Waiting for legal weed in New Jersey? It could be months before any vote on legalization

A long-awaited bill to legalize marijuana in New Jersey may not pass until late this year, marking another setback in efforts to make New Jersey the ninth state to establish legal marijuana sales for adults.

If New Jersey lawmakers don't act by the end of October, other states may leapfrog ahead in authorizing marijuana sales. The drug remains illegal under federal law, but the federal government has not cracked down on states that allow it.

Voters in Michigan and North Dakota are scheduled to decide the fate of legalization initiatives in November. In August, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo formed a working group to develop the outlines of a bill to legalize marijuana. 

Experts on legal weed said it likely would take a year from the time New Jersey lawmakers vote to authorize it until the first sales occur in new retail stores, although the existing six medical dispensaries could offer non-medical sales sooner than that.

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The push to legalize marijuana In New Jersey is not being tripped up over disputes over taxes, set-asides for disadvantaged communities or regulations, said Sen. Nicholas Scutari, a Union County Democrat who is the main legislative sponsor of the legal weed bill. Rather, Scutari said, the sheer complexity of the effort favors a go-it-slow approach.

"I'm hoping we have this tied up by the end of the year, perhaps initial votes in the next month," Scutari said after an unrelated legislative hearing Monday. "It's a complicated issue. We're starting from the ground up. The longer it's gone on, the better I think it is."

Scutari acknowledged that lawmakers are unlikely to meet an informal deadline set in August by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, for a legalization bill to pass by the end of September. Since Sweeney made his prediction, the bill has swelled from 71 to 121 pages. It has not been publicly released, but draft versions have leaked to the media.

Sweeney spokesman Richard McGrath declined to comment publicly.

Even with no formal hearings on the bill scheduled, advocates on both sides of the legalization issue have descended on Trenton to make their closing arguments.

As Scutari spoke after a committee hearing Monday afternoon, Kevin Sabet, the head of the anti-legalization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, stood in a corridor waiting to press his case with any lawmaker who passed by. Sabet, who was joined by former Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, Bishop Jethro James of Paradise Baptist Church in Newark and others, said he'd already spoken with several lawmakers and was convinced that there weren't enough votes to pass a legalization bill.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who supports legalization, initially hoped to have a bill passed by late April, which marked the end of his initial 100 days in August. Lawmakers then set a June 30 deadline for a marijuana bill to pass to include revenue from legal sales — then expected in January 2019 — in the state budget. Scutari and other advocates of legal marijuana point out that none of the deadlines is inviolable.

Without legislative involvement, Murphy's administration has significantly broadened the state's medical marijuana program, which now covers nearly 32,000 people, double the number when Murphy took office. 

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State health officials added several conditions for which people qualify for the drug, including anxiety, migraines, Tourette’s syndrome, chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders and chronic visceral pain. The state also is expanding the number of retail locations from six to 12, likely by year's end, and received 146 applications from prospective operators by the Aug. 31 deadline.