12/16/2019: The Assembly and Senate passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis, to be put on the ballot to the voters next year. Read more articles here.

March 25: 7:52PM: A special edition of Insider NJ’s Who’s Up And Who’s Down

5:03PM: Insider NJ reporter Fred Snowflack writes on Governor Murphy, pot, and the ‘art of sounding upbeat‘.

4:23PM: Praising Senate President Sweeney’s efforts, Governor Murphy told him ‘thanks, man‘.

4:17PM: Governor Murphy said ‘the facts are on our side’, noting his disappointment in the stalling of marijuana legalization legislation, as he ticked off a list of stats. “Justice delayed’ won’t be ‘justice denied’, he said, as he gave the floor to Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Coughlin.

4:15PM: Legalization opponent Senator Rice put out a statement saying ‘the public has not properly been educated’.

4:02PM: A would-be long day at the Statehouse turns into a short one, with regards to the marijuana legalization effort, writes Insider NJ reporter Fred Snowflack.

4:01PM: Insider NJ columnist Jay Lassiter writes that in 12 months, recreational marijuana will be ‘so easy to pass‘ during a presidential election year.

3:58PM: Watch NJTV’s live stream of Governor Murphy’s press conference addressing the marijuana legalization vote cancellation:

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3:29PM: The death of the marijuana legalization bill today only delays the inevitable, according to many insiders, and ultimately will get passed – the only question is how, and by whom – Senate President Sweeney or Governor Murphy?

3:25PM: Asked why he didn’t post the bills for a vote in the Assembly to put pressure on the Senate, Coughlin said he worked collectively with the Senate President and Governor – ‘we were in this together’, and made the decision to ‘fall back, we will regroup’ and ‘come up with a strategy that will achieve what we set out to do’. He said its ‘way too early’ to discuss when a vote may be held. Asked if he thought the Senate President’s out-of-state absence over the weekend may hurt the bills’ chances, he said ‘no’, adding that ‘I can’t tell you how many times I spoke to the Senate President over the past week’.

3:18PM: Speaker Coughlin said that ‘over the last few years’ the sponsors of the bills have ‘worked tirelessly’, and that the Governor and Senate President were ‘true partners’ in the effort. Calling them ‘good bills’, Coughlin said he’s proud of the effort and that ‘we’ll continue to work’ to make sure they get over the line. Assembly Majority Leader Greenwald echoed Coughlin’s statements. ‘This was not an easy issue’, he said. “We’re very close’, he added. Sponsor Assemblyman Holley said ‘while we missed the mark today, I’m very proud of the momentum we’re going and headed to moving forward’. Holley praised the press for ‘understanding the complexity’ of the three bills and in ‘respecting our privacy as it relates to what we say and what we cant’ and the ‘difficulty in working with so many different members in trying to get them over the hump to a yes vote’. Holley added that ‘we’re going to move forward and keep up the good fight’.

3:13PM: Senator Kip Bateman put out a statement on his reluctance to support marijuana legalization efforts today, saying there were ‘too many unresolved questions’ and that while he believes there is bipartisan support for medical marijuana expansion and decriminalization, ‘unfortunately, we were presented an all or nothing proposition on some poorly structured bills, which doomed the potential for achieving significant marijuana reform from the start.

3:03PM: Watch the Assembly’s post-pot effort presser via NJTV’s live stream:

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2:15PM: Senate President Sweeney thanked Governor Murphy for a ‘full-press effort’ and says ‘we made a few mistakes, we’ll fix them, we’ll move forward, and we’ll come back’, adding that adult-use marijuana legalization will get passed at some point. Senator Scutari said ‘we’re going to continue to make improvements’. Sweeney said ‘the bill didn’t fail’ and they’ll ‘work to get more votes’ and that he ‘may have underestimated the challenge in getting this passed’, adding that ‘anyone who thinks this is dead is wrong’. Asked what the hurdle is, Scutari said ‘getting 21 votes’ and ‘when we get the votes, Senate President will put it back up’. Sweeney said that ‘there are some people who are just philosophically opposed’, referencing Senators Rice and Madden. ‘With anything hard and important to do, sometimes it takes two or three times to get it done, and we will’, Sweeney added, saying a vote could be held sooner than November.

2:11PM: Watch NJTV’s live stream of the post-marijuana legalization effort press conference:

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1:55PM: Insider NJ columnist Carl Golden’s writes about the post-pot fallout for Governor Murphy, and that the ’15 months Murphy’s been in office have been marked by the Senate President’s outmaneuvering the governor, playing three-dimensional political chess while Murphy is pondering a one-dimensional checkerboard’.

1:11PM: Speaker Coughlin says that despite the legalization bill not advancing today, its ‘still an historic day’ and that the state ‘moved closer to the goal than ever before‘ while reiterating his commitment to enacting the legislation.

12:54PM: A source says post-pot flop, Governor Murphy needs to bring in a ‘Mariano’, saying ‘for a guy with such good policy positions, he sucks at making sausage’.

12:42PM: Senate President Sweeney says the legalization bill won’t advance today, but that ‘this fight is not over’ and that he remains committed to its passage.

12:38PM: As Senate Dems caucus, one source says ‘people are counting heads (votes) before they officially start counting heads’.

12:14PM: Senator Paul Sarlo, believed to be a no vote, says he ‘hasn’t changed’ his mind on marijuana legalization.

11:44AM: Senator Codey is a hard no heading into caucus, according to sources in the administration and Senate, as one source points out ‘Codey needs [legalization opponent Senator] Rice more than Murphy for Essex politics’.

11:20AM: The Senate is in caucus ahead of the scheduled 12pm voting session.

10:42AM: A source remarks that ‘I don’t recall ever seeing when a Governor and senate President of the same party couldn’t get to 21 when they’re at 18 or better’ as it continues to look grim for the legalization effort; the source added ‘if that holds, it says something. And I’m not sure how much it has to do with marijuana’.

Here’s what happened over the past week in the legalization battle:

See the bill here:

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