New Jersey is the eleventh-largest U.S. state – with a population of 9 million people. That makes it slightly smaller than Michigan – with 9.9 million people – where cannabis was legalized on Nov. 6.
What’s next?
The two committees have passed an adult use bill. The next step is a full vote by the state legislature.
They could vote on the legislation as early as Dec. 17.
Rolling Stone reports that the New Jersey legislature and governor are 98% in agreement over the terms of a marijuana bill.
Who can smoke pot legally under the proposed legislation?
Senate Bill 2703 would make recreational cannabis legal for adults 21 years and older. It would prohibit adults from buying and giving pot to anyone under the legal age, including children with medical conditions. Those patients would need permits under the state’s medicinal program.
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The votes were a historic first for New Jersey as lawmakers moved closer to making the sale and use of marijuana legal. But the fight for those on both sides of the legalization debate is not over.
What happens now is that Democrats who control the Legislature need to pass the bills related to legal weed in the Senate and Assembly, where it is not clear if supporters have enough votes to make that happen.
They came to the Statehouse wearing marijuana leaves on their clothes, with buttons and T-shirts and fiery testimony about the "failed drug war."
But when legislators cleared the bill to legalize weed in New Jersey — the first real step taken toward marijuana legalization? Many of the state's most ardent and longest-running activists were left wanting more.
But legalizing marijuana in the state is still far from a done deal. Senate President Steve Sweeney told The Record Monday that he won’t put the measure up for a vote in the upper house until it receives the endorsement from Gov. Phil Murphy.
Murphy and Sweeney have been at odds over how much the state should tax marijuana sales, with Sweeney pushing for a 12 percent rate and Murphy hoping for the state to take an even bigger bite.
Sweeney says the 12 percent rate — which would be one of the lowest in the country — is needed to discourage black market sales.
With any luck, the Garden State will getting a whole lot greener in 2019. This week, New Jersey lawmakers are set to discuss a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana use as early as January. At a public hearing on Monday, November 26th, the State assembly and senate committees will debate the legislation, which would legalize the possession of one ounce of marijuana for adults 21 years or older, and hear from constituents before taking a legislative vote.
A total of three separate cannabis bills were approved at the hearing: one to fully legalize marijuana, one to expand the state’s existing medical cannabis program and another that would create a system to speed up expungements for people who’ve been convicted for low-level marijuana offenses.
Legislation that would legalize adult use marijuana in New Jersey gained the approval of a Senate committee today. Sponsored by Senator Nicholas Scutari and Senate President Steve Sweeney, the bill, S2703, would legalize the possession and use of limited amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older and create an organizational and regulatory system to oversee the operations of the business.
"This will stimulate the economy of New Jersey like nothing ever has before," S2703 sponsor Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-22nd District, said prior to voting. “We’re on the precipice of a historic event here, starting something and creating jobs like no other legislature has done before. We have that opportunity."
The measure still has to go before a floor vote in both chambers, after which Gov. Phil Murphy would have to sign the bill.