While 65 percent of New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved legalization last November, state legislators still had some work to do to finalize the specific rules and regulations. The final law, for instance, stipulates that some marijuana-related activities will still be illegal, such as distribution and growing without a license.
Bridgewater Mayor Matthew Moench and the Council are not happy with Gov. Phil Murphy and his decision to make marijuana legal. As a result, the council is looking to pass several ordinances to ban marijuana sales and smoking in public in the township.
The Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the last-minute measure Monday to ease penalties on underage possession of both alcohol and marijuana as a way to secure Murphy’s signature on legislation they had sent him in December.
Voters approved legal recreational marijuana in the November election, but lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy have yet to reach a compromise on bills that would set up the new market and revise penalties for underage possession.
Although both houses of the legislature approved “enabling legislation” in December, and a decriminalization bill sits on Murphy’s desk, the first-term Democrat hasn’t signed either one.
It’s been a rocky road to implementing marijuana regulations in New Jersey since voters approved a legalization referendum in November. But on Friday, a key Senate committee advanced a “clean up” bill designed to satisfy requests from Gov. Phil Murphy (D).
The legislature has already sent enabling legislation to the governor’s desk, but he’s yet to take action on it because he’s pushing for the inclusion of cannabis-related penalties for underage people. A newly revised bill to address the issue cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 6-2 vote, with one abstention.
Specifically, the new legislation would make underage possession or consumption of alcohol or marijuana subject to a written warning on the first violation. Second violations would carry a written warning as well, along with information for those 18 and older about community services, including counseling. Those under 18 would also get a written warning, along with their parents or guardians being notified. Third violations carry similar consequences, but with a written referral — instead of just information — for community services.
The Legislature passed two marijuana bills on Dec. 17 — one to launch a cannabis industry and the other to decriminalize possession for adults. But Murphy has since demanded an additional “cleanup” bill to address a contradiction in the two measures over penalties for minors caught with marijuana. The legalization bill makes underage possession a disorderly-persons offense, while the decriminalization bill does away with all penalties. Murphy would not sign a bill, he said, that makes marijuana legal for minors.
But several drafts of a cleanup bill have come up short.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s deadline to act on legislation setting up New Jersey’s recreational marijuana market has been extended a second time. Murphy had to act by Thursday, but lawmakers pushed the date to Friday amid concerns over a winter storm. Earlier this month, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin moved the deadline to Thursday from Feb. 8.
The first-term Democratic governor and the Democrat-led Legislature have been talking about changes to the legislation behind closed doors.
Following weeks of negotiations with the governor, a top New Jersey lawmaker said on Wednesday that he is abandoning revised compromise legislation to implement marijuana regulations in the state.
It’s been more than three months since New Jersey voters approved an adult-use cannabis legalization referendum. In December, lawmakers sent Gov. Phil Murphy (D) a pair of bills to implement legal sales and decriminalize possession, but a dispute with the governor over his desire to see penalties instituted for underage people has stalled the process.
The cancellation means lawmakers won’t be able to move a cleanup bill to full votes before each chamber for Friday, when Murphy must veto legalization and decriminalization bills on his desk lest they become law at noon without his signature.
For months, legislators and Gov. Phil Murphy have jockeyed on how to implement the state’s legal marijuana market after voters overwhelmingly approved legalization at the polls.
Lawmakers sent decriminalization and legalization bills to his desk on Dec. 17. Those bills have sat there, gathering dust, in the time since.