Since the vote to legalize marijuana was cancelled in the state Senate on March 25, roughly 7,200 more New Jerseyans were arrested for possession or sale of weed.

That’s what we do here. We have already cuffed nearly 16,000 people since the year began. We do it more often than anybody else outside of Texas and New York, judging by the numbers posted in 2017. Our marijuana arrest rate (38 per 10,000) is more than double the national average, according to NJ Advance Media research.

And yes, people of color are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for pot, even though the races consume cannabis at the same rate.

Take another bow, Jersey.

So that’s the backdrop to our inability to pass a marijuana legalization bill this year, and we can expect more of the same pointless misery while the governor and Legislature continue their pie fight over the budget and tax credits, and while a cadre of lawmakers continues to embrace misperceptions about the effects marijuana has on the community and public health.

Consider Sen. Richard Codey, one of Gov. Murphy’s strongest allies: The Essex Democrat is aware of the horrendous racial disparity in arrests, but he believes legalization would increase the rate of youth marijuana use. “It’s way up in Colorado,” he asserts.

Only it’s not. The state of Colorado has conducted numerous studies, and there has been no increase at all in usage among minors.

Or take Ron Rice, who believes that legal marijuana would inundate Newark with pot zombies. “This is not about social justice,” he claims. “This is a stick-up.”

Given the role marijuana arrests have played in the devastation of our cities and the historic blight of mass incarceration, he has a different definition of racial injustice than the rest of us.

The list goes on: Senate minority leader Tom Kean, Budget committee chair Paul Sarlo, Trenton stalwart Shirley Turner, et al, could have tipped the scale on March 25th.

Instead, the arrests continue ad infinitum.

Murphy, fully committed to legalization and expungement, has instructed his Attorney General to issue a directive that allows prosecutors to use discretion in marijuana busts. But that hasn’t done anything to stop the avalanche of arrests.

Decriminalization is not a panacea. Drug dealers would love it, because it would leave the game in place, and might even increase demand. With street dealers flourishing, police could be left to deal with a larger market emboldened by lighter penalties.

As Senate President Steve Sweeney puts it: “You’re basically going to legalize the guy on the corner selling the stuff.”

Full legalization is the only practical measure going forward, and we’ll likely get there after the voters take it up via ballot measure in 2020. But do we really want to tolerate two more years of mass arrests? At what point will it be time to discuss half measures like decriminalization? And when will we remember that this was supposed to be about social justice?

Look at the number again - 15,889 New Jerseyans arrested so far in 2019. For an activity that 60 percent of New Jerseyans believe should be legal.

The prohibition of marijuana has a five-decade legacy of failure. Its criminalization is measured in dollars, as we will spend another $127 million this year prosecuting people for pot-related offenses. It can be measured in urban devastation, as entire communities are still populated by children who grow up fatherless. It can be measured in thousands of lives destroyed by obscenely harsh penalties for minor offenses.

And it’s still going on. It’s time to ask your legislator why he or she continues to allow it.

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