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The state Legislature is scheduled to decide on Monday whether to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey, but if the measure fails, it will likely be because Gov. Phil Murphy failed to account for the opposition from older black ministers and lawmakers of color.

On Thursday, the Democratic governor rallied several black ministers to his side, arguing that if New Jersey wanted to be “on the right side of history,” it would legalize cannabis for adult recreational use.

But interviews with many black lawmakers and ministers show support for such a move has much to do with how old, or rather how young, they are, and what history they experienced. Though age isn’t the sole decider — the governor himself is 61 — support does seem to break along those lines.

“A lot of this is generational,” said the Rev. Charles Franklin Boyer, the pastor of the Bethel AME church in Woodbury. “Many of us who are part of Gen X or millennials have been the victims of the tough-on-crime (drug) laws. We have felt the brunt of mass incarceration, and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone from my generation who’s against legalization."

Equally true is that it’s difficult to find black legislators or black religious leaders who both support legalization and are over the age of 60.

“The Bible says there’s folly in youth,” said Bishop Jethro C. James Jr., 68, senior pastor of Paradise Baptist Church in Newark. “And most of us (in the clergy) are older. You can’t get wisdom when you’re 25. When I was 25, I thought my dad was the dumbest guy on earth. When I was 50, I thought he was the smartest guy in the world.”

James, a senior adviser for NJ RAMP, an anti-legalization lobbying group, said he still vigorously opposes recreational marijuana even after meeting with the governor Friday morning.

The long view of history is what the Rev. Lesly Devereaux, 60, pastor of Trinity AME Church in Long Branch, says she’s taking when it comes to marijuana.

“So many young men are incarcerated and have records and may never be able to recover from because of marijuana, and that’s concerning,” Devereaux said. “But think about Prohibition. After they ended it, they flood the urban areas with liquor stores. Not a school. Not place to learn a trade. How does that help people of color? I would say we need to pull back.”

Devereaux, 60, said she favors decriminalization instead of legalization, and is suspicious of why expungement of cannabis crimes needs to be tied to legalizing recreational weed, rather than initiated on its own. (Expungement is the term for clearing a conviction from someone’s record.)

State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, 77 and a member of the Black Legislative Caucus, told NJ Cannabis Insider last month that she is “unalterably opposed to recreational marijuana.”

"I think the governor is well intentioned, and I think that he is trying to keep his campaign promises,” Turner said. “But I don’t know if he’s really listened to the people who are minorities — the black and brown people — as to what the problems are and what we need to eradicate those conditions.”

NJ is set to vote on a marijuana legalization bill that has strong measures to reverse the damage of the War on Drugs.



I hope this bill passes & NJ can lead the nation on this. Marijuana legalization & social justice *must* go hand in hand. We can’t have one without the other. — Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) March 22, 2019

Leading the charge against legalization is state Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, who is 73. He said on Friday that he was unsure about how the legislative black caucus, a group of 18 African American state legislators, would vote on legalizing but noted that it must be close, because the governor had enlisted the aid of a celebrity to press some of the holdouts.

“They even have Whoopi Goldberg calling people now, calling the ladies (of the caucus),” Rice said. “All these phone calls, over and over again. Legislators are getting three and four calls from the governor, from Whoopi. He doesn’t understand the Big N, the Big O. There’s a lot of pressure being put on folk. Some of them are getting a little fed up."

Notably still undecided are black caucus members like state Sen. Nia Gill, D-Essex, 71, and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham, D-Hudson, 68, the latter being the prime sponsor of a cannabis crimes expungement bill under considerations in concert with the legalization bill. Neither Gill nor Cunningham could be reached on Friday afternoon.

“I suppose some (economic) opportunity is better than no opportunity, but I want to hear how legalization benefits communities that need it most," Cunningham told NJ Cannabis Insider last month.

In the lower house, state Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, D-Essex, 75, is also undecided.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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