Work on medical marijuana expansion and legalization will likely continue through the fall, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said Friday. | AP Photo Coughlin publicly endorses marijuana legalization

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin gave a full-throated endorsement of marijuana legalization on Friday, telling listeners of his monthly “Ask the Speaker” radio call-in program that his chamber is working on two bills to expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program and legalize recreational use.

Until Friday, Coughlin's public approach to legalizing recreational marijuana had been more cautious than that of Senate President Steve Sweeney and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.


Late last month, Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he planned to tie-bar an expansion of the state’s medical marijuana program with legalization of recreational use. Both Murphy and Sweeney are pitching legalization as an avenue for the advancement of social justice, a point echoed by Coughlin on Friday.

“For folks who don’t want to legalize it, I understand their view. But I would ask, are we satisfied with the status quo?” Coughlin (D-Middlesex) said. “I mean, use of marijuana is still a constant. Three out of five drug arrests are for marijuana. African Americans are three times more likely to get arrested. So, in trying to address those things, I think if we get the right bill we’ll go ahead and try and pass it.”

The speaker shifted his position in favor of recreational use in May, after a fact-finding trip to Colorado, where the sale and recreational use of marijuana has been legal since 2014. Other New Jersey Democrats, including Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex), leader of the Legislative Black Caucus, favor decriminalization over outright legalization.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal essentially decriminalized the drug last month when he ordered municipal prosecutors to suspend marijuana-related cases until Sept. 4, Coughlin said. Grewal has assembled a working group to help craft a state policy for marijuana cases. That policy is expected to be announced later this month.

“Personally, I don’t think decriminalizing it is a scheme that works. It doesn’t change the fact that it would be illegal to sell it, but legal to possess it — which is kind of an odd conundrum,” Coughlin said in the radio interview. “It allows the bad actors to have a client base that doesn’t have any risk.”

Work on medical marijuana expansion and legalization will likely continue through the fall, Coughlin said Friday. Murphy has said that he would like marijuana to be legalized by the end of the year.