NJ and Legalized Marijuana: National Model or Petri Dish?

New Jerseyans should “assume” legalization of marijuana is coming and sooner than most think, according to experts and lobbyists at an NJ Spotlight roundtable on Friday. Right now, most of the discussion has been behind closed doors, as legislators count votes and visit other states that have already taken the plunge. Although Gov. Phil Murphy ran on a promise to legalize marijuana, and even assumed millions in tax revenues in his 2018–2019 budget, the discussion in Trenton has so far been pretty quiet.

That’s about to change, claimed panelists, almost all of whom were supportive of the legislation. They dived deep into the policy implications of legalization at the event in Hamilton last week, but the conversation boiled down to two opposing attitudes: If the state were to legalize, will New Jersey be acting as a national, certainly regional, model for other states? Or will it be a petri dish festering with unanticipated problems?