EDITOR'S NOTE: Interested in the marijuana business industry? NJ Cannabis Insider is a new premium intelligence briefing that features exclusive weekly content geared toward entrepreneurs, lawyers and Realtors. View a sample issue.

The prosecution of marijuana possession in New Jersey will soon resume as the state's attorney general on Wednesday called off a temporary adjournment of such cases.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Wednesday that instead of seeking to decriminalize marijuana possession, municipal prosecutors should use their discretion on each case. He called for the adjournment more than a month after Jersey City moved to unilaterally decriminalize marijuana. NJ Advance Media last week reported what Grewal was intending to announce.

"Municipalities cannot decriminalize conduct that the Legislature has criminalized," Grewal said. "They can and should strive to ensure that individual justice is done in individual cases."

Grewal added that each municipal prosecutor should consider several factors when deciding how to proceed with marijuana possession cases. Those include how a conviction would affect a person's employment, housing and schooling, among other things.

"Attorney General Grewal's convening of this discussion signaled an important moment for New Jersey, and the guidance issued today represents one step further," said Amol Sinha, executive director of the Jersey arm of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Municipal prosecutors - like county prosecutors - have immense power to change the course of a person's life for the better by using their discretion. In this guidance, the Attorney General urges municipal prosecutors to use that discretion to balance the scales of justice.

Grewal's announcement comes after he advised municipal prosecutors to adjourn marijuana cases while he convened a working group to determine how to proceed with marijuana convictions. That announcement was catalyzed by Jersey City moving to decriminalize marijuana possession in mid-July.

Most immediately, this means that marijuana possession cases at the local level will soon resume.

"I do know there are a number of cases in municipal court and they can't be stayed indefinitely," Grewal said.

But Wednesday's announcement is not a directive to ramp up marijuana prosecutions. Grewal stressed the importance of prosecutorial discretion in considering these marijuana cases. It's possible that some towns, like Jersey City, will opt not to prosecute such cases.

"This was an argument of 'may not' vs. 'shall not' (prosecute)," Reed Gusciora said last week. Gusciora is the mayor of Trenton, a former municipal prosecutor and, until last year, the Assembly's prime sponsor of a recreational marijuana bill.

"And while I was pushing for 'shall not,' this is a victory, of sorts, in that it will give prosecutors discretion without making a blanket policy," Gusciora said.

This all comes just days before the state Legislature is set to resume debates over marijuana legalization, with some supporters optimistically saying they could pass it by the end of September.

If a recreational marijuana bill is signed by the governor, the possession of a personal amount of marijuana would no longer be a crime and people with such charges will almost certainly be eligible to have those charges expunged, based on what is known about the impending marijuana bills.

That raises questions about whether local prosecutors will opt to continue prosecutions of an activity that could soon be legal and that a person could apply to have cleared from their record.

Gusciora indicated last week that he thought the attorney general would allow marijuana prosecutions to resume because legalization appeared imminent.

Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider.

Payton Guion may be reached at PGuion@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaytonGuion. Find NJ.com on Facebook.