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Ian T. Shearn for NJ SpotlightDecember 31, 2020
In this March 22, 2019, file photo, a marijuana plant grows at the Compassionate Care Foundation s grow house in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
This article originally appeared on NJ Spotlight.
New Jersey’s path to legalizing recreational use of marijuana has been tortured and often confusing, so maybe it’s fitting that even after voters overwhelmingly approved the move on Jan. 1, it’s going to take a bit longer to make it happen.
In the meantime, let the public beware: Possessing marijuana will not be legal come Friday. In fact, it will still be a crime until elected officials can once again hammer out some last-minute issues.
Credit: (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
File photo
New Jersey’s path to legalizing recreational use of marijuana has been tortured and often confusing, so maybe it’s fitting that even after voters overwhelmingly approved the move on Jan. 1, it’s going to take a bit longer to make it happen.
In the meantime, let the public beware: Possessing marijuana will not be legal come Friday. In fact, it will still be a crime until elected officials can once again hammer out some last-minute issues.
Gov. Phil Murphy, it turns out, is refusing to sign two landmark bills passed on Dec. 17 one to legalize adult-use marijuana, the other to decriminalize up to 6 ounces of possession. The governor’s office says they need to correct a “drafting error” before the measures can become law.
NJ cops stop using facial ID software after arrest of wrong man
Published: December 29, 2020
Archive photo from Dec. 18, 2017, shows facial recognition technology as demonstrated via a teleconference at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
A Paterson man has filed a civil lawsuit that accuses Woodbridge police of extreme racial profiling in wrongly arresting him based solely on facial recognition software that has since been flagged by the state attorney general.
According to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Passaic County, 33-year-old Najeer Parks, says that he was held for more than a week in Middlesex County jail in early 2019 after being mistaken for a shoplifter who had driven from a hotel in Woodbridge and struck a police car in the process.
Credit: Ryan Haygood, NJISJ
Nov. 3, 2020: Tia Ryans, ballot in hand, gets ready to vote.
Editor’s Note: This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. The article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy.
Tia Ryans voted for the first time on Nov. 3 after losing her right to vote when she was incarcerated.
She remembers feeling nervous but thrilled to be standing in line on Election Day to cast her ballot. For years, she felt society and laws that stripped people of their right to vote were silencing her.
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