How Amending the NJ Constitution May Seed Legal Adult-Use Cannabis

Dozens of supporters, opponents and on-lookers crowded the New Jersey State House on March 25, 2019, waiting for a final, planned vote on Senate Bill 2703 (S2703). The bill, sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senator Nicholas Scutari, would have legalized use and possession of marijuana for persons over the age of 21 and created the Cannabis Regulatory Commission to oversee the program. Instead, S2703 was pulled from the planned vote, lacking the votes required to meet the 21-vote threshold required for approval. Similar efforts in May and the fall of 2019 failed, so the Legislature moved for the next available option—amending the New Jersey Constitution by a referendum on the November 2020 election ballot to permit adult use of marijuana.

On Nov. 18, 2019, the Senate introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 183 (SCR183) to “amend Article IV, Section VII of the New Jersey Constitution.” Article IV, Section VII governs the New Jersey Legislature and was last amended on Dec. 7, 2000, to permit the public disclosure of details about sex offenders, and again on Dec. 5, 2013, to permit sports wagering (N.J. Const., Art. IV., Section VII, Para. 12, Para. 2). SCR183 proposes, at Section 13) that New Jersey voters add a new paragraph 13, stating that:

The growth, cultivation, processing, manufacturing, preparing, packaging, transferring, and retail purchasing and consumption of cannabis, or products created from or which include cannabis, by persons 21 years of age or older, and not by persons under 21 years of age, shall be lawful and subject to regulation by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission created by [N.J.S.A. 24:6-I et al.], or any successor to that commission.