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Despite proclamations about the death of the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey, some lobbyists said there might still be possibility for movement before July as part of an 11th hour state budget deal.

They acknowledged, however, the current available bandwidth is low due to the escalating conflict between Gov. Phil Murphy and political power broker George Norcross III over the corporate tax incentive controversy surrounding the state’s Economic Development Authority.

“Publicly, it looks gloomy, but I still think there’s potential for movement,” Bill Pascrell III, a principal of the powerhouse lobbying firm Princeton Public Affairs Group, told NJ Cannabis Insider. “We have work to do. We’re going full bore until July 1. I don’t think it’s over yet.”

Bill Caruso, a political insider who is director of Archer Public Affairs, said Friday he’d had conversations with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, neither of whom had indicated they were backing down at this time. June is where, sometimes, the magic happens as the state Legislature looks to tie up the loose threads of the state budget with 11th hour deals, he said. A budget is due July 1.

“They still could get this done,” Caruso said. “The concept that we don’t do anything but the budget in June is farcical.”

After the scuttled vote in March, a mounting pessimism has steadily grown in New Jersey’s nascent industry over the health of the legalization bill.

“Without question there is a level of exhaustion that has surrounded the cannabis debate, whether you’re an elected official, patient, social-justice advocate or someone looking to enter the industry,” New Jersey CannaBusiness Association president Scott Rudder told NJCI. “But the bottom line is you can’t give up — our leaders promised action and the state of New Jersey deserves action. Patients need more affordable medicine and greater access.”

Rudder reiterated what most pro-legalization groups have been pushing for during the marijuana debate since Murphy took office last year: social justice in the form of criminal expungements for those ensnared during the War on Drugs, and expansion of medical program for patients.

“A smartly regulated industry has proven to work in Colorado and every other state and we need to take action now,” Rudder, a former Republican state assemblyman, said.

On that front, Caruso laid some of the blame for Statehouse stagnation on progressive groups that had publicly backed legalization but did little to drum up support for it, such as public employee unions, New Jersey Policy Perspective and New Jersey Working Families Alliance.

“These are groups that have the ability to lobby and they haven’t done that work to create the groundswell and get their members to go to the Assembly speaker and Senate president and say ‘let’s get this done,’” Caruso said.

While NJPP declined comment, Sue Altman, state director of Working Families, said the group supports legalization and its associated social justice reforms, but it has its own limitations as a small organization. “If the Legislature was doing its job and hadn’t been dragging its feet on minimum wage, corporate welfare reform and the millionaire’s tax, then we would have been able to add to our portfolio to the marijuana legalization bill,” Altman said. “Instead, we had to fight like heck for a $15 minimum wage.”

Notwithstanding, Caruso said, the other piece of the puzzle is with current industry operators who benefit from the status quo. Moreover, the current push for medical expansion, while good for patients, does nothing to address racial justice issues or to impact the illicit market, he said.

Caruso also said the current push by some for leaving legalization up to voters in a ballot initiative is “a distraction,” which he believes two groups are primarily responsible for: lobbyists for the industry who are looking for a limited expansion of the medical market and consultants who were looking to shape the industry.

“The people who think putting this up on a ballot is a good idea also profit from these things later on,” he said. “They’re going to get paid to run the ballot question.”

Another industry insider had a comparable cynical view of the situation.

“If I were a Machiavellian power broker, what would I do?” said the insider. “My friends make money under the status quo. And if I’m looking to get seats for Democrats during a presidential election year, we don’t need to push this over the line just yet. You’re going to have a huge number of people coming out to vote out Trump. You’re going to have a huge number of people to vote for legal weed.”

An earlier version of this piece first appeared in NJ Cannabis Insider.

Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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