New Jersey legalizes cannabis after years of failed efforts and toxic negotiations

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy finally fulfilled a 2017 campaign pledge when he signed legislation on Monday that legalizes cannabis for adults, decriminalizes possession of up to six ounces of the drug and encodes criminal justice reforms that will change the way law enforcement officers interact with minor offenders.

Despite New Jersey’s dark blue political landscape and strong winds favorable to the easing of Reagan-era drug policies, Murphy, a progressive Democrat, came close to rejecting the measures.

Adult use is supported by the two most powerful legislators in the state, and three months ago, 67% of state voters supported a constitutional amendment that said New Jersey residents 21 and older should be allowed to sell and consume cannabis.

Still, New Jersey’s three-year odyssey toward a regulated cannabis market almost ran aground because of disagreements between Murphy, the leading Democrats and leaders of the Black and Latin legislative seats on how to penalize children who were caught with a loose joint. .

“There is no one who supported these efforts who would not recognize that this process took much longer than anticipated, but it is certainly better to do things right than fast,” Murphy said at a news conference on Monday, thanking Democratic lawmakers who “kept on working and talking even when things stopped”.

Murphy’s comments came an hour after the midday deadline for action on both legalization measures NJ A21 (20R) and a decriminalization project NJ A1897 (20R), which were sent to your desk on December 17th. Only after the Legislature passed, on Monday morning, a third bill dealing with penalties for minors, NJ A5342 (20R)/NJ S3454 (20R) – with only 20 minutes left – that Murphy posted his signature on all three.

Thus, New Jersey became the 15th state to approve cannabis for recreational purposes.

“This process may have had its leaps and bounds, but it is ending in the right place,” said the governor.

The “right place” is not loved by almost everyone involved.

“Nobody is happy and nothing is perfect. And we are not going to let the search for the perfect be the enemy of the good, ”said Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the primary sponsor of the marijuana bills, just before the House voted 23-12 on the sending the project to the governor. “This is a subject that needs to be left behind.”

The protracted debate on penalties for minors paralyzed the legislature. The Assembly postponed scheduled quorums twice to provide more space for negotiations, frustrating lawmakers who thought they had completed work on marijuana legislation when they sent the legalization and decriminalization projects to Murphy in December.

Although Murphy’s team worked closely with lawmakers on legalization and decriminalization projects, it was only after their approval that government officials discovered inconsistencies in the legislation they interpreted as legalizing cannabis for children.

According to the legalization bill, minors under 21 caught with less than 30 grams of cannabis can be charged with disorderly child offense. But the decriminalization bill removed the penalties for minors under 21 caught carrying marijuana – a term that would apply only to illicit products.

Some in the legislature insisted that the decisions were deliberate, noting that this would discourage police interactions within minority communities where drug laws are applied disproportionately. Murphy stepped back, telling reporters, “Nobody ever, including mine, talked about legalizing marijuana, recreational marijuana for children. That was never in the cards. “

Shortly before the New Year, the government asked lawmakers to pass a third “cleansing” bill that would clarify the penalties for minors, triggering more than two months of intense negotiations that collapsed repeatedly as the state’s Democratic leaders struggled to reach consensus on how to discourage drug use by minors without being overly punitive.

In early February, while negotiations were breaking out, Murphy was preparing conditional vetoes for legalization and decriminalization projects, a move that would have given an ax to one of its signature political initiatives and alienated it even more from the Democrats in the legislature.

It was only at the end of last week that Senate Democrats began to reach consensus on the language that would save the legalization movement.

According to the adopted language, minors found in possession of cannabis and alcohol would be subject to a series of formal and growing warnings that could culminate in referral to a community organization for advice or other services.

In addition, police officers can be found guilty of depriving residents of their civil rights if they violate the new rules that dictate the possession of minors. The smell of cannabis or alcohol will no longer be enough to justify a search. The same applies to the “revealed possession” of an alcoholic beverage, marijuana, hashish or cannabis item, according to the text of the project.

“When people paled at the idea that it was just recreational money and talked about the idea that it was about social equality and activism, this was our collective opportunity – all of us – to really put the words into practice”, said Sen Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), who played a key role in formulating the compromise measure. “This is how many of the principles of this cleaning bill were formulated.”

While the cleaning bill attracted adequate support in the Senate, some lawmakers were holding their noses when voting ‘yes’.

Republicans were vehemently opposed to the bill and the powerful New Jersey Police Benevolent Association called it “anti-police”. Meanwhile, some of the state’s top black lawmakers, including Legislative Black Caucus president Ron Rice, and Senator Nia Gill (both D-Essex), said the legislation did not go far enough to hold police officers accountable.

“We spoiled that process.” Senator Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) said during Monday’s debate. “Even before the legislation is signed, we are making our first cleaning bill.”

Still, lawmakers and government officials expressed relief on Monday that New Jersey had finally conclusively ended the legislation that Murphy had planned to sign more than three years ago, in the first 100 days of his term.

While work on the Legislature is mostly done – Scutari said more clean-up legislation is likely – New Jersey is still several months away from seeing its first legal sale of cannabis.

Certain provisions of the decriminalization bill went into effect immediately – cold comfort to the thousands of New Jerseyans who have been jailed for possession since the constitutional amendment passed on November 3 – but implementation of the legalization measure will take at least six months, Murphy said in Monday.

The newly formed Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which is tasked with overseeing the medical and adult marijuana markets, needs to develop rules that will dictate the distribution of dispensary and cultivation licenses.

Licensing will come with its own schedule, and while existing medical dispensaries can sell recreational products under the new law, they do not have enough supplies to meet the needs of the state’s 100,000 registered patients.

Any economic boom that the New Jersey authorities may have expected to be the first adult market between Washington, DC and Boston, is unlikely to be realized for years. And yet, when lawmakers in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island launch their own proposals to legalize recreational marijuana, any benefits New Jersey accumulates can be silenced.

“We spent a lot of time without any action and, look, based on the numbers, we lost the opportunity to create jobs, we lost revenue,” said Ed DeVeaux of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association in an interview late last week, adding that one reported 6,000 people have been arrested for cannabis since New Jersey residents voted to legalize the drug in November. “We continue to hurt people.”