New Jersey lawmakers were finally able to get a medical marijuana bill across the finish line in June after some last-minute haggling with the administration. The bill passed 31 to 5 in the Senate and 22 to 12 in the assembly.
So what’s in it? Well the bill allows patients to buy up to 3 ounces of weed. That’s up from the current to those with terminal illness. We’ll have no limits. It moves oversight of the program from the Department of Health and Human Services to a five-member cannabis Regulatory Commission.
You only have to register with the doctor once a year under this bill as opposed to quarterly. The sales tax currently at just over six and a half percent will phase out gradually by 2022. There will be 28 new cultivating businesses created under the bill over the next 18 months. That’s more than lawmakers wanted but it’s fewer than the governor wanted. The weed commission will review the numbers to see what’s working and to make sure that they’re distributed evenly across the state.
The bill also allows for the creation of consumption lounges and for home delivery. The governor said he was pleased with the compromise and that it showed how things can go when the legislature and the front office worked together on an issue. That’s in contrast to the year-long effort by the administration to get a legal adult use marijuana bill through the legislature. That effort crashed and burned when the governor and legislative leaders failed to get enough votes to pass the bill.
The fate of legal weed as you know will be left up to voters to decide in 2020. An expungement bill that deals with low-level marijuana arrests passed the legislature earlier this month that is expected to get the governor’s signature. For deeper dive into this story head over to NJ spotlight com relieved of Staton and Carly Citroen have more details on the compromise including who still opposed and what’s next for the program.
