The ordinance would amend the town’s zoning code to prohibit selling, growing, and distributing recreational marijuana. It would not impact medical marijuana, legal in the state since 2010, nor would it impede on recreational marijuana use, should the New Jersey state legislature legalize it. Secaucus currently has one medical marijuana dispensary.
Mayors from some of the largest cities in New Jersey today warned that recreational marijuana dispensaries wouldn’t be welcomed in their boundaries unless people with marijuana convictions were released from jail and their records get expunged.
Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla met in Newark City Hall to tell lawmakers that those provisions and others needed to be passed in order for them to get behind recreational marijuana.
Nearly 40 years ago, juveniles accounted for about a third of all marijuana possession detentions in New Jersey. But now, those under 18 are almost an afterthought. Fewer than 9 percent of all pot busts in 2016 involved juveniles, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
Instead, more resources are being devoted to catching their parents — and grandparents — with weed.
Legal marijuana is so close in New Jersey you can almost smell it. But does soon-to-be-filed legislation do enough to ensure social equity under a legal cannabis system?
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) isn’t so sure. And he’s calling on fellow mayors to join him in pressing for stronger social justice protections such as the expungement of records for marijuana offenses and permitting those with cannabis-related convictions to obtain business licenses to participate in the legal industry.
Legal weed is coming to New Jersey, and if all goes as planned, it will be delivered right to your door. After eight months of debate, Garden State legislators say that they are close to finalizing two bills, one to reorganize the state’s medical marijuana program, and another to legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older.
Signaling a change in state policy dating back over 50 years, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal authorized municipal prosecutors to consider social justice grounds as a basis for exercising discretion to amend or dismiss possessory marijuana cases.
“To the extent permitted by law, a municipal prosecutor should consider the impact of adverse collateral consequences of a conviction based on the specific circumstances or factors presented by the defendant or elicited by the court,” announced Attorney General Grewal.
Below is the list of bills in the New Jersey legislature that may come to votes this summer or fall.
S830 Legalizes possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana for persons age 21 and over; creates Division of Marijuana Enforcement and licensing structure.
S997 Requires registered qualifying patient's authorized use of medical Marijuana to be considered equivalent to use of any other prescribed medication.
The attached poll commissioned in May by the labor-tied Project NJ Building for a Better Future, found that New Jerseyans overwhelmingly support medical marijuana and are split on recreational marijuana, and a majority of New Jerseyans want 100 or fewer recreational marijuana stores if marijuana is legalized for adult use.
Two bills being crafted by state legislators could revolutionize the marijuana industry in New Jersey if they are successfully passed into law. Provisions of the measures include home delivery of cannabis products, removing a cap on dispensaries, and automatic expungement of some past marijuana convictions.
"This is a growing industry and we want to prepare our students from a variety of academic viewpoints," Ekaterina Sedia, a biology professor and the program coordinator for cannabis studies, said in a statement.
Stockton Spokeswoman Diane D'Amico said the 25 students participating in the program will take a cannabis law course this fall, followed by a class on medical marijuana in New Jersey in the spring.