Now that the election is over our governor elect, Phil Murphy, has stated that he wants legal marijuana available for recreational use for people 21 and older.

According to the governor elect (per NJ.com), “he is also counting on the sales tax from legal cannabis — an estimated $300 million — as a key revenue source to help fund education programs and the public worker pensions.” State Senator Nicholas Scutari of Union said that “he continues to meet with people interested in the rapidly growing marijuana industry to make “improvements” to his bill (S3195). The revised bill will not contain a provision to let people grow their own cannabis plants — a request by marijuana activists and some people registered with the medical marijuana program who complain the marijuana prices are too high. Scutari also said he is trying to develop language that would promote cannabis entrepreneurship among minority communities disproportionately affected by arrests and convictions — another concern raised at the hearing. Giving anyone a leg-up in what will undoubtedly be a competitive marketplace would not meet legal muster, he said.”

So it seems that our governor elect sees marijuana as a taxable revenue source that could fully pay for the state workers pension plan. And yet the growing of it at home would still not be legal because it seems that marijuana is seen as just an another source of revenue for our state government. The whole idea that people can not grow it for themselves is going to lead to a continuing use of illegal sources that will be much cheaper than what you could purchase from state sanctioned stores. Plus this bill can not change the fact that under Federal law it is still illegal and the Justice Department could change its policy of benignness toward states who have made it legal within their borders. If the Justice Department does continue to consider marijuana as a Schedule I drug and decides to enforce the law, every state that has made it legal could find themselves short of revenue plus of course being in violation of federal law.

So in my opinion Phil Murphy and the rest of the law makers who are counting upon revenue from marijuana should not discount the fact that the Trump administration might very well start going after those states who make marijuana legal. Until the federal government does in fact make marijuana legal, New Jersey should not count upon it as a revenue source.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike