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Major vote in NJ on marijuana legalization set for today

03/25/201901/22/2021 by SmartyJones

UPDATE: The NJ Senate called off the vote as it lacked a majority required for passage. There will be no marijuana legalization bill passed in 2019.

A vote on marijuana is scheduled today in the NJ Assembly and Governor Phil Murphy is waiting like others to see what the outcome is.

In NJ, the legalization push about marijuana is positioned as a civil rights matter beneficial to minority residents. The true motive, however, is not surprisingly about lining the pockets of some and tossing all cares to the wind.

The push for commercial profit is so ridiculous that Mayor Ravi Bhalla tried to get the Hoboken City Council to approve three marijuana businesses in the Mile Square City last December even before any legalization of weed passed in Trenton.

Now NJ State Senator Ron Rice is blowing the whistle on the dangers to NJ urban environments and the devastating consequences for the minority community. He notes the differences to Colorado where legalization occurred and the impact that will be felt here would be even more negative.

His letter to legislative colleagues is partially reprinted and linked below:

Dear Colleague:

The Governor and the Legislature Leadership is pushing forward a legalization of recreational marijuana bill that they agree with and want the members of the New Jersey Legislature to rubber stamp it.

Today you probably received a letter from former Assemblyman Scott Rudder, who is now a business person pushing for the legalization of recreational marijuana. He indicated he’s a former mayor and legislator. As I recall, during his tenure in the legislature he was not as much concerned about the issue of, “social justice,” for black and brown people as he alleged he is today as a business person.

I am currently a legislator, a former councilman, and former deputy mayor representing the largest city in the state, who served during Scott Rudders tenure as an assemblyman. What the former assemblyman failed to tell you in his communications to us is some of the negative impacts that legalizing recreational marijuana would have on people in communities particularly urban communities and those suburban communities that border the urban communities.