official: marijuana will soon be growing legally in the gardens of the Garden State for anyone over 21 to enjoy. The bills follow through on a marijuana legalization ballot initiative that New Jerseyans approved overwhelmingly last year. New Jersey is now one of a dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, which have let loose the magic dragon — and more states, like Virginia, may be on the way.
Rohan Marley, the son of reggae legend and cannabis advocate Bob Marley, is still trying to bring a new marijuana dispensary to Montclair. And if the state grants a pending application for Marley and his business partners, the former Essex County resident says they can be selling cannabis within three months.