Racial issues drive both sides of N.J. pot fight
During his campaign for governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, pledged to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, telling Democrats at a party conference last year in Atlantic City that creating new tax revenue was not what was motivating him.
“People ask me all the time, ‘Hey, are you sure you can generate $300 million from the legalization of marijuana?’” Murphy said, citing a figure that his campaign had touted. “I say, ‘You know what, I’m not sure, but that’s not the question. We’re not doing it for the dollars. We’re doing it for social justice.’”
Murphy argues that the disproportionate number of blacks who are jailed on marijuana charges is a main reason to legalize the drug, and he has the support of civil-rights groups, cannabis business lobbyists, lawyers, doctors who prescribe medical marijuana, and out-ofstate cannabis growers.
But now that Murphy occupies the governor’s office, a major legislative obstacle is emerging: Ronald Rice, the state’s longest-serving black senator and the leader of its Black Caucus.
“It’s always been said the issue is not money, the issue is social justice,” said Rice, a Democrat and a former Newark police officer. “But, it’s being sold on the backs of black folk and brown people. It’s clear there is big, big money pushing special interests to sell this to our communities.”
Medical marijuana became legal in New Jersey un- der former Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, but his successor, Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, rejected proposals to make recreational cannabis use legal.
The growing and selling of marijuana has already generated billions of dollars in the nine states where it is legal — but it is an industry that is overwhelmingly white.
Rice fears the consequences would be dire in cities like Newark, which is already wrestling with a variety of problems, including widespread heroin addiction and an ongoing foreclosure crisis. Cannabis stores, he believes, would proliferate in black communities, much like liquor stores, and would produce a new generation of drug abusers.
His position on cannabis legalization is not just at odds with the governor and members of his party, but also with many blacks.
In New Jersey, blacks are three times more likely to be charged with marijuana possession than whites, even though both populations use the drug at similar rates. That has galvanized civil-rights groups like the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey to support legalization.
“All the collateral consequences that come with an arrest — jail time, losing your job, losing your housing — are disproportionately falling on communities of color,” said Dianna Houenou, a lawyer with the ACLU of New Jersey. “Through legalization we can begin to address the harms that have been inflicted.”
A statewide coalition of black pastors, the NAACP and the New Jersey chapter of the Drug Policy Alliance is pushing for legalization as a social justice issue, but only if it is linked to some type of compensation for the harm they say was done to minority groups.
State Sen. Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, is the author of a bill that would legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for anyone over 21 and would establish a state Division of Marijuana Enforcement. But it does not include any language discussing compensation.
For his part, Rice has proposed a bill that would decriminalize the possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana, and make carrying more a disorderly persons charge that would impose only a fine. It would also expunge criminal records and release incarcerated people serving sentences for possessing small amounts of marijuana.