Trenton Bureau
Coronavirus cases within New Jersey prisons are climbing again as state officials are making their plan to vaccinate more than 12,100 inmates and the thousands of staff that come and go each day.
Garden State prisons got hammered by the virus, giving the state the unwanted distinction of the highest prison death rate in the country. And with the first vaccines delivered to the state last week, officials are figuring out where prison inmates fit in the rollout plan.
Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday that they would be in phase 1B, after the state s about 650,000 front-line health care workers and certain long-term care facility residents.
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Doobie, doobie, done: New Jersey lawmakers were in a Garden State of mind when they approved an historic bill Thursday that sets rules and regulations for recreational pot sales.
All it needs to become law is Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature and a mechanism to oversee
ganjapreneurs.
If the governor signs off, 70% of the state sales tax revenue from pot purchases and a tax on growers in New Jersey will be directed to minority Garden State communities ravaged by drugs.
The State Legislature also approved a bill ending arrests for possessing less than six ounces of marijuana or selling up to an ounce.
N.J. lawmakers pass legal weed bill in historic vote. It now goes to governor.
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
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Years after they began efforts to legalize marijuana for New Jersey adults, lawmakers on Thursday passed a historic bill that establishes rules and regulations for legal cannabis sales and makes the Garden State the first in the region to overhaul its pot laws.
The state Assembly voted 49-24 with six abstentions to pass the bill (S21), and the Senate followed later Thursday, passing it 23-17.
The bill now goes to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk, who must sign the measure for it to become law.
Asbury Park Press
TRENTON - Just two weeks before a constitutional crisis over legal weed, a bill to set up the framework of a legal marijuana industry appears headed to the floor for a full legislative vote.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved the Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, & Marketplace Modernization Act by a 6 to 5 vote, mostly along party lines with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans, joined by Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, voting against.
That bill, along with a decriminalization bill that would eliminate all penalties for possession of up to 6 ounces of weed, is required to be enacted in order for the ballot question and constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by New Jersey voters to take effect on Jan. 1.
JERSEY CITY Emotions continue to run high as a renewed agreement with federal immigration officials prompted several nights of protests in Hudson County and now a restraining order against the demonstrations.
Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, as well as five county freeholders all Democrats had sought the temporary restraining order against activists demonstrating in front of DeGise’s home in Jersey City and the homes of the others named.
After an hours-long public hearing on the issue Nov. 24, the county recently renewed its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to continue housing federal detainees in Hudson County jail.
That move came despite a proposal by DeGise in September 2018 to wind down the agreement, as reported previously by the Wall Street Journal.