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NJ: Murphy Signs Law Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

Visbek

Visbek

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After all sorts of delays dating back several years, and a state referendum in favor, Murphy signed a law legalizing cannabis. According to WNYC:

• Possession up to 6oz legal
• Pending charges for possession will be dismissed
• Past possession convictions can be expunged
• 6+ months until stores are likely to sell
• Can't grow your own
• Use under 21 is still illegal, same rules as alcohol possession. However, officers can't use the smell of marijuana on someone under 21 as probable cause for a search. This was apparently a big concern by many legislators.
• Excise fee on cultivators, sales tax on purchase. Revenues earmarked for "Impact Zones" (areas hit hard by drug law enforcement)
• Impact Zones get some sort of advantage for dispensary or grow licenses

I expect a lot of people who currently drive to MA will instead take a train to NJ dispensaries, until NY legalizes as well. Business plan! ;)
 
Visbek said:
After all sorts of delays dating back several years, and a state referendum in favor, Murphy signed a law legalizing cannabis. According to WNYC:

• Possession up to 6oz legal
• Pending charges for possession will be dismissed
• Past possession convictions can be expunged
• 6+ months until stores are likely to sell
• Can't grow your own
• Use under 21 is still illegal, same rules as alcohol possession. However, officers can't use the smell of marijuana on someone under 21 as probable cause for a search. This was apparently a big concern by many legislators.
• Excise fee on cultivators, sales tax on purchase. Revenues earmarked for "Impact Zones" (areas hit hard by drug law enforcement)
• Impact Zones get some sort of advantage for dispensary or grow licenses

I expect a lot of people who currently drive to MA will instead take a train to NJ dispensaries, until NY legalizes as well. Business plan! ;)
Click to expand...

I would disagree with the "can't grow your own", but otherwise - about time!
 
tumblr_n4g3tccN481rentpao1_1280.jpg
 
Visbek said:
After all sorts of delays dating back several years, and a state referendum in favor, Murphy signed a law legalizing cannabis. According to WNYC:

• Possession up to 6oz legal
• Pending charges for possession will be dismissed
• Past possession convictions can be expunged
• 6+ months until stores are likely to sell
• Can't grow your own
• Use under 21 is still illegal, same rules as alcohol possession. However, officers can't use the smell of marijuana on someone under 21 as probable cause for a search. This was apparently a big concern by many legislators.
• Excise fee on cultivators, sales tax on purchase. Revenues earmarked for "Impact Zones" (areas hit hard by drug law enforcement)
• Impact Zones get some sort of advantage for dispensary or grow licenses

I expect a lot of people who currently drive to MA will instead take a train to NJ dispensaries, until NY legalizes as well. Business plan! ;)
Click to expand...
The only thing standing in the way of it becoming legal nationally is the gop.
 
bongsaway said:
The only thing standing in the way of it becoming legal nationally is the gop.
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Can't the Executive branch simply remove cannabis from schedule 1? Not legal but it would be a move forward.
 
mrjurrs said:
Can't the Executive branch simply remove cannabis from schedule 1? Not legal but it would be a move forward.
Click to expand...
Whatever the proper procedure it should be done. Pot as dangerous as heroin, who knew?
 
bongsaway said:
The only thing standing in the way of it becoming legal nationally is the gop.
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Perhaps, but in NJ there was a lot of resistance from Democrats, mostly those representing black districts. IIRC they were concerned that there wasn't enough done on the "restorative" side, not enough to prevent police from continuing to use cannabis to harass and arrest young people, that non-white communities would get frozen out of the business side by marijuana-related arrest records and the normal inequality.... I think you'd see similar issues nationally.
 
mrjurrs said:
...and with no potential medical benefits either.
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Yeah, even though soldiers with ptsd say it helps not to mention some folks who have seizures. I wonder just how useful this plant could be if we studied it with an open mind instead of demonizing it for political reasons.
 
bongsaway said:
Yeah, even though soldiers with ptsd say it helps not to mention some folks who have seizures. I wonder just how useful this plant could be if we studied it with an open mind instead of demonizing it for political reasons.
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Effectively, no medical research since the 30's in America.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cannabis: A potential efficacious intervention for PTSD or simply snake oil?

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence it works as well. Here's my story. In 2006 I got my third DUI. Never hurt anyone thank goodness, but I'd been a hard drinker for 35 years. Faced with the loss of my family, and eventually my life (I'm certain) I made a deal with myself. I could smoke pot, but not use alcohol. 15 years later I still have my family, and I haven't had a drink since. Probably smoking too much, but that's a deal I'm glad to live with.
 
They've definitely done research on it, though nowhere near as much as they could or should.

I couldn't open your link, but here's a small sampling.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cannabinoid modulation of corticolimbic activation to threat in trauma-exposed adults: a preliminary study - PubMed

These preliminary data suggest that THC modulates threat-related processing in trauma-exposed individuals with PTSD, which may prove advantageous as a pharmacological approach to treating stress- and trauma-related psychopathology.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

www.sciencedirect.com

Short and Long-Term Effects of Cannabis on Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Many individuals use cannabis to manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and evidence indicates that the endocannabinoid system repr…
www.sciencedirect.com www.sciencedirect.com

I don't think the use of cannabis for PTSD is a slam dunk, but it does seem like it's worth further research.
 
mrjurrs said:
Effectively, no medical research since the 30's in America.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cannabis: A potential efficacious intervention for PTSD or simply snake oil?

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence it works as well. Here's my story. In 2006 I got my third DUI. Never hurt anyone thank goodness, but I'd been a hard drinker for 35 years. Faced with the loss of my family, and eventually my life (I'm certain) I made a deal with myself. I could smoke pot, but not use alcohol. 15 years later I still have my family, and I haven't had a drink since. Probably smoking too much, but that's a deal I'm glad to live with.
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I understand, I had a gorilla on my back for over twenty years. It's now been over thirty years since I've seen the beast. You know better than most there is no comparison between buzzed from alcohol and buzzed from weed. I'm riding with the guy who has been smoking. It's time america put on its big boy pants and legalized cannabis.
 
Ikari said:
Just need to do this on the federal level and get it over with. Such a waste of time.
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For a number of reasons but not the least of which: dispensaries in legal states cannot process credit cards until cannabis is federally legal. This limits people who don’t easily have access to cash. Some dispensaries try to get around this by using off shore CC processing services but that’s super unsafe for both the dispensary and she customers. And even some banks are rejecting dispensary purchases where debit cards are used.

We need to just grow up and make legal something that is not harmful, used by consenting adults.
 
Gov Murphy said today that expunging old records may not be automatic (the databases aren't set up for it), and NJ dispensaries probably won't open until 2022.
 
Being stoned is probably the only way to handle living in New Jersey.
 
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