Statement on Marijuana Legalization

Congratulations, New Jersey!

You were finally given the opportunity to make your voices heard at the ballot box and you did something that our elected officials have failed to do for years: successfully bring the campaign to legalize marijuana over the finish line.

While celebrations of New Jersey’s accomplishments at the ballot box are certainly well deserved, our fight for an equitable legalization program far from over. The referendum on the legalization of marijuana was always meant to serve as a stimulus to light a fire under the seats of our elected officials and finally get them to start crafting laws to fairly regulate marijuana in our state.

Now that the match has been lit, it’s time that our elected officials stop playing politics with the lives of those unfairly incarcerated by the racist War on Drugs. It’s time that laws be made to decriminalize marijuana and automatic expungements be placed on the books post-haste.   

Now that the people of New Jersey—not politically connected, Trenton insiders—have proved beyond a doubt that we want legalized marijuana in our state, it’s time that politicians in Trenton start crafting laws that allow the tax revenue from marijuana sales to be filtered into our communities so that we can reverse the devastation forced upon our neighborhoods by discriminatory drug policies.

And now that the average New Jerseyan has voted “YES” on legal cannabis, our body of electeds need to ensure that access to opening a dispensary is not only a reality for just millionaires and billionaires. Everyday New Jerseyans secured this victory and it’s everyday New Jerseyans that deserve to reap all of the associated benefits. After all, the unjustly incarcerated individual of yesterday can be the entrepreneur of tomorrow and it is now up to our elected officials to pave the way.

So again, congratulations to the outstanding people of New Jersey! You have once again come together to save the day when our elected officials failed to deliver. We, the Progressive Democrats of New Jersey, look forward to continuing to fight with you hand-in-hand to secure progressive wins, no matter where they are randomly placed on the ballot!