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By Imani R. Oakley

New Jersey has a reputation for being one of the most safely “blue” states in the union. Considered a Democratic stronghold, New Jersey has voted for Democrats in presidential elections since 1992 and for the last several years Democrats have controlled both the state legislature and the governor’s seat.

However, even with these clear advantages, New Jersey has consistently fallen behind other blue states -- and even some red states -- in our commitment to reversing the negative impact of the archaic and grossly damaging marijuana laws, despite criminal justice and drug policy reform being a supposed hallmark of the Democratic Party’s initiatives.

In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first two states in the nation to legalize marijuana. Since then, Vermont, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Hawaii have all decriminalized marijuana through their state legislatures. Similarly, Vermont and Illinois -- two other states considered to be Democratic strongholds -- have both managed to completely legalize marijuana via their state legislatures.

Not only has petty political squabbling caused New Jersey’s legislature to fail to fully legalize marijuana, it has also resulted in a failure to provide even the short term secondary solution of decriminalizing marijuana as we wait for the initiative to head to the ballot in November.

First, let’s be clear, New Jersey: decriminalization is not an optimal policy choice in comparison to legalization. Decriminalization policy alone would still leave the marijuana market untaxed, leaving millions of dollars on the table that could instead be used to rebuild New Jersey’s most impoverished communities.

Moreover, policy focused solely on decriminalization will continue to perpetuate a cycle of unnecessary -- and often discriminatory -- interactions between marijuana users and law enforcement since marijuana will still be considered “illegal contraband.” Conversely, legalization is associated with dramatic and sustained declines in marijuana arrests.

However, even with decriminalization’s shortcomings, New Jersey’s Democrats could have used the opportunity to pass decriminalization legislation as a temporary measure to prevent more arrests between now and the referendum. The legislatures failure -- and ultimate lack of will -- to pass neither legalization nor decriminalization bills signifies a phenomenon that continues to plague New Jersey politics: an inadequate desire to place the needs of New Jerseyans above political aspirations.

If New Jersey Democrats are going to espouse criminal justice reform and drug policy reform as one of their main pillars, it’s essential that we heed the will of the 62% of New Jerseyans in favor of marijuana legalization, and even more important that our state Democrats start to take serious steps toward rebuilding the Black and Brown communities that were devastated as the result of a senseless drug war.

Imani Oakley is an attorney and the legislative director for New Jersey Working Families.

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