Two top lawmakers, State Senate President Stephen Sweeney and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, are now expecting to get something voted on – and passed – by the end of the year, Patch has learned.
The lawmakers apparently still need to iron out their differences with what the Murphy administration wants. It wasn't exactly clear at press time what all those differences were, but Patch has learned that Sweeney and Murphy differ on the amount of the tax. Sweeney has said that the tax should be no more than 12 percent.
State Senator Ronald Rice (D-28) said he wants the Office of Legislative Services to prepare a racial impact statement for Senate Bill S2703, the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the state of New Jersey, and amendments.
According to state law, any bill, resolution, or amendment that may result in an increase or decrease in the State’s adult and juvenile pretrial detention, sentencing, probation, or parole populations must have a Racial; Impact Statement prior to passage of the bill.
Senate Bill 2703 — to legalize adult recreational marijuana use — was speeding toward a vote next Monday. But in reality, a lack of support and negotiations over amendments, has sent that plan up in smoke.
“We’re doing a couple of things. There’s a seismic shift in public policy and the creation of a new industry,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. “That’s when you really do what to get it right. I think the goal has always been to do just that and make sure we get it right. And if that takes a little more time than we anticipated, so be it.
State legislative leaders on Monday brushed aside a previous plan to vote on legalizing recreational pot in New Jersey by Oct. 29.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin called marijuana legalization a “seismic” shift in public policy and not a thing that can be rushed. Complicating the issue further, Coughlin said, is that legalization would create a whole new industry in the state.
Making pot legal was a campaign promise of Gov. Phil Murphy.
Dr David Nathan, Founder and Board President of Doctors For Cannabis Regulation, and a guest on my show, commented on the idea that traffic fatalities would rise of marijuana were legalized. "The issue is it's not just about cannabis but about the use of all drugs with people on the roads, we've gotta find better ways to keep people on the roads safe", said Nathan.
As Nathan noted, "The question of drugged driving is one that I regard as being one of the most serious ones, because it's on that we don't have a simple answer to."
There won’t be a vote to authorize adult-use recreational marijuana in the New Jersey legislature on Oct. 29.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney admitted he didn’t the votes during a press conference on an unrelated topic Monday.
“The administration has got to be a part of this. This is a big lift,” said Sweeney. “I need help. I need to get to 21.”
Twenty-one is the number of votes needed to pass a bill in the Senate; 41 votes are needed in the Assembly.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said Oct. 22, 2018, at an unrelated news conference in the Statehouse that he does not anticipate a vote on Oct. 29, 2018.
Senate President Steve Sweeney says he thinks the legislation would come for a vote “this year,” but didn’t specify when.
During the council’s October 17 meeting, an ordinance was introduced to amend the city’s zoning and licensing codes pertaining to possible marijuana establishments. The state legislature could vote to legalize as early as October 29, and approval would make New Jersey the tenth state in America to make recreational weed legal.
On the first day of October, Gov. Murphy predicted on Facebook Live that recreational marijuana use could be legal in New Jersey by Halloween.
"It's sooner than later … like Oct. 29," he said to a caller who asked a question asked repeatedly since Murphy said on the campaign trail a year ago that he would legalize marijuana as governor.
But that date might be tricky, since neither the state Senate nor the Assembly has scheduled committee votes or hearings, which typically are held before a bill comes to the floor.
A bill that would establish a state bank for the “handling of marijuana-related funds” is awaiting a hearing in the New Jersey Assembly financial institutions and insurance committee.
The legislation, A4510, introduced on Oct. 15 by Assemblyman John McKeon, calls for the bank to provide “marijuana-related businesses with a place to deposit cash, as well as by providing those businesses with access to capital.”
Because of the federal prohibition against marijuana, most banks will not handle cannabis industry accounts.