EDITOR’S NOTE: On Dec. 4, NJ Cannabis Insider hosts a networking event in Red Bank, featuring a key lawmaker and business leaders in the medical marijuana and legal cannabis industries. Tickets are limited.
Now that Legislature has officially punted off cannabis legalization to voters in 2020, NJ Cannabis Insider will look to the road ahead for its meetup after the Thanksgiving holiday break.
State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon and Fruqan Mouzon, the former general counsel for the state Senate Majority Office, will speak at NJ Cannabis Insider’s event on Dec. 4 at Red Tank Brewery in Red Bank from 6-9 p.m. There are a limited number of tickets to this event sponsored by Supreme Security Systems. For more information or to sign-up, look here for details.
Days before Senate President Steve Sweeney announced the pivot to the ballot referendum, O’Scanlon, a supporter of medical cannabis and one of the Republican lawmakers Democrats hoped to flip on adult-use legislation, announced he opposed any further discussion of adult-use legislation in lame duck session.
“It’s time to end the mixed message being sent to the public, the industry, law enforcement, and both opponents and supporters of marijuana legalization,” O’Scanlon said. “We should abandon efforts to move legalization legislation during the lame duck session and firmly commit to sending the question to voters. To be clear, I will be a firm vote against any form of legalization legislation until and unless voters have voted in favor of legalization.”
Meanwhile, Mouzon, now the cannabis chair at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, told attendees at the cannabis panel at the League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City on Wednesday that Sweeney should take the bill to the floor to shine a light on those who cast a No vote. It’s doubtful the senate president will take up that challenge.
Despite the support for legalization from Gov. Phil Murphy, it’s been an uphill battle to get legalization to the finish line in the Legislature. This past March, Sweeney called off a vote on the proposed adult-use bill because he said there weren’t enough senators on board to to get it passed. And on Monday, less than two hours after a press conference focused on ending cannabis arrests and getting adult-use legislation passed, Sweeney pulled the plug on further efforts, claiming the votes still weren’t there.
Click here for more details and to purchase tickets.
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Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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