Governor Murphy, a Democrat, indicated he wants to sign legislation to legalize adult use of cannabis by the end of 2018. If the legislation succeeds, analysts predict legalization will generate $1 billion of revenue in its first year.
This doesn’t sit well with former AC mayoral candidate, Henry Hank Green. At Wed. night’s council meeting, Green queried council about legal, adult-use cannabis in Atlantic City. Sensing a wrong answer could affect voter support, council members like ‘Speedy’ Marsh and Marty Small responded with fairly safe answers. We’ll need to take a deeper look. It’s too early in the process to make a statement.
If state legislators decide to put the decision in the hands of voters via a ballot initiative, the recent Stockton poll may indicate how much of a nail-biter a potential referendum could be.
“The issue really has the New Jersey electorate split — almost down the middle,” said Michael Klein, interim executive director of the Hughes Center. “There’s a lot of advocacy that needs to be done on both sides to win the day.”
A Stockton University poll released Wednesday found 49 percent of New Jerseyans said they were on board with expanding marijuana sales to adults 21 and older, while 44 percent opposed it and 5 percent said they were undecided.
"These poll results suggest there is not a consensus in New Jersey on whether marijuana should be made legal," said Michael W. Klein, interim executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton.
As more and more towns say no to legalized marijuana, is Asbury Park poised to become the legal weed capital of New Jersey?
It could turn out that way.
Asbury Park is one of only two cities in New Jersey where officials have talked openly about the opportunities associated with opening a legal weed dispensary. That enthusiasm — coupled with the city's location and reputation — could turn the City by the Sea into one of the state's epicenters for legal weed, New Jersey Cannabis Industry Association President Hugh O’Beirne said.
With positions hardening by the day in New Jersey, it may be worth considering a third option, which I believe threads the proverbial needle between Rice's position favoring decriminalization and full-scale commercialized legalization embodied by Colorado's initiative and various pending bills in the New Jersey Legislature.
Keith Straub, who in 1970 founded the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, is like the godfather of the entire industry. He says New Jersey needs to make sure there’s room for the little guy.
Caruso said the push to legalize recreational use will have nothing to do with an increase in medicinal use and everything to do with political will on the issue.
And right now, he said, he’s not seeing much.
“There has been a dearth of political action by some of the folks who have been driving this effort in the political and governmental space,” he said. “The governor doubled down again in his budget, but there was a lull for a while on the issue.”
With Gov. Phil Murphy estimating over $850 million in 2019 sales, the program will allow selling all cannabis products (flower, vape, concentrates and edibles), anyone over 21 to purchase an ounce of flower, 7 grams of “concentrate” and 16 ounces of edibles, and will license five types of marijuana-related businesses (MRBs): cultivation/manufacturing; processing; wholesaling; transporting and retailing.
Marijuana legalization has been one of the hottest issues in New Jersey since Phil Murphy took over in Trenton this year. At first he said he'd get it done in 100 days. Last week he walked that back, saying he wanted legalization by the end of the year.