No legal weed by Halloween? Blame the sex scandal

Phil Murphy campaigned in part on the legalization of recreational marijuana. When he won, he vowed to get it done in his first 100 days. Those days came and went. Over summer it looked like the issue had completely derailed. Slowly it got back on track and lately it's been full steam ahead. A target date of October 29th has been talked about for a vote.

Then came Katie Brennan's sexual assault claims against another Murphy staffer, Albert J. Alvarez. She says he attacked her, and even though she went to the police and to the hospital for a rape kit and had some physical evidence, even though she told her husband and best friend immediately, nothing was done. She says she approached the Murphy administration with the story of what happened to her and what trouble this guy was three separate times, and all three times nothing was done. Murphy may have even lied about when he knew what if her story is credible about emailing Murphy directly on June 1 and getting back the reply, "Hang tight. We are on it." Nothing was done until October 2, the day reporters finally had the story and approached Alvarez leading him to resign instantly. That's when Murphy claims he first knew of the situation; October 2.

This is such a powder keg that now both the Senate and the General Assembly are launching hearings into the matter. What does all this have to do with weed?

State lawmakers aren't saying it on the record, but NJ.com is reporting that behind the scenes the talk is that the marijuana vote could easily be delayed. The work required to launch these hearings might be time consuming to the point the marijuana legislation could go to the back burner once again.

So if you find yourself still risking a criminal record for a little smoke come 2019 you might want to place the blame on Phil Murphy's shady hiring practices and the trouble it's now put him in.

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