Decriminalized weed in NJ: Decades late, billions short
Imagine having a 20-pound boil on the side of your neck for your entire adult life. It is not pretty, and it’s definitely had a negative effect, both personally and professionally. You can get the sucker lopped off, no problem, insurance will cover it 100 percent, but nah, you’re good with the 20-pound boil. On the side of your neck. For your entire adult life.
Now imagine you’re 90 years old - still with the boil, for the record - and you find out you have incurable cancer. You have 140 days - exactly - to live.
And then imagine saying, “You know what doc? Let’s lop off that boil. Feels like the right time.”
Well, that ridiculous, disgusting, and sad story is analogous to New Jersey and marijuana.
After decades of being on the forefront of ruining people’s lives over marijuana use - in 2016, for instance, one in 250 New Jerseyans were arrested for simple possession of weed, and that includes babies and your great-grandma state lawmakers are moving relatively quickly in an effort to decriminalize marijuana.
On Monday, an Assembly committee voted to make the penalty for possession (or distribution!) of less than two ounces of marijuana a civil matter, resulting in a $50 fine, according to NJ101.5. Right now, you’d face up to 18 months in prison and countless hours in a courtroom.
So that’s good news. I’d love to see marijuana decriminalized. It’s insane how hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans have picked up criminal records due to smoking grass.
But uh … we’re voting in November to legalize marijuana, and barring a shocking turn of events at the polls, it’s going to puff, puff, and pass by a whopping margin. A Monmouth University poll in April had it 60-34 in favor of legalization.
So yes. After decades of arresting people for smoking pot (the boil), the legislature has gotten a death sentence (the vote is taken out of their hands) and as a result, have finally decided to stop arresting people for smoking pot (lopping off the boil a lifetime too late).
Please note I was not high when coming up with this analogy, and furthermore, please note it’s apt, despite it’s dark undertones.
Simply put, the war on marijuana smokers in this state is shameful. Back when NJ Advance Media ran the numbers in 2017, we were arresting people at double the rate of the rest of the country. We think of this state for better or worse - as a left-leaning enclave in total, but there’s nothing too left-leaning about locking up marijuana users.
And even though Gov. Murphy campaigned on legalization, arrests for marijuana possession only went down by 2,000 in the state in 2018, with over 32,000 arrests, according to FBI data compiled by the ACLU.
Clearly, Murphy didn’t move the needle when it came to selective enforcement.
So now, 140 days until voters march to the polls (or, depending on how things are going, socially distance to the polls) (or mail-in their ballots) (or have an armed escort from Antifa escort them to the polls) to legalize weed - in short (and to go back to my analogy because I’ve yet to meet a dead horse I can’t beat) to put the cancer of ruining people’s life six feet under, the legislature is all like, “Hey! Let’s decriminalize weed and claim victory!”
That paragraph was a mouthful. Let me try again.
What a (bleeping) joke. The legislature had decades to do right by their constituents, they failed to do so, and when they finally had the numbers in the legislature and a governor to match, the Democrats infighted their way to inaction and now they’re going to get a decriminalization bill moving literally days before the people - nay, The People - vote to undo one of modern New Jersey’s greatest injustices.
Enjoy your victory lap, losers. Nice boil, by the way.