Kathleen Hopkins

@Khopkinsapp

Legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana in New Jersey could bring at least $300 million a year into the state’s coffers to use for things such as drug treatment, job training and education, according to a joint report issued Tuesday by a policy group and a consortium of marijuana legalization advocates.

New Jersey Policy Perspective and New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform unveiled the report, which they said is the first of its kind in New Jersey, at a news conference at the Statehouse in Trenton. The analysis uses estimates that are based on legalization and regulation of marijuana for use by people 21 and older.

READ: Diverse groups converge to push for legal marijuana

Key among the report’s findings is that about 4 percent of New Jersey’s population — an estimated 365,900 individuals over the age of 21 — use marijuana on a monthly basis, consuming an estimated 3.5 million ounces of cannabis a year.

They spend an estimated $869 million a year on marijuana, at an average price of $343 an ounce, buying it on the illegal market, the report said.

The report estimates that marijuana sales would increase to more than $1 billion a year if New Jersey legalizes and regulates marijuana, drawing a small number of buyers from nearby counties in New York and Pennsylvania, where it isn't legal.

READ: Asbury Park backs legalization of marijuana

The report recommends establishing a graduated tax rate on marijuana sales that would be low at the start, to undercut the illegal market and encourage purchasing marijuana in legal venues, and would increase over three years to 25 percent. At its highest tax rate, marijuana sales would generate $305.4 million in annual revenue for New Jersey, the report said.

The authors gave examples of what that amount of tax revenue could pay for:

3 million textbooks for students.

Job training for more than 45,000 unemployed or underemployed New Jerseyans.

150,00 summer jobs for New Jersey youth.

Salaries for 2,800 school guidance counselors.

More than 12,000 inpatient drug treatment beds.

“Indeed, $305 million could improve many New Jerseyans’ lives each year, especially as a reinvestment in communities to provide treatment for drug dependency and opportunities for young people,’’ the report said.

Legalization would bring other economic benefits not covered in the report, such as job creation, growth in business, research and development, and boosts in property, agricultural, business and income taxes, the authors said.

Opponents of legalization, however, say that the costs would outweigh the benefits.

Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, a Monmouth County Republican and executive director of Prevention First, has told the Asbury Park Press in the past that the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has estimated legalization could double or triple drug use. She has said the expansion of drug use would increase crime, family violence, car crashes, work-related injuries and health problems. She has said that the costs of these problems would far outweigh any income derived from taxes.

Attempts to reach Angelini to comment on the report released on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

But one prominent marijuana legalization activist in New Jersey was actually critical of it.

Activist Ed Forchion, who calls himself NJ Weedman and operates a restaurant and cannabis "sanctuary'' in Trenton, said New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform is wrongly focusing on the tax revenue that could be generated by marijuana legalization rather than the social wrongs created by its prohibition.

"If I was them, I wouldn't start the argument about the money,'' Forchion said. "I would talk about freeing prisoners and stopping the misery caused by the law. There are people in cages right now, and they're talking about making money. They are like lobbyists for the marijuana businesses that are coming.''

Ari Rosmarin, public policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and one of the authors of the report, said New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform was founded not around the prospect of generating money from legalization but rather addressing social issues such as racial disparities in marijuana arrests and the waste of time and money on prosecution. The group is raising the issue of potential tax revenue to convince legislators who are on the fence to legalize marijuana, he said.

"There are members of the Legislature who are looking for additional reasons to get behind this,'' Rosmarin said. "This report helps bring them onto the side of ultimately voting in favor of it.''

Forchion also expressed concern that if marijuana is legalized, minorities such as himself who are more likely to be arrested and convicted of marijuana offenses would be barred from operating legal marijuana businesses.

Rosmarin said the consortium does not advocate that and is calling for revenue to be funneled back to minority communities that have been adversely affected by marijuana enforcement.

READ: No arrests for pot smokers at the Ocean County Courthouse

Rosmarin wrote the report with Brandon McKoy, policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal think tank.

Among the resources the report’s authors relied upon is data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which details marijuana use in every state.

READ: Angelini: Marijuana is addictive, destructive drug

Last year, the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU joined with a broad range of people and groups that included law enforcement officials, municipal prosecutors, medical professionals and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to form New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform. The coalition’s mission, announced at a news conference in February 2015, is to spread the word that New Jersey’s prohibition on marijuana hasn’t worked and that legalization, regulation and taxation is a better idea.

READ: NJ Prosecutors: It's high time to legalize pot

In announcing the launch of the consortium, the groups last year pointed out racial inequities that have resulted from the state’s marijuana laws. The groups said that blacks are three times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, even though their usage is practically the same. The report issued Tuesday echoed those concerns.

“New Jersey can’t afford to wait — it’s time to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana,’’ Rosmarin said. “With just one vote, the Legislature can raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually, help end a civil rights injustice and make sure that no more New Jerseyans see their lives ruined for something every president in the last 24 years has done. It’s time for common sense, and that means ending prohibition again.’’

Four states and Washington, D.C., have fully legalized marijuana for adult use. New Jersey and 23 other states, plus Washington D.C., and Guam, have instituted medical marijuana programs.

READ: Battle over legalization pot takes shape

Some New Jersey legislators have proposed legalizing recreational marijuana use, but Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly said he would veto any such legislation.

Kathleen Hopkins: 732-643-4202; Khopkins@app.com