As the New Jersey Legislature closed shop for summer recess, thoughts of what could have been on the marijuana legalization effort that stalled flitted among legislators and lawyers.
Why the weed bill failed this year was baffling. Many considered it a slam dunk in a state with a Democratic-controlled Legislature and a Democratic governor who not only supported the measure but made legalizing adult use of marijuana a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign in 2017.
New Jersey
After Senate Bill 2703 was tabled for lack of votes in the Democrat-controlled legislature in late March, there were hopes of finding the votes and getting the New Jersey Marijuana Legalization Act on the floor in Trenton. But despite support from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, that didn’t happen in the spring legislative session.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney now says the best chance for legalization in the Garden State is a voter referendum in 2020. The legislature has to pass measures in 2019 and 2020 to allow such a popular vote.
A20 would also create a five-member Cannabis Regulatory Committee to oversee the state’s expansion medical marijuana program. The medical marijuana program would be first overseen by the Department of Health before being transitioned to the CRC, but the legislation does not specify a timeframe beyond “such time as the members of the commission are appointed and the commission first organizes.”
Legislation that would revise procedures and eligibility for the expungement of criminal records, particularly those involving minor marijuana offenses, cleared both the New Jersey Assembly and Senate.
The bill now heads to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk for his signature.
A burning joint, pleasantly fragrant and wrapped in organic hemp paper, rests between my fingers. I am pondering the reality of war continuing against me for this choice. Like many, I bear scars.
Marijuana smokers and medical cannabis patients in New Jersey are to remain second class citizens. The two-ring, bipartisan political circus in Trenton has failed to deliver a promise of our freedom… again.
This open blood feud between Gov. Phil Murphy and Senate President Steve Sweeney has to stop. This personal war-making between the two Democrats is wearying, and worse, is leading to duplication, inefficiency and, frankly, confusion on many issues concerning the state.
Gov. Phil Murphy disputed the notion that his proposed medical marijuana expansion conflicts with a similarly aimed bill moving through the legislature, even though several provisions in the measure and opposition from top lawmakers could the hinder the administration’s moves.
Murphy’s remarks came hours after his administration unveiled a plan to add 108 new medical marijuana businesses, including 24 cultivation sites, 30 manufacturing facilities and 54 dispensaries.
Hours after the state Department of Health unveiled a plan to grow New Jersey’s strained medical marijuana program, the Senate president bashed the move, furthering a feud that’s seeping into everything in Trenton.
Stephen Sweeney, the top lawmaker in the state, said Gov. Phil Murphy is undermining efforts to expand the medical marijuana program through the Legislature. A bill to do that is just a vote in the Assembly from landing on the governor’s desk for a signature, but Murphy has not said he’d endorse the plan.
Overall, the measure would increase the number of medical permits for cannabis operations in New Jersey from 12 to 23, allow patients to buy more than two ounces at a time, end the requirement that patients see their doctor for a year or more of regular appointments, and establish a Cannabis Regulatory Commission to oversee the implementation of the medical marijuana program.
The state Legislature failed to send bills to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk before the Memorial Day weekend that would have set up an expungement process for cannabis-related criminal offenses and dramatically expand the state’s medical marijuana program.