According to the NJ Department of Health, the state medical marijuana program has doubled under Gov. Murphy. – DEPOSIT PHOTOS
Lawmakers are set to vote Monday on a series of bills expanding the state’s medical marijuana system and setting up an expungement process for low-level cannabis offenses after legislative leadership called it quits last week on a recreational cannabis bill, opting to move the measure to a ballot question in 2020.
Introduced late last week, Assembly Bill 5325 would decriminalize possession of up to 2 ounces of cannabis and instead institute a $50 fine. The measure is scheduled to be voted on at the Assembly Judiciary Committee meeting, which starts at 10 a.m Monday.
Senate Bill 10, meanwhile, would vastly expand the state’s medical marijuana system, and, according to a report from Politico over the weekend, cap the number of cultivation facilities at roughly two dozen.
The third measure, Assembly Bill 4498, calls for setting up an expungement process. That bill, unlike A5325, has already garnered the backing of legislative leadership including Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District.
S10 and A4498 will be voted on at the 9 a.m. Senate Health and Human Services Committee and the 1 p.m. Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Gov. Phil Murphy said last week that he would be open to signing the medical and expungement measures that the Legislature sends his way, but cautioned that “the devil is in the details.”
Under A5325, anyone charged with possession of up to 2 ounces by the time the bill is enacted would have their charges thrown out. Anyone convicted of possession of more than 2 ounces after the bill is enacted would be able to apply for expungements within 18 months to three years.
The state judiciary would set up an electronic filing system for expungements. Both expungement bills would create “virtual expungement,” meaning they could not be used as reasons to deny housing, employment or educational opportunities.
Sweeney has remained opposed to decriminalization, saying it would be a backdoor to legalization. Still, many lawmakers argue that decriminalization would be vital to addressing the social justice component of the marijuana debate.
Rice
“A full-throated dedication to social justice demands that the expungement bill be passed in conjunction with separate legislation that decriminalizes recreational marijuana,” Sen. Ron Rice, D-28th District, a vocal opponent to the legalization bill, said in a statement last week.
“Decriminalization is the path for lessening the likelihood of race or economic status playing a part in future marijuana arrests. It is also the key to unlocking those unjustly imprisoned today,” he added.
S10 would gradually phase out the sales tax on medical marijuana, enact workplace protections for patients and lift the cap on how much cannabis a patient can possess at once from 1 to 3 ounces.
The measure would set up separate licenses for cultivation, manufacturing and the sale of medical marijuana, rather than the current, so-called “vertical integration” where dispensaries handle all of those matters.
Over 46,000 patients are served by six dispensaries, and the Murphy administration is in the process of adding six new dispensaries.
The governor unveiled plans in March to dramatically expand the state’s medical marijuana program if a recreational measure failed, so that the program could serve upwards of 150,000 additional patients in the next few years.
Sweeney had worried that an expanded medical marijuana program would become “de facto legalization,” and he blamed Murphy’s decision for taking the pressure off of lawmakers who were on the fence about approving the recreational bill.
Murphy, Sweeney and Assembler Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, cancelled a March 25 vote on adult-use marijuana when it became apparent the measures did not have the votes needed to pass the state Senate.
Murphy said he would continue with the expansion plans if lawmakers did not send a recreational bill to his desk by May. And last week, the administration rolled out several expansion plans loosening the rules of the medical marijuana program to entail fewer hoops for patients to jump through, lower participation fees and to set up separate permitting processes for dispensaries, manufacturing and cultivation.
