Legal weed is unlikely in N.J. for now. But that doesn’t mean it will stay illegal either.
By Payton Guion | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Even before Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, skipped a meeting with the governor on Thursday, the prospects of legal weed in New Jersey weren’t looking good.
Lawmakers hadn’t been able to wrangle the votes for legalization and told NJ Advance Media they were starting to lose hope that it could get done anytime soon. But just because weed won’t be legal in New Jersey doesn’t necessarily mean it will stay illegal.
State Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, told NJ Cannabis Insider this week that if lawmakers don’t vote on adult-use cannabis in the coming weeks that he would demand a vote on marijuana decriminalization.
Rice, who has been one of the strongest opponents of cannabis legalization in the state, worked with an anti-marijuana group to write and introduce a cannabis decriminalization bill last year.