New Jersey lawmakers canceled a scheduled vote Monday on a bill to legalize marijuana, postponing a plan to end the prohibition on pot after supporters and activists failed to gain enough support.

The future of legal weed remains unclear, with legislative efforts likely on hold until after a November election, when all 80 seats in the Assembly are on the ballot — an election that weighed heavily on lawmakers who were uncertain New Jersey voters would ultimately back legalization.

Joined by lawmakers at an afternoon news conference, Gov. Phil Murphy, a first-term Democrat, struck a defiant tone.

“History is rarely made at the first attempt," he said. "But eventually barriers do fall to those who are committed to breaking them down. Certainly I am disappointed, but we are not defeated.”

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, similarly emphasized that lawmakers weren't admitting defeat.

"I'm disappointed. I think we were making headway. I think we've learned a few lessons about the way we approached it. If it was easy, every state would have done it this way," Sweeney said at a separate news conference, referring to the fact that Vermont is the only one of 10 states to have legalized marijuana through legislation as opposed to a ballot initiative.

"The legalization of adult-use marijuana will get passed in the state of New Jersey one way or another," he said, adding in a statement: "This fight is not over."

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It wasn't immediately clear when another vote could happen. Monday's vote had been scheduled to try to pass the legalization measure before lawmakers turned their attention to crafting a new state budget by July 1. Come late summer and early fall, Assembly members could be reluctant to vote on such a hotly debated measure as their re-election campaigns ramp up.

When asked if a vote could be scheduled before November, Sweeney said, "Could be."

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, said Monday that there were enough votes to pass the bill in his chamber. Without adequate support for the measure in the Senate, however, he said two other pieces of legislation tied to the legalization effort — to expand the state's medical marijuana program and overhaul the state's expungement process for crimes beyond those related to marijuana — would not move forward.

“I’m disappointed that the Legislature was not able to secure sufficient support necessary to approve the adult-use cannabis, medicinal marijuana and expungement bills today, but this is still a historic day," Coughlin said in a statement. "We moved closer to the goal than ever before."

Monday's scheduled vote came after years of lobbying by advocates, who say the state's drug laws unfairly target minorities.

Supporters also point out that prohibition has forced those who use marijuana to deal with medical issues to face a cumbersome state program or buy the drug illegally. And, they say, ending the ban would allow New Jersey to build a billion-dollar marijuana business and reap the tax rewards.

But the vote was never a certainty.

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Murphy had made legalization a campaign priority but said last week that the measure still lacked support. The governor said Monday that he had made "scores" of phone calls to wavering lawmakers in recent days in tandem with lobbying by Sweeney and Coughlin.

Many of the Democrats, who hold large majorities in the Legislature, backed the measure, but some, particularly those who represent urban areas, said it did not do enough to help those with criminal records and worried that a newly legal marijuana business would burden their neighborhoods while sparing more white, affluent communities.

The legalization bill cleared the Assembly Appropriations and Senate Judiciary committees last week but only after it was heavily amended by lawmakers, who restricted public input on the changes.

The decision to cancel Monday’s vote has “tremendous national implications,” said Kevin Sabet, president of a national organization opposed to legalization called Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “It shows that in a deep-blue state, legalization is not inevitable.”

He added that “throwing a lot of things into this bill to please everyone totally backfired" on its Democratic proponents.

“At the end of the day, it was clear this wasn’t about social justice or medical marijuana patients,” Sabet said. “It was about an industry wanting to make money, and that turned off a lot of them.”

Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes.

The New Jersey bill, named the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory and Expungement Aid Modernization Act, would:

Legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by adults 21 or older and make larger amounts subject to a disorderly persons offense.

Establish a new cannabis industry, including legal weed dispensaries, with an emphasis on minority ownership and stores in "impact zones," such as Camden, Newark and Trenton.

Tax marijuana at a flat rate of $42 per ounce, levied on cannabis cultivators and passed on to consumers, to defray expungement and police officer training costs.

Allow for expedited expungement of marijuana offenses, including a criminal conviction for possession or distribution of up to 5 pounds, and cover petitions by those currently in prison, on parole or probation or enrolled in supervisory programs.

To help gain support for the marijuana legalization bill, Democratic leaders had included it in a package with the bills to expand the state's medical marijuana program and overhaul the state's expungement process.

Those measures have more support among lawmakers and would likely pass if put up for a vote. Later Monday, Sweeney, like Coughlin, said they would not move forward separate from the legalization bill.

The Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Actwould allow patients to purchase up to 3 ounces of medical marijuana per month, up from 2 ounces, and make annual checkups with their doctors, instead of quarterly appointments.

It would also phase out the sales tax on medical marijuana purchases and legalize edible forms of medical marijuana.

The expungement reform bill would lower the mandatory wait time for eligible non-marijuana crimes to five years and add a "clean slate" program that would wipe all charges if an offender didn't commit a crime for 10 years.