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Gov. Phil Murphy has been burning up the phone lines this week, finally answering pleas from top lawmakers to ramp up calls to members of the state Legislature to help swing enough votes to pass a bill Monday that would legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey.

But that’s not the only thing at stake. Also hanging in the balance is a separate yet linked measure that would greatly expand the Garden State’s oft-criticized medical marijuana program — something Murphy has promised and thousands of patients are anticipating.

If Murphy and top lawmakers can’t gather enough votes to pass the legalization plan by Monday — which, right now, is far from certain — it’s also unlikely the medical marijuana expansion bill would come up for a vote. And both measures could then be stalled until after the November elections.

The concern is real enough that the Murphy administration has a backup plan ready to roll out, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Two sources familiar with the situation say if Monday’s vote falls apart, the administration will soon launch a “contingency plan” to dramatically expand medical marijuana licenses in the state.

The sources said the administration would add between 30 and 50 licenses for those who cultivate medical marijuana and later expand licenses for manufacturers and dispensaries that sell it. New Jersey has six active medical marijuana dispensaries and it approved six more late last year.

Murphy and his fellow Democrats who lead the Legislature are still hoping to persuade enough lawmakers in both the state Senate and Assembly to vote for legal weed Monday. They remain short by a handful of votes as of Wednesday.

“We’re still not there yet," the governor said at an unrelated event in North Brunswick on Wednesday. "We’re working it really hard in both chambers. We’ve all got to be all in, there’s just no other alternative. It’s gonna be very close in both chambers.”

Lawmakers have packaged the widely supported medical pot bill with the more controversial recreational bill to garner more support for the latter.

Because of that, the Murphy administration had been waiting for both measures to pass in the Legislature to begin expanding medical pot. That’s the preferred route.

But if the votes aren’t there Monday, sources said, it wouldn’t be fair to make medical pot patients wait longer for expansion. Hence, the contingency plan.

The backup plan would not cover other parts of the medical marijuana bill designed to help patients, including allowing those enrolled in the program to buy more each month, and steps to make it easier to qualify for the program.

The plan would simply give patients more options when it comes to buying medical marijuana by making the market significantly larger, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The sources said the administration had planned this expansion for months but held off launching it because they didn’t want to issue a ton of medical licenses at the same time as legalization. The bill to legalize weed would set up a regulatory commission that would also oversee the medical marijuana program.

“We’ve pushed that as far as we can,” one source said.

The state now has 42,000 medical marijuana patients, up from less than 18,000 patients when Murphy took office in January of 2018. Last year, the state Department of Health picked six applicants to expand the medical marijuana program, but that rollout has gotten caught up in appeals from applicants who were not selected.

The Health Department has also been planning another expansion of the program unrelated to the ongoing legalization debate in Trenton, but it has not yet taken steps to further expand the medical marijuana market.

The expansion would happen within a matter of weeks if Monday’s vote collapses, according to the sources.

The sources admit it’s better for the current six dispensaries for the medical pot bill to pass. This alternative route would loosen up the market and hurt their bottom line.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco and Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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

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