Last anyone checked, 58 percent of New Jerseyans agree that we should legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana for adults, and it is now apparent that our public officials are eager to please a reform-minded electorate.

Excluding Gov. Christie, of course: Though he finally allowed PTSD patients to obtain medical cannabis - the first time a mental health condition was added to the list of qualifying conditions - he has been consistent in his opposition to legal recreational use.

But many lawmakers, including some in Christie's party, think differently. There are three bipartisan legalization bills currently working their way through the Legislature, and right on cue, likely Democratic designee Phil Murphy announced "I support legalization" at a Rutherford town hall Friday.

That's essentially the starter's pistol for legalization in Jan. 2018, the month our present governor becomes a full-time radio jock.

And from a purely pragmatic standpoint, it's a long time coming.

Our drug laws are not merely archaic, they are destructive: A New Jerseyan is arrested for marijuana possession every 22 minutes, which is double the national rate. Every year, we spend $127 million on such arrests in our state.

Possession of a single joint is still punishable for up to six months of jail, along with a $1,000 fine and a two-year suspension of a driver's license - not to mention the loss of employment, a criminal record, the loss of immigration status, the loss of student financial aid, plus a three-year ban from public housing and a five-year ban from adoption.

All for doing something that millions of New Jerseyans have done, probably in the privacy of their own homes.

And the punishment-to-crime scale is plainly idiotic, unless you are nostalgic for the War on Drugs, or believe that our prisons need more business.

Skeptics should consider what they've learned after nearly three years of legal pot in Colorado, which became the first state to tax and regulate marijuana: Rates of marijuana use among Colorado teens has actually declined since the voters legalized the drug in 2012, the state's health department reports; arrests by State Police for marijuana-related DUIs went down between 2014 and 2015, the first two years they've kept statistics; and the state took in $135 million in taxes and fees last year.

So a tightly regulated recreational marijuana industry could be replicated in New Jersey, many legislators now believe. And it could add $300 million to the state treasury, according to New Jersey Policy Perspective, while saving $127 million for the criminal justice system.

"If that ($300 million) ever appeared in state coffers, maybe we wouldn't have to borrow so much for Transportation Trust Fund purposes," said assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris), whose legalization bill is in the Judiciary Committee, where he predicts it will pass if posted.

Murphy seems to agree, which probably means that New Jersey will join Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska in legalizing the drug in January 2018 if he is elected. Voters from five other states (Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada) will decide the legality next month. The arc is clearly bending toward legalization.

It's called progress. Research has shown marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, yet we have spent billions locking up people for violating laws that are pointlessly harsh. Enough damage has been done, and as Colorado has shown, there is too much to gain.

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