Buried behind the talk about a millionaire's tax, Gov. Murphy broke some news during his budget address about marijuana this week, revealing what will be needed for him to sign legislation to legalize it.
And the state's top lawmaker also revealed what could be the Legislature's new schedule for finally passing a marijuana legalization bill.
The governor, whose new budget estimates that the state would collect $60 million in marijuana sales tax revenue for the 2020 fiscal year, said New Jersey is “not across the finish line yet, but we are closer than ever before” to legalizing cannabis.
San Francisco officials plan to expunge more than 9,000 marijuana convictions dating back to 1975, the city's highest law enforcement official said Monday.
It's the culmination of San Francisco's year-long review of past convictions after California voters legalized recreational marijuana throughout the state in 2016. Several California cities are taking on the task of expunging records, but San Francisco is the first one to finish the job, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Yet Murphy, who as a candidate promised passage of a legal marijuana bill within his first 100 days, has been burned on this issue from the moment he took office. On Tuesday, he refused to ratchet up hopes that any compromise would quickly become law.
If Murphy was ready to pass the peace pipe in celebration with his legislative antagonists, he gave no sign of it during a bill-signing ceremony in Piscataway.
But you may want to wait before you go out and buy that vape pen or box of EZ Wider papers. Holdouts, led by Newark’s Sen. Ron Rice, say legal weed will be a death knell to communities of color where drugs and crime have made economic development impossible.
“I’m still a no. Every day there is new information about why we shouldn’t do this,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “This is about money, it’s not about social justice. Why should we pass something that makes money for investors on the backs of black and brown people?”
Social justice is the primary reason Governor Phil Murphy and a host of politicians have pushed for legalization of cannabis in New Jersey.
Among the many effects of the War on Drugs – especially marijuana – has been the negative impact on communities of color from arrest rates to incarceration and now to the great difficulty in entering legal markets from the ownership side.
It’s expected that New Jersey cannabis legalization will happen this year and the state's pot-friendly governor is eager to get the ball rolling. Gov. Phil Murphy says that legalizing marijuana will help to right the wrongs done by the war on drugs and allow law enforcement to focus on serious and violent crimes.
Five key statewide leaders—representing advocates and opponents—offered a range of opinions on the future legalization of marijuana in New Jersey, while highlighting the uncertainties of what such legalization may bring at a luncheon forum Jan. 25 in Hackensack.
The leaders from politics, civil liberties, law enforcement, banking and the cannabis industry covered most aspects roiling a legislative and social debate over legalization and left over 100 attendees at Bergen Volunteer Center’s Fifth Friday luncheon at Stony Hill Inn with many lingering questions and concerns.
A full legalization bill in the works in the state legislature will not receive the support of at least two mayors if the final legislation doesn’t provide for the expungements of possession and distribution of up to 50 grams of cannabis, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) said.
Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop (D) said at a press conference that they would exercise their municipal authority and ban dispensaries from operating in their cities if they aren’t satisfied with expungement language in legalization legislation.
Edward "NJ Weedman" Forchion is calling for equality as marijuana legalization spreads, but says the black market isn't going anywhere. The cannabis activist explains why in this week's episode of CannaBiz.