Since late 2017, elected officials in towns across New Jersey have been voting to ban marijuana businesses from their borders, should state lawmakers decide to make weed legal.
More than 40 towns have already voted in opposition of marijuana, way more than the number of towns that are supportive.
But on Tuesday, voters in three New Jersey towns got the chance to have their say on marijuana. Two of those municipalities, Union Township and Vineland, said they wanted marijuana in the town, while Bridgeton mostly voted against having weed businesses.
All three votes are non-binding, meaning that town officials can still make their own decision on whether to allow weed businesses, but it does give them a good idea of how their constituents feel.
Bridgeton voters had three questions on their ballots. They said no to the first two, which asked whether the town should allow retail pot shops, or permit growers and distributors to operate within its borders.
The third question the Bridgeton ballot asked was whether such businesses should be relegated to industrial parts of town, if the city does allow them to operate. Voters said yes to that proposition.
The mood was different in Union Township and Vineland.
Nearly 54 percent of Union Township voters said the town should allow businesses that grow and sell weed to open in the town, if it becomes legal. More than 60 percent of Vineland voters said they wanted to allow medical marijuana dispensaries.
These votes come as lawmakers have repeatedly delayed debate on legalization. They are now pushing for a vote before the end of the year.
According to the bills that have already been introduced, each New Jersey municipality would have the freedom to allow or prohibit marijuana businesses from opening in their towns.
Towns that ban businesses would not be able to prevent their residents from possessing or using personal amounts of weed. They would also likely miss out on tax revenue from marijuana.
Support for legalization is fairly strong in New Jersey, with 58 percent of people saying they’re in favor, while only 37 percent said they don’t want legal weed, according to a recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll.
“As marijuana legalization approaches reality in the state, New Jerseyans are fully on board,” said Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers. “Support has built up slowly in the past five decades, with this being the first time a majority has ever sided with legalization.
“New Jerseyans are now almost three times as likely to support it as they were in 1971,” Koning said.
Credit: nj.com
