Marijuana In NJ: Supreme Court Rules On Diversionary Programs, GOP Lawmaker Goes Against The Grain & More

A new ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court sheds light on marijuana laws as they relate to diversionary programs. It seems that people who avoided conviction for minor drug offenses via a diversionary program for first-time offenders before state lawmakers decriminalized cannabis in 2021 are still allowed to enter another diversionary program for new offenses, reported New Jersey Monitor.

Cannabis laws dictate that prior cannabis convictions should be automatically expunged from an individual’s criminal record, but is not specific on how judges should handle cases of people with prior conditional discharges for cannabis offenses.

The state Supreme Court consolidated the appeals of several cases of people who were found ineligible for pretrial intervention over having a prior conditional discharge for cannabis-related offenses. Superior Court Judge Jack Sabatino, reversed the appellate ruling, “We stress that this is an exceptional situation involving a sweeping new statute that we have endeavored to harmonize sensibly with preexisting laws.” 

This reversal doesn’t mean individuals with a previous discharge are automatically entitled to pretrial intervention, Sabatino said, as reported by the outlet. On the other hand, courts can’t deny pretrial intervention just because the marijuana law is not clear on conditional discharges.

Cannabis Tax Revenue

Meanwhile, New Jersey is examining where it should invest tax revenue from the cannabis market. According to a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, the state residents think that the revenue should be used to fund:

• education (23%)
• community and public health initiatives, such as drug treatment centers (21%)
• affordable housing development (15%)
• transportation and infrastructure (13%)
• police, courts, and prisons (11%)
• campaigns on substance use dangers (4%)

The survey was done in collaboration between researchers from Rutgers University and Drexel University, questioning around 1000 adults. It has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Under the state law, a minimum of 70% of all tax revenue including all social equity excise fee (SEEF) revenue should be used to support areas with high crime and unemployment rates, writes NJBiz.

Oakland New Jersey Councilman Attacks Cannabis Zoning Ordinance

John McCann (R) of Oakland, NJ is fighting to repeal the town’s new marijuana zoning ordinance, in contrast to many members of the Oakland council, including Mayor Linda Schwager (D), reported Heady Nj.

According to the polls, some 67% of town residents support the formation of adult-use marijuana businesses in Oakland, but McCann claims that the poll did not take into count the votes of half of the residents, making the statistics wrong. He also made some very controversial statements about cannabis in general, going so far as to claim it has absolutely no medical value.

Photo: Benzinga edit with images JSmed, 7raysmarketing by Pixabay