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.
New Jersey’s Republicans are celebrating.
The state’s minority party was on track to pick up four seats in the Assembly and appeared to hold three battleground districts, according to preliminary results from Tuesday’s election. Republicans flipped two South Jersey districts that were being closely watched, dealing a blow to Democrats, who will still retain a majority in the Legislature’s lower house.
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.
New Jersey Republicans are united in their opposition to marijuana reform. According to a NJ.com article, (“Here’s how your N.J. lawmaker is leaning on legalizing weed,”) of the 15 Senate Republicans, 14 of them plan to vote “No” on marijuana legalization, with one Undecided. In the Assembly, there is only one Republican who is willing to vote Yes. Why are the Republicans so opposed to marijuana reform?
To anyone who figured the path of legalizing recreational marijuana use ran along blue state-red state lines, a sudden setback for cannabis advocates in New Jersey may show the issue isn't so black-and-white.
They don’t have the votes in the senate tonight to legalize recreational marijuana tomorrow but the front office kept leaning to try to extract the 21 votes required to get it done.
They seemed to be stuck at 17 or 18, depending on who you asked, and a source said Senate President Steve Sweeney’s (D-3) people wanted Governor Phil Murphy to bench press the final three or four votes.
It looked grim, as the neophyte governor attempted to button hole upper chamber lawmakers with time ticking down.
His hail mary appeal?
Republicans.
Senate President Steve Sweeney and Gov. Phil Murphy have been hard pressed to gin up 21 votes for marijuana legalization in the legislature’s upper chamber, but that may change if they manage to flip one or two Republican votes.
A number of Democratic senators — including, among others, Sens. Brian Stack, Shirley Turner, Paul Sarlo, Nicholas Sacco and former Gov. Dick Codey — remain undecided on marijuana. Other Democrats, like Sen. Ron Rice, oppose legalization outright.
One of the major roadblocks Sweeney has faced comes from across the aisle. Though some Republican lawmakers support expansion of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, opposition is heavy from Republicans regarding full cannabis legalization.
Related Story: Florida Governor Race Showcases ‘New Politics Of Cannabis’
Another roadblock: neither of the bills have been fully drafted, causing major questions from both parties regarding how legal cannabis will look in New Jersey.
In the year-and-a-bit since Donald Trump took office, Americans have witnessed a neck-wrenching 180-degree turn on an array of policy topics. One of the biggest has been with regard to drugs.
“Former Speaker Boehner is still held in high regard by a large percentage of the GOP membership and voter base,” Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, said in a statement. “We look forward to his voice joining the growing chorus calling for an end to cannabis criminalization.”