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Years after they began efforts to legalize marijuana for New Jersey adults, lawmakers on Thursday passed a historic bill that establishes rules and regulations for legal cannabis sales and makes the Garden State the first in the region to overhaul its pot laws.
The state Assembly voted 49-24 with six abstentions to pass the bill (S21). The Senate is also holding a voting session and will take up the bill.
It was the will of the people — who voted 2:1 in November to amend the state constitution and make weed legal — that ultimately pushed straggling lawmakers to say yes.
Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the bill’s sponsor, and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, decided last fall to end the legislative effort to legalize marijuana after failing multiple times to garner enough votes and instead put the issue to the voters.
But the passage of the ballot question put lawmakers back to work to outline the rules and regulations for the industry — this time with a directive to pass a bill that focuses on social and racial justice.
Legislators were under pressure to act quickly following the election, as the constitutional amendment takes effect Jan. 1. Without a law to stop possession arrests or steer the legal industry, some worried the illegal market would operate freely, and that arrests would continue but face a myriad of court challenges.
