
Legal pot in 100 days? New Jersey's next governor aims for national first - notscj
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/legal-pot-in-100-days-new-jerseys-next-governor-aims-for-national-first/article/2640125
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adventured
It looks very unlikely the anti-drug brigade is going to be able to stop the
spread of this nationally at this point. I think NJ will make nine legal
states, more will legalize at a faster clip. The Trump Administration appears
to be coasting (neither helping nor meaningfully hindering) as far as
legalization is concerned, and the Republicans look set to drop the Senate
(even despite the up-for-election imbalance).

It's going to accomplish a ton of things simultaneously.

\- Substantially reduce arrests, prison sentences, and our general prison /
jail population over time.

\- Provide another good option for pain management to millions of people.
Something we desperately need right now.

\- Reduce general crime.

\- Weaken the cartels.

\- Increase tax revenue and employment by normalizing an industry worth tens
of billions annually. The US should eventually become a major marijuana
exporter as many other countries gradually legalize.

\- Break the back of the war on drugs and change the culture more broadly
(this is already well underway, as so many middle class voters are seeing the
vast destruction of the opioid crisis, which is educating people on needing to
treat addiction as a health problem while simultaneously demonstrating how
relatively safe marijuana is by comparison).

~~~
jrowley
Interesting points, especially about the culture change. I really hope that
with the legalization, there is going to be a push for better education about
marijuana. Right now broadly speaking it's pretty binary, "pot is a gateway
drug, etc" and "weed can do no harm". I'm a regular user myself, and have some
understanding of the associated risks. So I think we might see a small but non
trivial increase psychiatric disorders in young men in particular after
legalization. Cannabis is already considered a risk factor if you have
schizophrenia in your family [0].

The other thing I'm concerned about, besides the psychoactive effects, is lung
health. Anecdotally the smoke doesn't seem as bad as cigarette, but regular
(non oral) use can't be great for your lungs, pulmonary disorders are nothing
to mess with.

Either way legalization should be lead us to a better world - I just can't
wait for research to become easier so we can get some more concrete answers.

0\. [https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article-
abstract/26/13/2462/357...](https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article-
abstract/26/13/2462/3574683?redirectedFrom=fulltext)

~~~
taxicabjesus
> Right now broadly speaking it's pretty binary, "pot is a gateway drug, etc"
> and "weed can do no harm".

My retired police officer/taxi-driver friend once commented on smelling some
"really good weed" on some of his passengers. I replied about how in his
former life he used to fight in the war on that plant.

"They told me it was a gateway drug, _and I believed them._ Now it seems the
plant actually has health benefits."

That post was titled _Ordinary Rendition:_
[http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/10/ordinary-rendition-public-
se...](http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/10/ordinary-rendition-public-
servants.html)

------
SauciestGNU
I hope the bill that gets passed allows for home cultivation. Previous
versions did not, and it would be a shame if business interests were able to
monopolize the supply chain in the state.

~~~
murph-almighty
NJ resident and I believe that's still the case. I'm planning on writing my
assemblypeople and the governor's office come January.

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JohnTHaller
But then we'll likely wind up with people using less opioids and 25% fewer
deaths due to opioid overdose like we've seen elsewhere and won't someone
think of the poor pharmaceutical companies? /s

~~~
djhworld
Has there been any studies on this?

I'm under the impression that opoids are much stronger than cannabis, would
people who take them be able to wean off them onto cannabis based products?

~~~
zaroth
Opioids are absolutely stronger. Marijuana provides a previously unavailable
mid-tier level of pain control where a lot of people who didn't want to be
taking opioids now have a better option.

------
southphillyman
If they can make it happen might as well raise toll rates too. I could see a
lot of "day visitors" streaming in from NYC and Philadelphia

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Yup. Raise the tolls. Make some high priced toll only lanes while you're at
it. God forbid people prefer to sit in traffic on a bridge in order to spend
their money in your state. Regressive taxation is always a net win for
society.

(the massive amount of sarcasm should be obvious)

Seriously, other than a few extra dollars in the short term and making the
roads less crowded for those who have the money to justify their value
proposition what is the befit of raising tolls?

I can understand if you want to basically levy a tax on tourism but levying a
tax on people showing up to buy stuff doesn't seem smart.

~~~
24gttghh
>I can understand if you want to basically levy a tax on tourism but levying a
tax on people showing up to buy stuff doesn't seem smart.

You mean, like a sales tax?

~~~
lightbyte
Yes, like a sales tax. That is an extremely regressive tax and should be
removed.

~~~
24gttghh
I think whether or not it is regressive depends on the context.

A flat tax (perhaps an even steeper on than generally exists currently) on
goods purchased might help to curb consumption/consumerism that is destroying
our environment. That's one context. How should a government tasked with
regulating commerce seek to fund such endeavors otherwise? I'm not baiting; I
really don't know.

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chrisabrams
As a NJ resident, I've been curious to see what the next Governor would do to
fix the broke state's budget. Interesting this article doesn't discuss the
economic benefit that would result from it. Right now state & local taxes are
just being raised each year instead.

~~~
ch4s3
There are probably diminishing returns to legalization + taxation as novelty
wears off and neighboring states follow suit.

~~~
pdxgene
How would neighboring states' follow-on legalization diminish tax returns over
time? Washington has posted $280 million in tax revenues so far, and Oregon
$85 million. Neither seems to threaten the other -- demand is pretty much
ubiquitous.

~~~
ssharp
If NJ doesn't require a NJ ID in order to buy in-state, the differences are
huge. NJ is in a much denser area than Washington, Oregon, or Colorado.

Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are all reasonable drives away and NYC
is right next door.

~~~
dec0dedab0de
_Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are all reasonable drives away and
NYC is right next door._

not to nitpick, but Philadelphia is just as close as NYC (maybe even closer) I
routinely joke that Philadelphia and NYC are part of New Jersey, usually to
upset citizens of said cities. Then I point out that the culture in those
cities is much more like NJ than the rest of their own states.

~~~
SmellTheGlove
I grew up in NJ - I'd do the same thing to rile people up, but deep down I
knew: South Jersey is part of Philly, and anything north of Mercer Co is
basically NY. Except for the shore counties - they hate all of us equally. So
I consider them to be New Yorkers out of spite.

~~~
dec0dedab0de
Most of the "hate" is just as superficial as programmers teasing people that
use other languages, or sysadmins trash talking other operating systems. I can
see the Walt Whitman bridge from the end of my road, and I have made friends
with plenty of people from North, and Central Jersey.

...Another fun one is to pretend that Central Jersey doesn't exist, or to
claim to be a proud Shoobie (or Benny) to the shore people :-)

~~~
SmellTheGlove
Totally. Jersey Pride is actually a unifying force. Kind of like how we all
pretend to not like Seaside and Wildwood.

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Fej
Normally this is where I'd expect to see "HN is turning into reddit", but
hackers have always been interested in pot, so...

(reminds me of _Pirates of Silicon Valley_ )

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vthallam
This will definitely force New York and Penn to look for legalization. New
York if followed would be the biggest city ever to legalize.

~~~
beager
I wonder if the five boroughs would (or could) move before the state. My sense
is that the state is holding out because of strong police and corrections
lobbies, and Cuomo is trying to not rock the boat. But NYC may have different
motivations to decriminalize/legalize sooner. And if NJ legalizes, NYC becomes
full of marijuana very quickly.

~~~
x502
NYC is already very full of marijuana

~~~
hendersoon
Sure, but there's a huge perceptual leap between getting weed surreptitiously
delivered by some dude with a backpack you contact on Signal with an entire
illegal supply chain stretching down the corridor to Florida and ultimately
funding god only knows what sorts of unsavory enterprise up the line and
asking your coworker to pick up an eighth for you on his way in commuting on
the NJ transit train.

Both routes are illegal, but in one you're clearly acting shifty.

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rrhd
> his Tuesday win makes a Democrat-packed statehouse the only obstacle.

They aren't an obstacle. They wanted it done and Christie was the obstacle.

