By Payton Guion | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
NJCI Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge grows and sells medical cannabis
Andre Malok
The big, new legalization bill is dead
So far this year, two primary marijuana ideas have dominated discourse in New Jersey. The first is an expansion of the state's medical marijuana program, which Murphy called for earlier this year in an executive order. The other is legalizing the possession and personal use of small amounts of marijuana for adults at least 21 years old, along with a regulated commercial market.Earlier this month, state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, a Union County Democrat who has been leading the push for legal weed,
introduced a plan that tried to do both, upsetting lawmakers and advocates alike. It now appears that Scutari's plan is a non-starter.Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, and three others familiar with efforts to push marijuana legalization through the Legislature said Scutari’s merged bill was not moving forward, as
reported exclusively by NJ Cannabis Insider.
NJCI Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge grows and sells medical cannabis
Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media
But there's another legal weed bill in the mix
The same day he dropped the merged bill that's now dead, Scutari also introduced a separate legal weed bill. It
called for up to 218 dispensaries, 98 of which would be medical dispensaries. It also allowed consumption lounges, places where people could use the weed they just bought.
This plan would also
allow expungements for people with low-level marijuana crimes and aims to help people in areas disproportionately affected by marijuana arrests.