TRENTON, N.J. – Legal weed may soon be on the way, but the long-promised proceeds trumpeted by lawmakers and advocates remains a controversial topic.
This week, news broke that Democrats want to attach a ‘social equity excise fee’ to pot sales as part of any recreational marijuana compromise. While voters voted to amend the state constitution last month to permit legalized marijuana sales, the actual implementation of the voters’ wishes requires legislative action to establish a regulatory framework.
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Senate President Steve Sweeney – the legislature’s most powerful Democrat – led a Senate leadership statement issued post-Election Day declaring that “all state revenue from legalized adult-use cannabis should be dedicated to impacted communities to reverse the harmful effects of systemic racism in our criminal justice system, from arrest to sentencing to incarceration.“
According to published reports, both the working Senate and Assembly versions of the legislation would empower legal weed regulators to levy social equity taxes to attack purported racial injustice. What exactly that looks like remains to be seen, but it’s likely inconsistent with campaign season rhetoric suggesting the potential for a boon for Trenton’s spending-and-debt service depleted coffers.
“We’ve spelled out the communities that we look for this money to be invested in,” Sweeney told Treton’s 1010 WINS radio on Monday. “I think we made our intentions very clear in the Senate.”
It’s been estimated that New Jersey could realize as much as $300 million in revenue from legal pot.
