Coalition Formed in New Jersey to Legalize Cannabis

 (New Jersey Governor Chris Christie)

s the trend of states legalizing medical and recreational
cannabis has grown around the nation, New Jersey is joining in with a new
coalition put in place to make legalization a reality.

According to High
Times, this coalition is made up of members of the American Civil
Liberties Union, law enforcement officers, and officials who work for the city.
The coalition is to be called New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR), and they
plan to start lobbying for state legalization right away. They are going to
call for full recreational legalization with taxing and regulation similar to
the other states that have already legalized. The tax money would go to support
education, and only those 21 and over could purchase cannabis.

In addition to making cannabis available in the legal
market, they are also interested in taking down the black market in order to
reduce crime. “It is time to take marijuana out of our parks, and off of our
street corners, and put it behind the counter,” executive director for the New
Jersey ACLU, Udi Ofer, stated in an interview with High Times. “It is time to stop turning otherwise law-abiding
citizens into criminals.”

While this all sounds great, there is one major fly in the
ointment. Current governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, has spoken out against
cannabis publicly and claimed that he will never approve a bill of this kind
during his time in office. However, the coalition has kept a positive attitude,
and claim they are going to go after the individual laws instead of just
constantly lobbying the governor.

“This is not necessarily a direct appeal to the governor,” former Executive Director of the New Jersey Assembly, William Caruso, told High Times. “[Our focus is] this
movement, and getting the message out to the people.”

With optimism in place, it’s our hope that NJUMR and other New Jersey advocates alike can make their message heard.