Jersey City doesn’t have any cannabis dispensaries yet, but the City Council will review an ordinance this week creating a 2% tax on medicinal marijuana sales.

While legislation legalizing recreational marijuana has stalled in Trenton, state law allows municipalities to levy a tax of up to 2% on medical marijuana sales. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop tweeted over the weekend that the tax revenue generated from such sales would be directed toward affordable housing efforts in the city.

There’s an ancient botanical that millions of Americans take for epilepsy, cancer pain, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple sclerosis and other serious and debilitating conditions.

The drug is cannabis. But American researchers who want to study cannabis are thwarted at every turn. Federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, a list that includes highly dangerous and addictive drugs such as heroin. The government says cannabis has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Even cocaine is not a Schedule 1 drug.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration limits research to poor quality cannabis from a sole supplier. Researchers who want to study the cannabis that patients are actually taking today are out of luck.

New Jersey famously legalized cannabis this past election, but the clock is ticking, and there is still no formal consensus on how to get the ball rolling with legalization and set up a fully legal industry. Now, following many setbacks, the governor and state senate are finally close to reaching an agreement. 

While marijuana should have been legal for residents as of New Year’s Day, all the political figures responsible for making that happen failed.

Marijuana was supposed to be legal in New Jersey at the turn of the New Year, but it isn’t safe to use it just yet. 

When the voters hit the polls in the November 2020 general election, they overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure calling for the existence of a taxed and regulated pot market. It basically called for adults 21 and older to have the right to purchase weed like they would alcoholic beverages.  

New polling data reveals that majorities of Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters support legalizing recreational marijuana for adults.

Reports estimate that just 37 recreational cannabis licenses will be available. More licenses are not expected to be released for another two years.

New Jersey lawmakers have passed a measure to allow a recreational marijuana marketplace in the Garden State.

The legislation will now be sent to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign the bill. Once that happens, New Jersey cannabis businesses will be able to offer recreational weed within six months.

The Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the bill on Thursday.

Members of the New Jersey state Assembly and Senate have given final approval to legislation permitting the possession of marijuana by adults and regulating its commercial production and retail sales. Each of the measures now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. The Assembly approved A21 by a 49 to 24 vote with six abstentions, and the Senate later approved S21 by a 23 to 17 vote.

Far more popular than any politician, cannabis legalization is still being sold to American voters on a wobbly raft of lofty and discursive promises, uneasily lashed together with sinews of money. 

Several years into the experiment, cannabis is absolutely a multi-billion-dollar industry, but legal weed hasn’t fixed systemic racism, cured the ills of the drug war, or democratized business opportunities. Legalization hasn’t even guaranteed Americans reliable access to legal cannabis, in the states that have legalized.

But at least one promise has been kept: legalization has been great for cops.

Lawmakers haven’t given much consideration to how weed will be treated in places like casinos, mostly because everyone involved seems to be under the impression that it will be treated the same as booze and tobacco. 

New Jersey just legalized recreational marijuana in the November election, but don’t bet on Atlantic City’s casinos amending their policies to accommodate people who use the herb. That’s probably not going to happen, according to a report from the Press Of Atlantic City.