New Jersey lawmakers could vote on legal weed next month, but success not yet guaranteed

Show Caption Hide Caption Legal marijuana coming to NJ says senate pres. State Senate President, Stephen Sweeney, says he is confident he will have the votes to make marijuana legal. Wednesday, August 22, 2018

A vote to legalize marijuana in New Jersey could come by late September, Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Wednesday, expressing confidence he’ll have enough votes to pass the long-delayed measure.

But a pair of new bills to legalize adult-use marijuana and expand the state’s existing medical marijuana program are yet to be finalized, and Sweeney said he has yet to poll his fellow senators on their support.

“We’re getting very close to having a product that we can share with members so they can see what we’re talking about,” Sweeney said during an editorial board meeting with The Record and NorthJersey.com, “You’re never going to get anybody to say they support this or this until they actually see the bill.”

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“We’ll get 21 and 41, I’m confident in that,” Sweeney added, referring to the vote totals needed to pass legislation in the Senate and Assembly. “Once I get a product, that’s when we’ll go to get the votes.”

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has championed legalization in the name of social justice, had urged the Legislature to send him a bill by June 30, but momentum stalled amid vocal dissent from some lawmakers and uncertainty as to whether Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin would block the effort.

To the relief of legalization advocates, Coughlin endorsed legal weed earlier this month, and now Sweeney says the pair are working out the final details of legislation, including whether and how to expunge the records of people with criminal convictions for marijuana-related offenses.

Once they have a final draft, Sweeney said, “we have to take it on the road a little bit and let people have a say on it.” That includes Murphy. Sweeney said although he’s been communicating with the governor’s office, Murphy has not been part of recent discussions between lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly.

“Instead of having three parties fight, if we can get two parties together, then we can go have a conversation with the other party and come up with a product,” Sweeney said when asked why he hasn't involved the governor sooner.

In the meantime, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is expected to issue a statewide directive by the end of the month as to how municipal prosecutors should handle marijuana-related cases going forward. Grewal ordered prosecutors last month to suspend all such cases until Sept. 4.

Popular support on the rise

Even as the Legislature has stalled, support for legal weed in New Jersey appears to be growing, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. It showed that 62 percent of New Jersey voters favor legalization — a 3 percent increase since a March 13 poll — compared with 33 percent who oppose.

The poll also found widespread support for erasing convictions for marijuana possession from criminal records, which lawmakers have vowed to do even if they fall short of passing a bill to make marijuana use legal for anyone 21 and older.

But support for local marijuana retail sales was split, with 50 percent of voters saying they would support sales in their community and 45 percent saying no.

The survey of 908 voters had a margin of error of 4.6 percent.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws hailed the poll results as a mandate to lawmakers.

“New Jersey legislators must support the will of their constituents and approve legislation to legalize and regulate adult marijuana use in New Jersey,” NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said in a written statement.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com and nashj@northjersey.com