Lawmakers mulled Thursday whether New Jersey should ramp up enforcement against unlicensed cannabis sellers by passing a bill that would criminalize the purchase of unlicensed marijuana.
The bill riled cannabis activists who say it would bring back the criminalization of weed that New Jersey's marijuana legalization law was supposed to end.
Under the bill, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union), it would be a third-degree crime to operate an unlicensed marijuana business and a disorderly persons offense to knowingly purchase from one. A person who leads an "illegal marijuana business network" would be charged with a second-degree crime.
"We have a problem where people are opening up brick-and-mortar stores, small stores, unlicensed to sell these products, and quite frankly, they're just selling them and this state is doing nothing about it," Scutari told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. "We need to do something more about those brick-and-mortar stores, but we also need to continue to fight back against drug dealers because those are alive and well."
Copyright
©420 Intel