Above: A look back at the heated reaction to a proposal in Brick to manufacture and dispense medical marijuana within the township.

BRICK — The Township Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would ban the sale, cultivation and manufacturing of marijuana for recreational use.

The Township Council will vote on the ordinance at its regular meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. in town hall at 401 Chambers Bridge Road.

The ordinance would ban the "retail sale, cultivation, manufacturing and testing of recreational marijuana." The ordinance would block marijuana retail establishments, cultivation facilities, cannabis product manufacturing and testing facilities from operating in the township.

In the video above, Brick residents oppose a proposed medical marijuana distribution center at a meeting in 2018.

Violating the ordinance would result fines up to $500 and up to 90 days in jail.

The action comes at the same time that Trenton lawmakers, following the lead of Gov. Phil Murphy, are aiming to legalize recreational marijuana use in New Jersey. If Brick's Democrat-controlled Township Council were to ban the use of recreational marijuana, the governing body would be at odds with Democrats at the state level who generally back legal weed.

Council President Andrea Zapcic said the current version of the marijuana legalization bill appears to provide little financial benefit to municipalities like Brick.

"Under that legislation, if we want to collect taxes on the sales, we can collect up to 2 percent that we have to levy ourselves, enforce ourselves, collect ourselves, which doesn’t really seem to amount to a whole lot," she said.

Zapcic said marijuana shops also could change the feel of the town.

“Brick has always been about families," she said. "It’s no secret that we have a lot of retail, we have a lot of strip malls. Then...how do we zone it, so it’s not near a daycare, not near a school?... It just seemed to be better to not have it at all.”

Marijuana has dominated local politics here for months and led to heated divisions in this township of some 75,000 residents.

Before the Council made its proposal to ban recreational sales public, residents were already disagreeing over an application to build a medical marijuana dispensary and treatment center on Adamston Road at the site of a former bank. Brick's zoning board is expected to hear the conclusion of that application later this year.

If approved, it would be the first such facility in Ocean or Monmouth counties. Yet neighbors near Adamston Road are fiercely fighting the proposal.

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Around Ocean County, opposition to the legalization of marijuana is mounting.

Earlier this year, Barnegat Mayor Alfonso Cirulli led a petition drive against legalization of recreational use. Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Stephen Reid, who is executive director of New Jersey Responsible Approaches to Marijuana Policy, is also fighting legalization efforts.

Officials in Toms River, Berkeley, Point Pleasant Beach, Lavallette, Seaside Heights and the Ocean County Board of Freeholders have stated their opposition on the record as well.

But proponents, like Dianna Houenou, policy counsel of the ACLU of New Jersey, say marijuana arrests and penalties have disproportionately hurt minority groups in New Jersey.

Houenou, in an interview earlier this month, said these consequences differ by race despite the similar rates of marijuana usage for black and white Americans.

"This is a racial and social justice issue," she said.

The Asbury Park Press and USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey will continue diving into the New Jersey marijuana legalization debate, with regular updates, mailbags, a discussion group and live events.

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Amanda Oglesby: @OglesbyAPP; 732-557-5701; aoglesby@gannettnj.com