With the November 3rd presidential election a week away, a small contingent of voters across New Jersey is working to defeat a state ballot item that could legalize recreational marijuana use.

New Jersey neuroscientist Melissa Tasse studies the connection between addiction and the adolescent brain, and has concluded that marijuana can be a gateway drug leading to more dangerous substances.

It was 1996. I was four years old. California Proposition 215 passed and for the first time, legal medical cannabis became available. I don’t remember it honestly, but that moment triggered a reckoning of outdated and ineffective efforts to control cannabis, which continues on November 3rd.

The moment in 1996 created for me and my generation of millennials a new, decriminalized lens for which to view cannabis and its potential. In my lifetime, from first experimenting with cannabis after high school and then earning my PhD in plant biochemistry, advancing cannabis research, to starting an agtech company dedicated to the genetic improvement of cannabis, we continue this march toward legalization. But another march hasn’t started yet.

A massive raid involving hundreds of investigators and 27 simultaneous search warrants in nine communities in Washington State has taken down an illegal weed-mailing ring based out of Seattle.

New Jersey voters will decide the status of recreational marijuana in the upcoming election by voting on legalizing the drug via a ballot initiative.

The question will ask voters to approve or reject an amendment to the state constitution which would legalize possession of marijuana for all people 21 years old and over and pave the way for recreational cultivation, processing and retail sale. 

States can’t wait. That’s the rallying cry for a new initiative that seeks to set up an interstate market for cannabis between states where recreational and medical cannabis are legal.

Called the Alliance for Sensible Markets, the non-profit coalition of business and advocacy leaders is committed to legalizing commerce between participating legal markets by 2021.

Chris Leanzo didn’t have any experience in farming when he put 155 hemp plants into the ground this June.

One of the first 59 farmers to receive a license to grow hemp in New Jersey, Leanzo mentally prepared to only harvest 20 plants this fall from his Frelinghuysen, Warren County farm. But even after facing spider mites and inch worms as well as a dry and cold September, the farm may net some 50 pounds of hemp from its 130 successful plants.

That far surpasses his cautious estimates, and could have him making a profit on their first season.

With just 21 days till voters in New Jersey get to decide on whether to legalize recreational marijuana in their state, a majority of them appear to be in favor of the measure, according to a new poll. 

Released last week by Fairleigh Dickinson University, the poll was conducted from September 30 through October 5 and included 582 randomly selected likely voters in the Garden State. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said that they support legalization, while only 29% said they will vote against the measure.

Among Democrats, 71% of those contacted said they will vote yes on November 3. On the other hand, the percentage of Republicans that would support legalization was reported at 52%. 

New Jersey looks set to be the next state to legalize marijuana. It's on the ballot come Election Day on November 3, the polls are looking good, and while it's not the only state with marijuana legalization on the ballot, the others—Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota—are all out West, and the Garden State should beat them by a few hours.