The hurdle for legal marijuana in New Jersey seems to keep getting higher.
Gov. Phil Murphy has repeatedly vowed to legalize adult recreational pot use in the Garden State and told state lawmakers he’d like them to pass a bill by January 2019.
But just last week, the Democratic governor for the first time hedged over whether they could hit that deadline. And Democrats who lead the state Legislature are less certain this will get worked out during state budget negotiations in June — the traditional month for horse-trading in Trenton.
“It’s too early to tell” if they’ll have a bill passed by January, Murphy told reporters last week.
“There’s no reason to believe we can’t get there,” Murphy added, striking his usual optimistic tone. “This is not a rolling-off-the-log one, though. This is not one you get overnight. This takes time. We’re in that process right now.”
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney — the second-most-powerful elected official in New Jersey after Murphy — offered a tougher assessment on the lack of progress. He even doled out blame for himself and members of his caucus.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get it done in the budget session,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media. “I was actually hoping to get it done in the first 100 days (of Murphy’s administration). But we have work to do.”
So far, though, only the state Assembly has held hearings, and those have been on the pros and cons of legalization and not on a specific piece of legislation.
Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, D-Somerset, who as chairman of the Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee led multiple hearings, says he is undecided on legal pot.
Sweeney said while “it’s great the governor supports” legal marijuana, “we need him to be a big voice.”
“I think it’s time for us to really start putting a plan in place, have hearings, and for the governor to hold some town halls and draw more attention to it,” Sweeney said. “We need to create a critical mass to get it done.”
“We all need to do more,” he added.
Sweeney placed much of the responsibility for moving the bill on state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the legislation’s prime sponsor.
Scutari has not held a single hearing on the bill in a year, nor has he amended it to reflect feedback he’s gotten from meeting with scores of sources.
“I don’t want to call a hearing until I know I can pass it,” he told NJ Advance Media.
Scutari said he’s made some behind-the-scenes progress. He’s met with Murphy senior staffers to talk about what the legislation ought to look like. He also recruited Assemblyman Jamel Holley, D-Union and Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, D-Hudson, to sponsor the bill in the lower house.
The bipartisan backlash against legalizing marijuana apparently took Sweeney, Scutari, Murphy and other pro-legal pot lawmakers by surprise. Murphy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 anticipates $60 million in recreational marijuana revenue.
But for all the uncertainty, there is a new sign of hope in the Legislature.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex — the state’s third-most-powerful elected official — had been lukewarm on the issue.
But last week, Coughlin toured some dispensaries in Denver with Assemblymen John McKeon, D-Essex, and Herb Conaway, D-Burlington, in what was the fourth legislative pot fact-finding trip since 2016. Also on the trip was Peter Cammarano, Murphy’s chief of staff.
Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.
Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran reported Sunday, according to sources, that Coughlin is now leaning in favor of legalization.
Sweeney said that could provide a boost to the effort, because Coughlin could put the breaks on a bill in the lower house of the Legislature.
“I won’t discuss my conversations with the speaker,” Sweeney told NJ Advance Media. “But obviously if the speaker gets behind it — again, he’s doing his hearings and he’s not gonna say anything until his hearings are concluded. But if the speaker engages in a positive way, of course it’s a momentum-builder.”
Coughlin declined comment for this report.
“There are a lot of naysayers out there. And it’s a harder fight,” Scutari said. “People have been more indoctrinated against marijuana as an evil substance.”
“Success has many fathers,” added Scutari, a municipal prosecutor. “Medical marijuana didn’t get anywhere until I was able to gather a dozen co-sponsors.”
A longtime Statehouse insider who requested anonymity so he could speak freely said it’s too early to say the legalization bill won’t get done this year. June is always a whirlwind month in Trenton as budget deals are made, and the revenue from marijuana could be a catalyst for compromise.
There’s no reason lawmakers could not come back early from summer recess and hold hearings, the insider said. “We are still on track,” the source said.
When asked whether Scutari planned to hold hearings in June, the source replied: “Could be.”
“We are still building support,” he said.
Credit: nj.com
