We know Gov. Phil Murphy wants to legalize marijuana in New Jersey — but what about the people who have already been convicted on pot charges here?
On Monday, The Record reported Murphy is open to the idea. And a reporter asked the Democratic governor at an unrelated news event hours later if he’d consider “wide-sweeping pardons” — and if that would happen before weed is legalized.
Murphy replied that he didn’t know about timing or if they’d be broad. But yes, he said, he’s considering pardons.
“If all we do is reset the table on Monday and we ignore what happened up until Friday, I think we would not have done our job,” Murphy said. “So the answer is: We have to be open-minded.”
New Jersey was third in the nation in 2016 in total marijuana arrests, according to a recent analysis of dats from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program. That year, 35,700 people were arrested in the Garden State for either marijuana possession or distribution.
Murphy has said he wants the state Legislature to pass a bill legalizing recreational marijuana by January. He said the goal is not only to generate tax revenue but to fix the “social justice” aspect of weed.
He has noted that blacks are disproportionally jailed or arrested on pot charges despite using the drug at about the same rate as whites.
On Monday, Murphy once again stressed the need to erase the “racial inequities.”
Murphy’s plan for legal marijuana has so far faced stiff opposition in the Legislature, where many Democrats and Republicans are either undecided or flat-out against the idea.
Credit: nj.com
