Name: N.J. voters weigh constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana
Brand: whyy.org
SKU: whyy-org-148
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

N.J. voters weigh constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana

preview

New Jerseyans casting their ballots in the general election will also get to weigh in on whether the state should legalize recreational marijuana.If passed, the Garden State would join eleven other states and Washington, D.C. in having legal recreational cannabis.Proponents tout the social justice benefits of legalization in a state where Black residents are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for possessing the drug than their white counterparts, according to the ACLU-NJ.“We don’t want to saddle people with criminal convictions for the rest of their lives for something that most of the country believes should be legalized,” said Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU-NJ.The general election will feel much like New Jersey's July primary. Here's what you need to know.But some opponents worry about how the drug will be regulated if legalized, an issue that would be taken up by lawmakers and regulators in the days and weeks following the vote.“The ballot question, the constitutional amendment, does nothing at all to limit the potency of marijuana,” said Gregg Edwards, executive director of the anti-legalization group Don’t Let New Jersey Go To Pot. “And it doesn’t prohibit the kinds of products that can be sold.”Edwards instead supports decriminalizing the drug.Democratic state lawmakers tried to legalize cannabis through legislation last year but called off a vote over lack of support. They decided to put the issue of legalization directly to voters as a ballot question instead.The constitutional amendment would legalize cannabis, designate a government body to regulate it, and subject it to the state sales tax.“We’ll have fewer police interactions with the public, which is really important, especially in communities of color where those unnecessary interactions can so often escalate into tragic outcomes,” Sinha said. “And we’ll have a revenue stream coming into New Jersey during the midst of a financial crisis.”Currently New Jersey only allows the sale of marijuana for medical use.Get the WHYY app!Listen anytime, anywhere.Coverage of the 2020 elections.WITF“From an Intel friend: DNI needs to task NSA to immediately seize and begin looking for international comms related to Dominion,” Perry wrote to Meadows.Recreational marijuana sales in New Jersey for those 21 and older will begin April 21. That's according to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.It could be a landmark election year for the legal marijuana industry. Voters in four states could approve broad legal marijuana sales, as the push for legalization continues.Sign up for our weekly newsletter.Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal

New Jerseyans casting their ballots in the general election will also get to weigh in on whether the state should legalize recreational marijuana.If passed, the Garden State would join eleven other states and Washington, D.C. in having legal recreational cannabis.Proponents tout the social justice benefits of legalization in a state where Black residents are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for possessing the drug than their white counterparts, according to the ACLU-NJ.“We don’t want to saddle people with criminal convictions for the rest of their lives for something that most of the...

public

Reporter @NPR / covered NJ for @WHYY @WBGO / member emeritus @WHYYunion

Joe Hernandez

whyy.org

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

N.J. voters weigh constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS