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A bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey may not be dead after all, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Just three months ago, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney — New Jersey’s highest-ranking lawmaker — announced he was ending the roller-coaster efforts to pass the bill in the state Legislature because leaders couldn’t muster enough votes. Instead, Sweeney said, it would likely be up to the state’s voters to decide whether to make pot legal here, at the November 2020 ballot box.

But Garden State leaders privately believe there’s still hope, however slim, of convincing enough lawmakers to vote for the bill either during the “lame duck” session at the end of this year or in the first half of next year.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday: “I’m not going to give up trying."

“I would love to do it,” Sweeney said. "We’ll make one more run at it.”

Passing pot through legislation, rather than through a voter referendum, has always been the preferred route for Gov. Phil Murphy and his fellow Democrats who lead the Legislature.

Such a move would allow leaders to more easily mold and regulate the new marijuana industry. And waiting until next year’s elections means you likely won’t be able to consume weed legally in New Jersey until early 2021, at the earliest.

In addition, thousands of people will continue to be arrested for pot offenses in the meantime. New Jersey arrested 34,500 people on marijuana offenses in 2017, more than any other state in the nation.

All of that would be a bitter pill for Murphy, who campaigned on legalizing pot, and Democratic lawmakers.

There is also fear that neighboring states like New York or Pennsylvania could get a jump on New Jersey and legalize marijuana before Garden State voters ever get to the polls.

Murphy and top lawmakers fell just a few votes short of passing the New Jersey bill in March. Sources said there were enough votes in the state Assembly but not enough in the state Senate, thanks to fierce opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

There were hopes of reviving the vote in May, but Sweeney announced he was pulling the plug. That seemed definitive, especially because Sweeney and Murphy have been locked in a bitter civil war over tax incentives in the state.

But Sweeney said Wednesday that hope remains because he, Murphy, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, all support legal weed and have agreed on the final language in the bill.

Bill Caruso, a cannabis industry attorney and founding member of the social justice group New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, agreed there is still hope lawmakers will find the votes by the end of the year.

“The front office remains committed to getting it done,” Caruso, who regularly takes part in these discussions, told NJ Advance Media, referencing Murphy’s administration.

A Murphy administration source said the governor’s office continues to have productive conversations with legislators and advocates.

“It’s too important to let die,” said the source, who is not authorized to publicly speak about the issue and requested anonymity.

A spokesman for Murphy declined to comment.

Caruso said there was a “pause” in the discussions after Sweeney announced the ballot question in May. Then, in July, Murphy signed a long-awaited expansion of medicinal marijuana in New Jersey. And leaders began discussing possibly decriminalizing marijuana — in which violators would face a fine instead of jail time.

But the takeaway was that neither a more robust medical marijuana program nor decriminalizing weed changes the largest problems that trouble so many, Caruso said. Patients will still have a problem obtaining cannabis easily for at least the rest of the year, and minorities will continue to be disproportionately targeted for arrests and convictions.

“People realize that even with getting medical (marijuana) done — and that was a decade overdue — there are still so many problem related to the criminality, and the availability” of cannabis for patients, Caruso said.

“If one of your concerns as a legislator was open-air marijuana markets, decriminalization doesn’t do anything about talking it away from teens,” he added.

Leaders are unlikely to take action on a legalization bill until after November’s Assembly elections, in an effort to avoid a controversial vote.

But Caruso said “lame duck” — the period after the November elections and before the new two-year legislative session begins in January — is a “natural time to get stuff done."

The challenge for leaders will be the same as it was in the spring. To pass the bill, they need 21 votes in the Senate. Sources say they got as close as 18 or 19 in March.

Closing that gap means changing the minds of Democrats who have been considered “hard no” votes, getting Republicans to vote for the bill, or a combination of both.

Sweeney said the next step is to talk to opposed lawmakers and “see if anything has changed."

Time could also be an issue. To get a voter referendum on the 2020 ballot — when turnout will be higher because of the presidential race — the Legislature either has to approve the question by a three-fifths majority or by simple majorities in back to back years. They have until August 2020 to do that.

Two sources told NJ Advance Media that means if they can’t get the legalization bill passed by the end of the year, they may not try again in early 2020 and will instead go with the referendum.

Even with renewed hope, sources say a referendum remains the more likely scenario.

Sweeney said he’s confident voters will pass the ballot question. Polls show a majority of New Jerseyans support legal pot.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

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