After eight years of watching progressive legislation get bottled up by a Republican governor, namely the Trump-loving Chris Christie, New Jerseyans put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion last year. They elected Phil Murphy, and returned increased Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state’s legislature.
Democrats have begun to deliver on the promises Murphy made on the campaign trail, passing laws on “equal pay, paid sick leave legislation, automatic voter registration, gun control, energy, and restoring funding to Planned Parenthood.” Going further, New Jersey is now poised to pass a package of vitally important laws on marijuana reform, and it looks like they are going to go beyond even what other states have done.
There’s still plenty of wrangling going on, but the big picture is that legislation has been passed out of committee in both legislative chambers that would legalize recreational marijuana use (i.e., the possession of one ounce or less) by those age 21 or older. The law would also regulate and license those wishing to sell marijuana, and implement a sales tax of 12 percent on purchases. These measures will improve people’s lives, although they are not especially unique given that New Jersey would become the 11th state (along with the District of Columbia) to take them.
Additionally, New Jersey wants to link legalization to other reforms that would make it significantly easier for those who have been convicted of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana to have their convictions expunged. The bill would remove the existing waiting period (usually a few years or up to 10), as well as fees, and the bill mandates that, once the request is made, the court “shall immediately grant an expedited expungement.” Only a handful of states have passed this kind of expungement law, and none of them did so as part of the actual package of laws that legalize recreational marijuana use.
New Jersey has connected the two issues, and needed to do so.
“If expungement wasn’t a part of this, legalization wouldn’t happen. They wouldn’t have the votes for it,” said Assemblyman Jamel C. Holley, the chairman of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. “We represent minority communities and communities who have been impacted the most. This is very important to us.
“There would be no way that I would support legalization of marijuana without expungement.”
S2703, the Senate legalization bill, lays out the issue and the need for reform: “A marijuana arrest in New Jersey can have a debilitating impact on a person's future, including consequences for one's job prospects, housing access, financial health, familial integrity, immigration status, and educational opportunities.”
To relate this issue to civil rights, it is reprehensible that a black American is between three and four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as a white American, even though whites and blacks use marijuana at roughly equal rates. This kind of legislation, even though it is race-neutral on its face and does not take specific measures aimed at black or brown Americans, will have a disproportionately positive impact on members of those communities.
There is debate in the New Jersey legislature about going even further than the aforementioned provisions. Some Democrats are advocating to allow for the expungement of other kinds of non-violent, drug-related convictions. These additional measures are certainly worth exploring as part of a larger effort to redress the devastating effects of the War on Drugs and the over-incarceration, in particular of black and brown Americans, that resulted therefrom.
“When I ride through parts of my district, I see people who are standing outside and standing on the corners for years because 10, 15, 20 years ago they made a mistake and were incarcerated and are still paying for it,” said [New Jersey State Senator Sandra B.] Cunningham, who represents a largely urban portion of Hudson County.
“At some point, you have to deal with people who have larger issues than marijuana. People who my bill is referencing are people who have not been in trouble for 10 years or more, who have jobs and have gone to school, even have families in some cases, and they still have some cases hanging over their head. We really want to give them an opportunity to become as productive as they can.”
The level of support for legalizing marijuana use has grown at an incredible rate in recent years, in particular among the youngest voters. Few other issues have undergone a shift in public opinion like the one seen in these graphics. For young people who wrongly believe there’s little difference between the two parties, legalization of marijuana use is an issue that can break through the fog (sorry, couldn’t resist) and get their attention.
Likewise, legalization efforts that look backwards as well as forwards—thus addressing racial disparities that have harmed black communities in particular for decades—will similarly demonstrate the Democratic Party’s commitment to civil rights and equal justice.
Marijuana reform is an issue whose time has come. Voters, especially young voters and voters of color who may believe that Democrats have not delivered enough results in the recent past, need to see that our party can deliver on issues that matter to them, and which have a real impact on their lives and the lives of the people they are close to. These marijuana reform laws will make our country more just, not to mention provide real relief to people who need marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Furthermore, these proposals will win us more votes by increasing turnout among communities where we already win large majorities. Enacting them will help elect more Democrats, and thus give us the ability to do even more good in the future. This is the kind of virtuous cycle that rewards good governance. Marijuana reform should be a core aspect of the Democratic agenda moving forward, both at the state and federal level.
Ian Reifowitz is the author of Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books).