TRENTON - Will next Monday be the day New Jersey votes to legalize weed? Or will it simply be another self-imposed deadline that blows by without action?

The future of New Jersey marijuana legalization is murky, at least as it relates to a potential legislative vote on March 25. Gov. Phil Murphy, for whom marijuana legalization was a major campaign platform, said Thursday that the measure still did not have enough votes to pass.

"This is still going to be close," Murphy said. "We're not there yet."

Murphy, legislative leaders and powerful cannabis industry lobbyists have spent much of the last week trying to convince lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans alike — to support the measure.

“I think we’re moving people,” the governor said, but he wouldn’t confirm whether any have changed their minds.

MORE:What you need to know from the legal weed hearings

Murphy and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, have circled March 25 for a legal weed vote to ensure that the push doesn't get caught up in budget negotiations. The bill was cleared by the Assembly Appropriations and Senate Judiciary committees on Monday, though it required substituting in some legislators favorable to legal weed.

Murphy on Thursday said that in his view, "it's now or never."

The bills are already listed on the board for both the Senate and Assembly sessions scheduled for Monday.

Keep the conversation going in "Let's Talk About Marijuana," USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey's Facebook group dedicated to marijuana legalization news and the legal weed debate.

If the bill doesn’t pass Monday, Murphy said, he would likely take executive action and call for new medical marijuana licenses, hoping to head off a shortage faced by the state's 45,000 medical marijuana patients.

The Health Department approved six new medical dispensaries last year — a process that's the subject of a lawsuit by some dispensary applicants who weren't picked — but the number of new licenses would be "many, many multiples of that," Murphy said.

Meanwhile, the push for legal weed in New Jersey would likely be stalled until after Election Day, allowing legislators to cast their votes for or against legal weed without fear of losing reelection bids.

"It's got to get done on March 25 or it's not getting done until fall," Sweeney said last week. "Trying to move a marijuana bill during a budget break is not healthy."

The marijuana legalization bill package also includes an expansion of the state medical marijuana program and reforms for the expungement process.

Murphy's press conference on Thursday centered around social justice, which he has repeatedly said is the onus of marijuana legalization. African-Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at nearly three times the rate of their white counterparts, despite similar usage rates.

The bill has officially gained the support of the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the latter of which formally signed on in support of the bill after the newest version incorporated a much-sought clause to allow those currently incarcerated on low-level marijuana offenses — including those serving prison sentences, on parole or probation and enrolled in diversionary programs — to have their sentences vacated.

The event capped off a two-day media blitz in which the Murphy administration scored ringing endorsements from sitting members of Congress and social justice leaders.

On Wednesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton tweeted his support of the bill: "Very impressed by the strong social justice components — expedited expungement, virtual expungement and (minority and women-owned business enterprise) prioritization," Sharpton tweeted. "It's time to get this passed NJ!!!"

The bill was also publicly endorsed by U.S. Reps. Donald Payne and Bonnie Watson Coleman. The two are the only black members of New Jersey's House delegation. And both live in state districts headed up by senators seen as hard "no" votes on legal weed: Sens Ronald Rice, D-Essex, and Shirley Turner, D-Mercer.

"This legislation is the nation's most comprehensive effort to correct the years of well-documented bias in marijuana enforcement," Watson Coleman said in a statement.

The USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey has provided you with live updates from the process and debate over legalizing weed in the Garden State. And there's a lot more — mailbags, fresh perspectives and deep dives into the black market!

Consider a digital subscription so we can continue our coverage of marijuana legalization.

Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com