The Supreme Court Criminal Practice Committee proposed amendments to New Jersey Court Rule 3:28-1(c) regarding eligibility for pretrial interventions (PTI). The proposal follows the Court’s decision in State v. Gomes to address whether PTIs are available for defendants who received conditional discharges for marijuana offenses before the 2021 adoption of the Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act (CREAMMA). The New Jersey State Bar Association participated as amicus in Gomes to advocate that those defendants would be eligible. The Court is soliciting comments on the proposed amendments. 

In Gomes, the Court considered two consolidated cases involving defendants who received conditional discharges arising from a marijuana possession offense prior to the enactment of CREAMMA, under which certain marijuana possession is no longer unlawful. After the trial courts reached differing conclusions on whether the conditional discharges deemed the defendant ineligible for PTI, the Appellate Division ruled that the “one diversion only” general limitation of the PTI statute and the provisions of earlier expungement statutes deemed the defendants ineligible. The Supreme Court held that such offenses did not deem these defendants ineligible because the “manifest legislative intent” of CREAMMA implied that the law would apply to any case that arose before its enactment.