New Jersey legalizes marijuana, 1st state in Northeast and 13th in US
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey on Monday officially became the 13th state to legalize leisure marijuana, as Gov. Phil Murphy signed into legislation three payments placing into impact a poll query overwhelmingly supported by voters final yr.
New Jersey is the primary state in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic to eschew decades of arrests in favor of a program that will cease tens of 1000’s of arrests per yr and kick-start a brand new hashish business that might be an economic boom for the state and region.
The solely different states on the East Coast the place marijuana is authorized are Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.
“New Jersey’s broken, indefensible marijuana laws — which permanently stained the records of many residents and short-circuited their futures, disproportionately hurt communities of color and failed the meaning of justice at every level, social or otherwise — are no more,” Murphy stated in a Monday press convention.
“In their place are laws that will usher in a new industry, based on equity, which will reinvest dollars into communities — laws which promote both public health by promoting safe cannabis products and public safety by allowing law enforcement to focus their resources on serious crimes,” he added.
The legal guidelines signed Monday enable the possession and use of marijuana by anybody over 21 years previous throughout the state of New Jersey, who can have as much as 6 ounces of weed on them without facing any penalty.
The legal guidelines additionally enable the acquisition and sale of authorized hashish at state-licensed dispensaries, although it might be nicely over a yr earlier than leisure gross sales even started.
Some marijuana offenses will stay legal, together with drug distribution and rising hashish vegetation with out a license. New Jersey is the one state with legalized marijuana that doesn’t allow at least its medical marijuana patients to grow, and joins Washington as the one states with out some leisure house develop.
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Recreational marijuana use for adults can be authorized in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. territory of Guam, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In all, 47 states have some kind of legality, starting from leisure use to medical use, with solely Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska not providing public entry packages, in accordance with the NCSL.
More than two-thirds of New Jersey voters backed a marijuana poll query in November, however the constitutional modification put forth by the referendum could not take effect until such rules and regulations were in place.
In New Jersey, the marketing campaign to legalize marijuana was largely pursued as a social justice-driven mission.
The “vote yes” marketing campaign was led by officers from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which ran digital ads – stay occasions have been dismissed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic – educating voters on the detrimental results of a easy low-level marijuana possession arrest and the tens of millions in tax {dollars} spent on prosecuting such instances.
“Our state’s cannabis laws can set a new standard for what justice can look like, with the removal of criminal for possession and an unprecedented portion of revenue dedicated to addressing the harms wrought by the drug war,” ACLU-NJ executive director Amol Sinha said. “This is a brand new starting – and the fruits of years of advocacy – and we should hold in thoughts that it’s only the beginning.
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“Signing these laws puts in motion the next phase of this effort: to work relentlessly to transform the principles of legalization into greater racial and social justice in New Jersey.”
According to crime data from the FBI, New Jersey police departments made over 33,000 arrests for marijuana in 2017, the ninthhighest marijuana arrest rate per capita in the country, according to the ACLU.
And in New Jersey, Black folks have been 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white folks, regardless of related utilization charges amongst races, the ACLU stated.
“The failed War on Drugs has systematically targeted people of color and the poor, disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities and hurting families in New Jersey and across our nation,” U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, stated in an announcement. “Today is a historic day.”
Contributing: Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY.
Follow Mike Davis on Twitter: @byMikeDavis
