Legal Weed Will Be On NJ Ballots In November

Didn't we go through this already? Wasn't one of the big campaign points from Governor Murphy the legalization of marijuana? What ever happened with that?

Well, the State Senate is what happened, as they blocked measures that would have brought us towards legalizing marijuana. The last update came late last year, when a measure passed in the state Senate by a 24-16 vote, while the state Assembly voted 49-24 with one abstention.

Reading that last article got me pissed at one of our state senators all over again, based on one quote:

State Senator Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, said "What a wonderful idea: Let the people decide ... We should expect more New Jerseyans dying every year if this were to pass."

Uhh...did this elected official imply that the people shouldn't decide? If he had just said the second part of his sentence, I would have shrugged and said "yeah dude, drunk driving kills a lot of people every year, are we bringing back Prohibition?" and then forgot about it, but the sarcastic tone of "psh yeah, let the public decide what they want" is such a glaring example of why politics is a mess, I couldn't let it slide.

Politics (and politicians) are the WORST.

Here is the official question as it will appear on the 2020 ballot:

Do you approve amending the Constitution to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called ‘cannabis’? Only adults at least 21 years of age could use cannabis. The State commission created to oversee the State’s medical cannabis program would also oversee the new, personal use cannabis market. Cannabis products would be subject to the State sales tax. If authorized by the Legislature, a municipality may pass a local ordinance to charge a local tax on cannabis products.

According to News12, New Jersey will be joined by Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota in voting over marijuana legalization.

I know it's easy to just giggle and say "yeah man, legal weed would be awesome duuuuude"...but I legitimately believe it would be a good idea. Ballots will be coming in the mail, so make sure you go beyond the Presidential Election and make your voice heard locally.