Over Half of New Jersey Voters Say Yes to Recreational Cannabis

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap] poll of voters in New Jersey has shown that more than half of participants would be in favor of legalizing recreational cannabis if the state lowered taxes.

According to a survey conducted by Nuka Enterprises, a company that makes cannabis-infused food products, and obtained by NJ Advance Media, 44 percent of those who were polled said they support recreational cannabis for adults, compared to the 31 percent that opposed. But when asked if they would support recreational cannabis if it helped lower taxes, 53 percent of those polled supported legal cannabis and only 24 percent still opposed.

There is currently no progress on legislation legalizing recreational cannabis in New Jersey, although Gov. Phil Murphy campaigned on legalization and originally proposed for legal recreational cannabis by the end of the year when he initially took office in January. Murphy’s state budget, proposed in March, said the state could bring in $60 million in tax revenue, but when legalization wasn’t passed within his first 100 days in office as he had hoped, only $20 million in revenue from an expansion in the state’s medical cannabis program made the final budget that was signed in July.

Murphy has mentioned that legal recreational cannabis may still be in the future for New Jersey. “I can’t score anything when there’s no bill but I think there’s a broad commitment among all of us—I think I can speak for all of us—to try to get that over the goal line sooner than later,” he said.

Nuka Enterprises commissioned research firm TargetSmart to conduct the poll. Researchers contacted 1,500 registered voters in New Jersey between Aug. 9 and Aug. 19 by cell phone and landline to conduct the survey. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.