The hurdle for legal marijuana in New Jersey seems to keep getting higher.
Gov. Phil Murphy has repeatedly vowed to legalize adult recreational pot use in the Garden State and told state lawmakers he'd like them to pass a bill by January 2019.
But just last week, the Democratic governor for the first time hedged over whether they could hit that deadline. And Democrats who lead the state Legislature are less certain this will get worked out during state budget negotiations in June -- the traditional month for horse-trading in Trenton.
Legalizing weed is something new, and big, and controversial. And the bills are still taking shape. At this stage, it's safer to let the other guy step out of the foxhole first and see if he survives.
"You're not going to jump out and say you're in favor of this when you don't even know what the bill is, and you know you will have people come out against you," says Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester. "But you're going to see the momentum shift."
But that'll only happen if the legislature passes it into law. And right now, even Scutari acknowledges he doesn't have the votes.
SYNOPSIS
Legalizes possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana for persons age 21 and over; creates Division of Marijuana Enforcement and licensing structure.
New Jersey lawmakers are set to consider legalizing marijuana this legislative session.
The most prominent legislative effort comes from Democratic state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, but a separate bill is also expected in the Assembly this year. Consumer advocates are urging legislators to include home cultivation in any effort.
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.
That was deliberate, said bill sponsor Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union. There are simply too many problems to solve: What if the neighbors don't like it? What if a home grower sells some of their weed on the black market — the same black market that marijuana legalization is supposed to run out of business?
The bill, proposed by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, calls for a much more open market than first envisioned by proponents, with some 400 marijuana dispensaries and a lower tax rate on legal weed.
The Senate and Assembly are expected to try and find common ground between Gusciora's bill and the one proposed by Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union, which took a more conservative approach to the state's nascent legalization movement.
Murphy's move could focus the minds of lawmakers, who currently are considering more than a dozen marijuana-related bills, including three that would allow sales and possession of the drug, one that would reduce possession of small amounts to a civil offense like a parking ticket, and others that would expand medical access. The mishmash of bills— and Murphy's own reluctance to spell out details— has created a bureaucratic logjam around marijuana.