With New Jersey on the brink of legalizing adult-use marijuana, marketers are preparing to jump into the industry. But legalization will come with restrictions on marketing, especially when it comes to kids, and that will present a challenge. It’s something cannabis marketing adviser Stella Morrison is closely monitoring.

“The bill as it’s written will not allow certain imagery that appeals to children, which has a broad range. We know from other states that bright colors can be a part of this, cartoon characters can be a part of this,” said Morrison, who heads the marketing company CannaContent.

In fact, advertisers would have to prove that at least 71.6 percent of their advertising audience is over the age of 21.

The stalemate over marijuana taxes in New Jersey is well known by now.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney has said he won’t go a penny more than 12 percent on the excise tax on legal weed. The governor has balked at that and has previously said he favors a tax rate closer to 25 percent.

While taxes aren’t the only issue dividing the governor and legislative leaders, it’s been one of the biggest things keeping New Jersey lawmakers from voting on legal weed.

But a new cannabis tax proposal has been floated this month, and it could help catalyze the marijuana debate in Trenton.

Business leaders have a lot of questions about how to handle employee issues that may crop up with the expansion of the state’s medical marijuana program and the possibility of full legalization.

For instance, can employees use cannabis in the workplace if it’s prescribed by a doctor? Can employers still require drug tests and are they even useful anymore? What if employees are drug-impaired but have a doctor’s authorization to use cannabis?

“The advice that I’ve been giving employers is ‘just stay calm,’” said Laura Link, a cannabis attorney at Archer Law. She was speaking to businesspeople at the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s panel event “The Cannabis Economy: Are You Ready?” in East Windsor Wednesday morning.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday announced a broad attack on opioid addiction in New Jersey by adding it to the list of illnesses that qualify residents for medical marijuana and expanding Medicaid coverage for medication-assisted treatment, a scientifically proven method of preventing relapses.

Murphy’s announcement comes as the opioid crisis reaches new heights in the Garden State.

With Democrats who lead the state Senate still tantalizingly short of votes needed to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey, a triumvirate of moderate Republican senators has emerged to seize the moment. The move was first reported in NJ Cannabis Insider.

As marijuana legalization inches forward in New Jersey, a coalition of mayors, law enforcement, and town councils are working to ensure that dispensaries never open up shop in their towns.

The municipalities banning marijuana are geographically and demographically diverse with the most concentrated areas of opposition in Bergen County and the Jersey Shore. So far, more than 45 towns have preemptively banned marijuana dispensaries, and the list continues to grow.

This has been nothing short of a transformational year for the marijuana industry. In October, Canada became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational weed, opening the door to what should be billions of dollars in added annual sales once the industry has had the time to ramp up production.

We also witnessed plenty of milestones hit in the United States. The number of legalized-medical-cannabis states increased to 32, with Vermont and Michigan becoming the respective 9th and 10th states to legalize adult-use weed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also approved its very first cannabis-derived drug in June.

A vote before the year was out sounded possible, but it seems now that New Jersey state lawmakers will wait until 2019 to consider legalizing recreational marijuana.

A Thursday meeting between Gov. Phil Murphy, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin could have set up a vote by next week.

Instead, the three couldn’t reach a compromise on legislation, according to NJ.com, and now one of the most contentious issues of Murphy’s tenure will be pushed to next year.