Gov. Phil Murphy took office promising to legalize marijuana for recreational use, but his plan has been put on hold indefinitely as his Democratic colleagues in the Legislature undertake a months-long study of the issue.
There was no promise of concrete action Monday as the Assembly oversight committee heard from experts in the first of four hearings on marijuana legalization scheduled into May. It was the first effort taken by the Assembly on marijuana since Craig Coughlin, a Middlesex County Democrat and legalization skeptic, took over leadership of the chamber this year, and the committee said it wouldn’t consider any legislation until it had gathered more information.
Unlike the nightmare vision of marijuana legalization presented last week during a separate event hosted by the Black Legislative Caucus, the majority of speakers at Monday’s hearing testified in favor of Murphy’s plan.
“What have we gotten for our 80-year experiment with marijuana prohibition?” said David Nathan, a psychologist and the founder of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, a national organization that favors the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana. “Organized crime, increased use of stronger marijuana and government waste.”
“The lure of increased tax revenue and claims of a regulated system that will eliminate the criminal element and repair historical harms to the minority community is intoxicating,” said Todd Raybuck, a police captain in Las Vegas, where retail marijuana sales began last year. “Yet as we are learning in Nevada, the financial gains from the marijuana industry do not adequately support the resources needed to control the effects of marijuana legalization.”
Murphy supports making New Jersey the 10th state to allow adults to use marijuana without conditions, arguing that legal marijuana would reduce racial disparities in drug-related arrests while freeing up police and prosecutors for more serious crimes.
Monday’s hearing came as Murphy is preparing to deliver his first budget address on March 13, when he will have to lay out in actual numbers how he will fund his many campaign promises, including increasing school funding and payments into the state’s beleaguered pension system. The estimated $300 million that could result from marijuana legalization would not cover the full cost of Murphy’s proposals, but it could help relieve pressure on a chronically tight budget.
Lawmakers may find it difficult to draw neat conclusions as to whether marijuana legalization is the right option for New Jersey. On Monday, supporters and opponents of such a law pointed to apparently contradictory studies and evidence in debating the effect it would have on life in the state.
Dan Pabon, a Democratic member of the Colorado General Assembly, for example, said there had been no statistically significant increase in youth marijuana use and a decrease in opioid use since his state legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. Kevin Sabet, president of an organization that opposes legalization called Smart Approaches to Marijuana, on the other hand, said in written testimony that first-time marijuana use among youth in Colorado had increased 65 percent over that period.
The Assembly oversight committee did not vote on any bills Monday even though several have been introduced this legislative session. The proposals would alternatively create a fully legal market for adults, decriminalize the drug or expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, which started in 2010.
credit:northjersey.com
