New Jersey has struggled in the past to pass marijuana legislation, seeing bills that would decriminalize 15 grams of weed, among others, languish in the state legislature and never become law. However, Gov. Phil Murphy and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, both Democrats who were recently skeptical of easing restrictions on weed, have indicated their stances have shifted.
Democratic state senators introduced a long-awaited marijuana decriminalization bill Thursday.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) and Ron Rice (D-Newark), would remove criminal penalties for possession of one pound or less of marijuana and replace them with, at worst, a $25 fine.
“To the best of my knowledge, we’ve not had any discussions about fast-tracking weed legalization,” the governor said.
Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the legislature cleared a ballot initiative to legalize weed during the lame duck session in December after multiple failed attempts to legalize marijuana through legislation.
Legalizing now could provide the state with some additional revenue to make up for budget shortfalls created by the pandemic.
They are all Democrats, but the primary candidates vying for the right to challenge U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, differ on how they view legalization of recreational cannabis.
Montclair State University Professor Brigid Harrison, of Longport; West Cape May Commissioner John Francis; and former House Oversight Committee staffer Will Cunningham, of Vineland, favor legalization as a social justice and economic driver.
The magic numbers are 24 and 48
Those are the number of votes needed in the Senate and Assembly, respectively, to place legal weed on the ballot in November 2020. There's speculation those totals are within reach, but the picture won't be made clear until the actual voting.
If the Legislature doesn't hit those numbers, lawmakers will have to vote on it in another session next year. In both votes, there would need to be 21 "yes" votes in the Senate and 41 "yes" votes in the Assembly.
The political turmoil over marijuana comes as five northeastern Democratic governors announced last month that they had reached an agreement to fully legalize marijuana. Three of the states — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where Democrats are in complete control of the government — already have spent months squabbling over the specifics of complex legislation that would legalize cannabis sales.
History of marijuana legalization in New Jersey
In New Jersey, only medical cannabis is legal yet. Though Governor Philip D. Murphy along with other Democrats tried several times to regulate recreational cannabis, they failed to gather enough support to pass the bill.
New Jersey lawmakers are unlikely to take action on cannabis legislation prior to the midterm election in November, reflecting little appetite for a decriminalization bill top Democrats had previously considered unworkable, according to a half-dozen sources involved in efforts to change the state’s marijuana policies.
Due to the abject failure of this Democrat-led New Jersey legislature with the usual 19th century bullshit from useless Republicans, our government, thankfully, has punted the responsibility of legalizing marijuana to us, the citizens. Not sure deciding whether a plant is legal or not should necessarily fall to a vote, but that’s where we are now. You might recall, I called for this during this past spring’s implosion of the year-long marijuana bill (S2703). And so the matter will indeed move to the ballot in November of 2020.
It’s doubtful that recreational marijuana will become legal in New Jersey anytime soon, with Senate President Steve Sweeney waving the white flag on passing cannabis legislation this year. The fractured Democratic Party in New Jersey is stemming from a fight between two people—George Norcross and Governor Phil Murphy—and not from two ideological points of view.