New Jersey Senator Has Worries About Legalizing Marijuana

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — As New Jersey prepares for the new era of Governor-Elect Phil Murphy and his promise to fast-track the legalization of recreational marijuana, a state senator and former U.S. Marine is trying to deploy a parachute on the effort.

According to Sen. Ronald Rice, a veteran Democrat who represents the 28th District, New Jersey needs to “slow down the process” of legalizing marijuana and “drill down on the facts.”

“We know there are negative factors that we will need to safeguard against, from children’s access to marijuana-infused edibles to motor vehicle accidents caused by impaired driving to the effect of marijuana on babies and the impact of legalization on communities of color,” Rice said Monday.

“We also need to have a better understanding of what the legal sale of marijuana would look like in our state, including where it would be sold and grown,” the senator added. “We need to look closely at the results of marijuana legalization in other states and at the research that has been conducted since.”

Rice said that as chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, he plans to convene hearings at various locations around the state to make sure that “we really delve into the details of this issue.”

Rice, whose district includes Newark, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Irvington and Nutley, previously served as deputy mayor and councilman for Newark. He was a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, and has degrees from Essex County College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Rutgers University.

• See related article: Christie Calls N.J. Marijuana Legalization 'Stupid'

‘DELVING INTO THE DETAILS’

Marijuana advocates in New Jersey have been sounding off for years about several of Rice’s worries.

Ironically, one of Rice’s concerns – the “impact of legalization on communities of color” – has been a topic long decried by civil rights groups… but as an argument in favor of legalization.

"New Jersey's marijuana laws are failing people of color," Richard Smith, president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, said in June after the ACLU of New Jersey released a scathing report about the racial disparities of marijuana arrests.

Despite similar usage rates of marijuana, black New Jerseyans were arrested at a rate three-times higher than whites between 2000 and 2013, the study claims.

"Our state's criminal justice system has placed a disproportionate burden on people of color, and ending marijuana prohibition for adults is a start to lifting it," Smith said. "Our state has a choice: it can generate revenue to invest in our communities, or it can waste resources to target our communities for arrest unfairly and unnecessarily. The answer is clear: it's time for legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana for adults."

• See related article: New Jersey Marijuana Arrests Are Criminalizing Black Residents

"For decades, the failed War on Drugs has locked up millions of nonviolent drug offenders — especially for marijuana-related offenses — at an incredible cost of lost human potential, torn apart families and communities, and taxpayer dollars," U.S. Senator Cory Booker said in August after introducing the Marijuana Justice Act, a law that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana.

"The effects of the drug war have had a disproportionately devastating impact on Americans of color and the poor,” Booker said.

• See related article: US Marijuana Legalization Bill Would End 'War On Weed'

HALLOWEEN POT EDIBLES, WEED AND DRIVING

After the New Jersey Department of Health issued a widely recirculated bulletin about keeping marijuana edibles out of trick-or-treaters’ hands on Halloween, many cannabis advocates debunked the “warning” as baseless fear-mongering.

“Cannabis consumers are not looking to dose children with [marijuana],” said Evan Nison, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of NORML. “This is just something that some police officers sometimes say every year, never really comes to fruition, and is just a scare tactic.”

A spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office – which distributed the message to media outlets - conceded that the likelihood of someone giving a trick-or-treater marijuana candy is “very slim.”

• See related article: New Jersey Medical Marijuana: Panel OKs 5 New Conditions

Rice’s concerns about impaired driving are supported by some government and anti-cannabis groups, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which have claimed that marijuana is the illegal drug most frequently found in the blood of drivers who have been involved in vehicle crashes.

However, cannabis advocates have cast doubt on the degree of the connection between marijuana use and traffic accidents, stating that drivers may also be on other drugs such as alcohol, cocaine or heroin, or that they may not have been high on marijuana at the time of the accident. (Read NORML’s position on marijuana and driving here.)

The quest to find marijuana levels that realistically reflect driving impairment “remain elusive,” according to a 2015 study funded by The National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office on National Drug Control Policy and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Main Photo: Flickr / Martin Alonso