Cannabis in New Jersey is legal for both medical use and recreational use. An amendment to the state constitution legalizing cannabis became effective on January 1, 2021, and enabling legislation and related bills were signed into law by governor Phil Murphy on February 22, 2021.
The state legislature tried to legalize cannabis during its 2018-19 session, but was unsuccessful. Instead, the legislature placed the issue before the voters as a referendum on the 2020 ballot. Known as New Jersey Public Question 1, the referendum passed with 67% approval. As a follow-up to passage of Question 1, in December 2020 the legislature passed legislation creating a recreational marketplace.
Disagreements between the governor and legislature over the lack of underage penalties in the legislation decriminalizing cannabis led to the effective date of cannabis legalization being delayed from January 1 until February 22, and police continued to arrest residents for marijuana offenses regularly during that time period. On April 21, 2022, licensed sales of recreational cannabis began.
History
Criminalization In 2013, New Jersey police made 24,765 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, the highest in two decades. The number of 2013 arrests was double that of 1993, when the state's population was smaller. The spike in arrest rates was at odds with the national trend, beginning in 2007, that saw a decline in arrests for marijuana possession. New Jersey arrested 34,500 people on cannabis offenses in 2017, more than any other state in the nation.
Cannabis reform advocacy New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform is an advocacy coalition of "religious, civil rights, law enforcement and medical leaders" who support legalization of marijuana in the state.
A report by New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform and New Jersey Policy Perspective, issued in 2016, concluded that if New Jersey legalized marijuana, it could generate about $300 million annually in sales tax revenue for the state. (The report assumed a sales tax of 25% and annual in-state marijuana sales of $1.2 billion.)
Perennial candidate Ed Forchionknown as "NJ Weedman"has been described by NJ.com as "one of New Jersey's best known marijuana legalization advocates." Since the 1990s, Forchion has advocated for marijuana-law reform in the state. In 2004, Forchion lost a bid to legally change his name to "NJ Weedman" after prosecutors intervened. Forchion has been convicted of violating New Jersey's marijuana laws several times; in 2015, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed one of his convictions, rejecting Forchion's contention that the criminalization of marijuana violated his constitutional rights under the state and federal constitutions.
Public opinion Early public opinion polls has found that New Jersey voters were split on the issue of legalization, with proponents having a slight edge. In 2015, Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics conducted a public opinion poll of New Jerseyans, asking whether they supported legalizing, taxing, and regulating the use of marijuana. Among respondents, 33% "strongly supported" the idea, 26% "somewhat supported" the idea, 12% "somewhat opposed" the idea, and 27% "strongly opposed" the idea. A Reuters-Eagleton poll in 2018 showed similar results, with 58% supporting and 37% opposing the complete legalization of "the possession and personal use of recreational marijuana."
Public opinion on cannabis in New Jersey has shifted over the years, showing an increase of support for legalization efforts as they became more prominent. By 2020, when the statewide referendum was soon to come, support had grown significantly. A Monmouth University poll conducted in 2020 reported that 62% of registered voters supported legalization. Years after the vote was concluded and the legalization was passed, a 2023 Rutgers showed that 63% of voters in New Jersey supported the new law.
Types of legal cannabis The legalization of cannabis typically falls into two sets of laws and regulations: the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes, and the legalization for recreational use.
Medical use On January 18, 2010, outgoing governor Jon Corzine signed a number of bills into law on his last day in office, including S. 119, the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, permitting the use of medical cannabis for persons with listed conditions: cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, seizure disorder, Lou Gehrig's disease, severe muscle spasms, muscular dystrophy, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease and any terminal illness (defined as an illness for which a physician certifies that the patient will die within one year). The law allows the New Jersey health department to create rules to add other illnesses to the list. The law did not allow patients to grow their own marijuana; instead, the plant must be acquired through "alternate treatment centers" licensed by the state. Caregivers for patients are permitted to collect marijuana on behalf of the patient, but the caregiver must be designated and cleared by a criminal background check.
Enrollment in the medical marijuana program was initially small, which was attributed to costs, the rigid limitations of the program, and "the small number of doctors willing to recommend patients," as well as resistance to the program by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who in 2014 called the medical program a "front for legalization" of marijuana. In 2011, New Jersey was described as having the strictest medical marijuana law among the 16 states that at the time permitted medical marijuana.
The medical marijuana program, now officially known as New Jersey's Medicinal Cannabis Program, allows patients who are registered to access cannabis-based treatments with licensed healthcare practitioners and state-regulated dispensaries. The program was formed under CUMMA (the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act) and developed by the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act. Patients are able to receive cannabis prescriptions of up to 84 grams every 30 days which can be filled at Alternative Treatment Centers (ATCs) or certified dispensaries.
In 2013, the parents of a two-year-old with Dravet syndrome confronted Christie, who signed a bill allowing access for sick children to medical marijuana in what was later dubbed the "pot for tots" controversy.
As of 2015, 5,540 patients were registered as part of the program, along with 355 caregivers authorized to buy on behalf of ill patients. As of 2017, there were 11,659 qualified patients in the state, mostly adults.
Under New Jersey's medical-marijuana law, up to a maximum of six alternate treatment centers receive contracts from the state. These centers, which must be nonprofit, have the exclusive right to produce and sell medical marijuana in New Jersey. The first dispensary opened in December 2012 in Montclair. By October 2015, four additional centers had opened, in Egg Harbor Township, Woodbridge, Bellmawr, and Cranbury. In July 2017, the state issued a sixth and final permit, to the non-profit Harmony Foundation, allowing it to cultivate marijuana in Secaucus; after receiving an additional permit, Harmony opened a dispensary in Secaucus in June 2018.
Christie generally opposed efforts by advocates and legislators to add new illnesses to the list of qualifying conditions, but nevertheless in 2016 Christie signed into law a measure, sponsored by state Senator Joseph Vitale, that added post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of disorders making a patient eligible for the program.
In 2017, the state Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel, in a 5–1 vote, recommended that a number of conditions be added to the list of medical marijuana-qualifying conditions in New Jersey, including migraines, Tourette syndrome, autism-related anxiety, and Alzheimer's disease-related anxiety, as well as chronic pain if "related to a broad range of ailments, including opioid use disorder, arthritis, back and neck pain, sciatica, diabetes, surgeries, injuries, neuropathy, Lyme disease, lupus, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, pancreatitis, and others." However, the Review Panel rejected proposals to add asthma and chronic fatigue to the list. The final determination on additions to the list is made by the state Health Commissioner.
In 2018, the Legislature considered a bill to expand access to medical marijuana (S-10), edible forms of marijuana would be legalized for adult medical use; patients enrolled in New Jersey's medical marijuana program could possess up to (an increase from two ounces); and the permitting process for medical marijuana dispensaries, manufacturers, and cultivators would be expedited. The bill would have allowed physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe medical marijuana to patients.
Ultimately, a separate medical marijuana expansion measure, the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act, passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy in July 2019. The legislation greatly expanded the number of slots for medical cannabis providers; created a Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which took over supervision of the medical cannabis program from the state Health Department; made it easier to patients to obtain medical cannabis by reducing the required frequency of medical eligibility verifications from four times a year to once a year; allowed patients to purchase more cannabis at any given point (increasing the limit from to for 18 months, with limitations to be thereafter determined by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, and with no limit for terminally ill patients); authorized nursing homes and hospice centers to obtain cannabis from dispensaries on behalf of patients; and allowed medical cannabis patients from outside New Jersey to buy medicine while visiting New Jersey for up to six months. The legislation and subsequent amendments also phased out the state sales tax levied on purchases of medical cannabis by registered patients at dispensaries, while allowing municipalities to levy a local transfer tax of up to 2%, which no municipality has chosen to do.
Beginning July 1, 2022, the sales tax on medical cannabis products purchased at licensed dispensaries was fully repealed. A law signed in 2019 contained a provision that phased out the sales tax for cannabis products.
Recreational use The state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission held a meeting in April 2022, after being pushed by the legislature, in order to work through a backlog of applications. The commission approved seven businesses to begin to sell cannabis recreationally. Critics noted that the applications had been waiting for a while, as the state’s voters approved medical cannabis nearly two years prior to the approval in April. The seven businesses granted licenses by the commission were already in the medical cannabis business, known as "alternative treatment centers." Financial Regulation News noted that the state board still had a lot of work ahead of it, as they need to approve more companies to sell cannabis to meet what the state's expected demand.
In April 2022, licensed recreational sales of cannabis began in New Jersey. Dispensaries began selling recreational cannabis on April 21, 2022.
As of April 2022, the 13 dispensaries are located in Maplewood, Phillipsburg, Rochelle Park, Bloomfield, Paterson, Elizabeth, Lawrence Township, Egg Harbor Township, Williamstown, Deptford, Vineland, Bellmawr, and Edgewater Park.
Under New Jersey state law, consumers are legally allowed to purchase up to of dried flower; 5 grams of concentrates, resins, and oils; and up to 1 gram total of edible cannabis products.
Consumers must be 21 years of age or older to purchase legal cannabis.