Broader marijuana laws seen for New Jersey with election for governor

Bob Jordan | Asbury Park Press

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Gov. Chris Christie says legalizing recreational marijuana is “beyond stupidity’’ — but chances are New Jersey’s next governor will be much more receptive to changing the law.

The leading candidates in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary elections all say they’ll consider broader marijuana laws, including Democratic front-runner Phil Murphy, who supports legalization.

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Marijuana is recreationally legal in eight states, from Oregon to Massachusetts. New Jersey currently has a medical marijuana program, but term-limited Christie, who leaves office in January, opposes any expansion.

Advocates say changing the law would keep petty drug offenders out of the courts and yield $300 million annually in new tax revenue — an amount too lucrative for Christie’s successor to overlook, said Matthew Hale, a Seton Hall University political scientist.

“All of the Democrats are talking about new programs and new spending, and the only way you get there is with $300 million in new taxes from this,’’ Hale said. “Even the Republican candidates are talking about decriminalization, though stopping there as they play to the law-and-order wing of their party. Still, I think people in New Jersey voting for governor will be far more interested in what’s happening with property taxes, or if their kid will be able to get a job.’’

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Christie and others opposed to pot expansion say they fear it could lead to more cases of drug addiction and more crime.

At a substance abuse and mental health conference on May 1, Christie said it would help bring “poison’’ into New Jersey and would be “beyond stupidity.’’

“We are in the midst of a public health crisis on opiates, and we have people saying yeah, but the pot’s OK,’’ the governor said.

Scott Rudder, a former Republican assemblyman from Burlington County, and now president of New Jersey CannaBusiness Association and a partner at Burton Trent Public Affairs LLC, said concerns “would disappear in a safe and regulated state market.’’

“I think once the facts are laid out, when you look at the horrible things on the planet, cannabis is nowhere near the top of that list,’’ Rudder said. “No matter who wins the governor’s race in the fall, I expect to see an expansion of the New Jersey cannabis market into 2018, at minimum on the medical side.’’

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The winners of Tuesday’s primaries will face off in the Nov. 7 general election. Virginia is the only other state with an election for governor this year.

During the primary debates, Murphy noted he’s the father of four teenagers, and said that’s why his position “is not something I got to overnight.’’

“There’s a fair and growing amount of research that suggests that it actually, contrary to being a gateway drug, can be a weapon in the opioid pushback,” said Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany. “The economic reason is the very last reason we should be doing this, but it is worth noting that it is a big economic potential, including a crop matter in a lot of the agricultural counties in this state.”

The top rivals to Murphy according to polling — John Wisniewski, Jim Johnson and Raymond Lesniak — have positions that track Murphy’s.

“I would make sure that while we’re legalizing marijuana, we’re also providing pardons and amnesty to those people who are suffering those sentences so they can get on with their lives,” Wisniewski said. “It’s not only going to help us raise money, which we should never turn our back on, but we’re also going to redirect our police resources.’’

“We need to recognize that our crimes, the things that we charge, ought to be consistent with the views of the time,” Johnson said. “We need to focus on the fact that enforcement has a disproportionate impact in our urban communities, on our minorities, on our people of color, and that needs to change.’’

“Legalized marijuana is not the solution to our economic problem,’’ Lesniak said. “There’s a great infrastructure that has to be in place. But I am in favor of it.”

Republican candidates Kim Guadagno and Jack Ciattarelli declined to support recreational use of marijuana in the debates but called for its decriminalization.

“We do have a big problem with legalizing marijuana, and that is that the attorney general of the United States said that he would not accept that,” Guadagno said. “I think we would have some real problems in New Jersey if we did legalize it.”

“I am not for an outright legalization,’’ Ciattarelli said. “I will tell you as an entrepreneur, I’m all for being a vanguard and an early adopter. But I do believe that when it comes to legalization, we should take a wait-and-see approach, to see how things go in Colorado.”

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Political analysts see the New Jersey governor’s election in November as a big-money proxy contest between legalization groups and opponents, with dueling messages — $82 million was spent for and against marijuana legalization in the eight states that have approved its use through ballot questions, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

“People are terrified of opioids, so if opponents can depict marijuana as a gateway, that can change opinions,’’ said Hale, of Seton Hall. “If the advocates can get the message out that marijuana is no more of a danger than alcohol and that it gives the state a new tax stream, it becomes a no-brainer.’’

Bob Jordan bjordan@gannettnj.com