This post was originally published on this site.
Days after the international holiday for weed, activists planted cannabis in front of the Statehouse to protest New Jersey’s ban on growing your own.
New Jersey, which legalized cannabis in 2021, setting up a market for selling recreational weed to adults, has declined to allow for the limited private growing of cannabis, also known as homegrow.
Most states that have legalized adult-use cannabis, including Republican-led ones, have also allowed homegrow, either for the entire market or for medical marijuana patients.
As activists converged on the Statehouse lawn on Monday — Earth Day — they dug into the soil and planted a variety of tall and short plants.
The demonstrators cynically named the garden after state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, who authored the cannabis law but has been opposed to homegrow. At some points he has cited safety concerns and viewed it as competition to stores that sell adult-use cannabis.
Scutari’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“This is something that’s allowed everywhere, this is a senseless prohibition,” said organizer Chris Goldstein of NORML, a national cannabis legalization advocacy organization.
The cannabis market has come under fire from medical marijuana patients who have criticized excessive prices, lack of access and discounts that are lower than what was offered when cannabis stores were medical-only. State Sens. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, and Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, have sponsored measures supporting homegrow for everyone, and another focused on patients.
On the Statehouse lawn, the demonstration attracted the attention of the New Jersey State Police.
No arrests or citations were made, but officers did order the plants removed, saying the activists did not have permits. Officers at the scene criticized protesters and said contacting legislators was a more acceptable means of pushing policy goals.
Andrea Raible, who spoke at the rally about the hurdles medical patients face, said the interaction showed “The lack of communication across the different branches of government.”
“It seemed like they thought this was our first attempt to communicate with the legislators,” Raible said. “As opposed to we’ve been calling their office for months.”
NORML and other organizations are asking for Attorney General Matthew Platkin to set guidelines that decriminalizes homegrow, similar to a 2018 directive from his predecessor, Gurbir Grewal, that put a temporary hold on low-level cannabis prosecutions.
The Attorney General’s office and State Police are also facing a cannabis-related lawsuit lawsuit for not expunging cannabis arrests in a timely manner, as required by the new legalization law.
Kristen Goedde, founder of Trichome Analytical, a cannabis testing lab, viewed medical rights as cannabis industry-wide issue.
“I don’t want to participate in an industry where patients are being left behind and ignored,” she said.
Gov. Phil Murphy has shown limited support for homegrow in the past, and has been light on details.
“I would bet, if I were a betting man, that down the road that’s exactly where this would land,” Murphy said in a recent News 12 interview. “I understand, having said that, why it wasn’t in our initial regs. There’s a rightful objective to get this industry up on its feet and make sure the folks who are in this as a matter of commerce are successful.”
The legal weed industry has grown. Roughly a year ago there were 30 dispensaries in the state. Now, there are more than 120 spread across all but one of the state’s 21 counties.
“Hopefully they’ll have a garden at the Statehouse and the White House by the end of the year,” Goldstein said.
Jelani Gibson is a cannabis and politics reporter for NJ.com. He can be reached at jgibson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jelanigibson1 and on LinkedIn.