New Jersey Senator's Marijuana Legalization Bill Would Tax, Regulate Weed

There is a new path to recreational marijuana legalization in New Jersey, but it may be a familiar tune. On Monday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who has made previous attempts at getting pot legalized in the Garden State, introduced a new bill that would legalize the possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana in New Jersey for adults ages 21 and older.

According to Scutari, the bill would

• Create a recreational marijuana program in New Jersey that would “provide for the licensing of marijuana cultivation, manufacturing, wholesale and retail facilities”
• Permit the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana infused product in solid form, 72 ounces in liquid form, and seven grams of "concentrate"
• Require the state to establish licensing goals for New Jersey residents and “begin accepting applications for licenses for marijuana establishments” within one year of the bill’s enactment
• Prohibit growing marijuana plants at home and consumption of marijuana openly or in a public place

Scutari said Monday that the bill builds on the successes of similar laws in other states, including Colorado, and incorporates the lessons learned from their experiences.

“The drug laws in this country prohibiting the use and possession of marijuana have failed,” Scutari said. “It’s time to end the detrimental effect these archaic laws are having on our residents and our state… This bill will create a strictly regulated system that permits adults to purchase limited amounts of marijuana for personal use. It will bring marijuana out of the underground market where it can be controlled, regulated and taxed, just as alcohol has been for decades.”

• See related article: N.J. Medical Marijuana Panel Says ‘Chronic Pain,’ Anxiety Should Qualify For Pot

In addition to the above changes to state law, the bill would:

• Establish a “strict regulatory scheme” including security requirements for establishments, licensee and employee background checks and screening, a seed-to-sale tracking system, dosage, potency and serving size limits, strict labeling requirements, marketing restrictions and mandatory childproofing of all products
• Give municipalities the power to enact local measures governing the operation of marijuana establishments or prohibiting their operation
• Establish an “escalating sales tax rate” of 7 percent in the first year; 10 percent in the second; 15 percent in the third; 20 percent in the fourth; and 25 percent in the fifth year
• Repeal the sales tax on medical marijuana
• Permit expungement of "certain marijuana charges”

Earlier this month, Governor Chris Christie criticized Scutari’s pending bill, calling the effort to legalize marijuana “beyond stupidity.”

"We are in the midst of the public health crisis on opiates," Christie asserted. “It’s not time for us to be cool and say, ‘pot is OK’…This is nothing more than crazy liberals who want to say ‘Everything's OK, people should be able to choose.’”

“Baloney,” Christie added.

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

But pro-cannabis advocates in New Jersey praised the bill as a positive effort to repeal outdated laws against responsible marijuana use.

"As a prosecutor for more than 16 years, I have seen what the war on marijuana looks like up close: wasted resources and wasted potential,” said JH Barr, municipal prosecutor of Clark, and former president and current secretary of the New Jersey State Municipal Prosecutors Association. “Every time someone in my town court gets arrested and taken into custody for marijuana possession, I see a lost opportunity to confront real public safety threats because law enforcement is occupied with punishing people needlessly. It’s time to legalize marijuana for adults in New Jersey.”

• See related article: New Jersey Marijuana Patients Offer Human Side To Weed Debate

“The war on marijuana is an instrument of racial discrimination, and the inequalities it perpetuates have only gotten worse over time,” said R. Todd Edwards, political action director of the NAACP NJ State Conference. “It’s time to end these racial disparities in arrests and imprisonment, and that begins with legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana."

• See related article: 14 Marijuana Jobs In New Jersey: ‘Cannabusiness’ Grows In The Garden State

“The criminal justice system sees each marijuana arrest as just a box to tick on a checklist, but behind those statistics are individual human beings whose lives will be far more difficult in almost every respect," said retired New Jersey State Police officer Nick Bucci. "It’s time for this misguided course to come to an end.”

Scutari’s proposal is one of multiple such pieces of “legalization bills” recently floated to the New Jersey Legislature.

Last year, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris, Somerset) sponsored a bill that would “provide for records expungement” for certain past marijuana offenses and make it possible for New Jersey retailers to sell cannabis products similar to tobacco products, including at local convenience stores.

• See related article: N.J. Marijuana Legalization Bill Would Treat Weed Like Tobacco
• See related article: New Jersey 420 News: The Year In Marijuana

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