TRENTON — The Garden State could become the 11th state to legalize marijuana for adult use as soon as next week after legislative committees approved a bill Monday to create a billion-dollar cannabis industry from scratch.

Pivotal votes in the full Senate and Assembly could now come next Monday, the date of the last voting session before a three-month break for lawmakers to work on crafting a new state budget.

The next seven days will likely be filled with back-room wheeling and dealing as Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, all Democrats, try to cobble together enough votes to get the measure across the finish line.

The bill's fate is anything but certain, as many lawmakers say they are still on the fence about whether to vote for it or not.

“It’s going to take a village on this one," Murphy said Monday morning at an unrelated news conference in Fort Lee. "We need to get this done, if we are to get it done, as a team. Let there be no doubt about it.”

Also approved in the committees Monday were two other bills to expand New Jersey's medical marijuana program and to overhaul how New Jersey expunges records of convictions, including those for marijuana-related offenses.

The votes on the legalization measure were not without controversy.

Dozens of supporters, opponents, activists and lobbyists traveled to Trenton expecting a chance to testify on the landmark bill, but what they got instead was hours of delays as lawmakers made last-minute amendments to one of the most complex and far-reaching pieces of legislation in recent memory.

By the time a committee finally started to debate the marijuana-related measures around 6:15 p.m. — more than six hours after the first hearing was slated to begin — a final version of the legalization bill had yet to be released to the public.

Most of those who had hoped to testify had already left. The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved the measure 6-1 with two abstentions after hearing only about 25 minutes of testimony. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the measure 6-4 with one abstention without allowing any public testimony at all.

Sen. Kip Bateman, R-Somerset, called the process “outrageous.”

“It’s no way to run government,” he said. “This issue, whether you’re for it or against it, has incredible ramifications on New Jerseyans, and you know what, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right.”

Both panels are controlled by Democrats, who substituted in lawmakers favorable to the legislation for colleagues who are either opposed or on the fence.

The Senate committee also allowed three Democrats to cast votes despite not being present when the hearing began — a move blasted by Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen.

"Do you intend to allow the votes of people who are not here to be counted in this meeting?” he asked Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the committee chairman.

"Yes," Scutari responded.

“That’s not good government," responded Cardinale, who has served in the Senate since 1982. “I’ve been a member of this Senate for a long time. I have never seen that procedure.”

When the legalization bill was finally shared with a reporter around 8 p.m., it ran 175 pages. Among the amendments was one to allow those currently incarcerated — including those in prison, on parole or probation or enrolled in diversionary programs — on marijuana-related crimes to "seek relief so they can petition to get their sentences either vacated or dismissed in some expedited fashion," said Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Other aspects of the bill remained unchanged from earlier versions. Adults 21 or over would be able to possess small amounts of cannabis. New Jersey would tax legal weed at a flat rate of $42 per ounce, imposed on cultivators growing the cannabis plant. And municipalities would be eligible to receive tax revenue from legal weed if they allow marijuana businesses in their town.

The bill also sets up a process for the expungement of past convictions, designates "impact zones" with preference for new cannabis businesses and creates incentives for minorities, women and disabled veterans to participate in the industry.

MORE:What's in, what's out of NJ legal weed bill

The measure was previously approved by a joint budget committee in November. Last week, Murphy, Sweeney and Coughlin announced a new deal that overhauled the proposed tax system and regulatory controls and added marijuana distribution as a charge eligible for expungement.

The prospect of missing the March 25 target for votes in the full Senate and Assembly, which would set legalization effort back months, created urgency around getting the measure through committees on Monday.

"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."

Kevin McArdle, a spokesman for the Assembly Democratic caucus, expressed confidence there was enough support in that chamber should the measure be put up for a vote next Monday.

"If we post that bill for a vote on March 25, it will pass," McArdle said.

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Sweeney said last week that the marijuana legalization bill "wasn't far away" from getting the 21 votes required to pass in the Senate. Senators received a copy of the bill on Thursday, and Democratic leaders, including Murphy, have spent the last few days trying to win the support of key lawmakers, including several Republicans.

At least a few Republican "yes" votes could be key, as they could replace the "no" votes expected by some Democrats.

Two other bills packaged with the legal weed legislation were approved by the Senate and Assembly committees on Monday evening.

The Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act would increase the amount of medical marijuana eligible for purchase by a registered patient, phase out the sales tax on medical marijuana by 2024 and legalize edible forms of cannabis for sale.

The bill passed in an 8-1 vote, with only Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, voting against it. The bill would require doctors to reauthorize medical marijuana patients only once per year — instead of quarterly, under the current law — which he said would allow anyone to "walk in off the street and buy medical marijuana," Webber said.

A third bill would ease the restrictions on the state's process for expunging charges from their criminal records by lowering the mandatory wait time and creating a "clean slate" program allowing people with a clean record for 10 years to have all eligible offenses erased.

It cleared the Assembly committee in a 7-1 vote, with one abstention from Assemblyman Ryan Peters, R-Burlington. Webber voted against the bill.

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!

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

Nicholas Pugliese; @nickpugz; pugliese@northjersey.