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More than three years after taking office with the hope of legalizing marijuana in 100 days, Governor Phil Murphy signed three projects that together legalize marijuana in New Jersey and put an end to thousands of arrests.
But it took more than a marijuana-friendly governor to make reform a reality. There were years of failed legislative attempts, an electoral issue that yielded more than 2.7 million votes in favor and three months of negotiations on tax revenue, licensing rules and the final blockade that almost ended the effort: penalties for minors under 21 years caught with marijuana.
Murphy signed the bills on Monday morning without the usual fanfare, putting the pen on the paper just before the deadline to act. Had he done nothing, two measures aimed at launching a legal marijuana industry and ending the arrests would have become law without his signature.
“From that moment on, the broken and indefensible New Jersey marijuana laws, which permanently tarnished the records of many residents and caused a short circuit in their futures, and which disproportionately harmed communities of color and failed in meaning justice at all levels, social or otherwise – they are no more, ”he said Monday afternoon during his coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
The governor signed the bills after the Senate and the Assembly held last-minute voting sessions on Monday morning to pass a third bill establishing civil penalties for under-21s caught with marijuana. The protracted debate took away voting sessions, and the bill passed both chambers with just 20 minutes left for Murphy to act on the first two measures.
The legalization and decriminalization projects remained on Murphy’s desk for more than two months, pending the proposal. The governor said he could sign them until lawmakers made the sentences clear, but he refused to issue his only conditional veto calling for the change.
While the projects were pending action in 2021, the police issued more than 2,000 charges for minor marijuana possession.
And some plans developed and failed during that time. Lawmakers extended the deadline for Murphy to sign the bills by more than two weeks and lengthy, sometimes tense, negotiations continued.
They finally proved fruitful on Monday morning.
Murphy acknowledged on Monday that the legalization effort took longer than expected.
“This process may have had its leaps and bounds, but it is ending in the right place. And, I firmly believe, this process ended in laws that will serve as a national model ”, he said.
Legalization advocates are celebrating the long-awaited news, but those looking to buy marijuana in New Jersey will have to keep waiting. The state will need to license new dispensaries to meet the needs of the public.
New Jersey has 13 medical marijuana dispensaries across the state, and current companies hope to open more this spring. But they have struggled so far to provide enough marijuana for the state’s 100,000 registered patients and must make sure they can meet that need before opening its doors to the public.
Experts estimated that sales could begin in late 2021, but those assumptions came before the debate over penalties for minors to prolong the legislative process by another two months.
Murphy said the legal marijuana market would begin to form in the coming months. He will still have to have a full seat on the Cannabis Regulatory Commission to oversee the marijuana industry, which has six months to establish its rules and regulations before seeking new business licensees.
While marijuana users still don’t have the legal means to buy it, arrests for thousands of large-scale cases are set to end.
“And, starting immediately, those who have been jailed for petty possession of marijuana – a prison that may have prevented them from working or the opportunity to continue their education – will be able to get relief and move on,” said Murphy .
The decriminalization bill signed on Monday allows people to carry up to 180 grams of marijuana without legal consequences. But the draft penalty for minors for using marijuana also prohibits the police from preventing young people from smelling marijuana and allows them to warn only young people.
If they intentionally violate this law and detain someone unfairly, they can be accused of deprivation of civil rights.
“This language is anti-police rhetoric at its worst and its consequences will be real,” the Benevolent Association of State Police officers said in a statement. “Minor marijuana users will be free to smoke anywhere, including in places that the bill says are illegal, because simply preventing a person from enforcing the law is now illegal for the police.”
Monday’s signing ends a long and tumultuous chapter in efforts to bring legal marijuana to New Jersey, but opens the next one that will require the work of many to make it a reality.
“We can begin to establish an expanded, responsible, sustainable, profitable and diverse adult cannabis market in New Jersey,” said Edmund DeVeaux, head of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, in a statement.
“Now the real work can begin.”
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Amanda Hoover can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter @amandahoovernj.