Will NJ voters legalize weed next election?

In another stunning example of the NJ Legislature too weak willed and cowardly to do the jobs they were elected to do, announced yesterday, it's in YOUR hands. Senate President Steve Sweeney, joined by Sen. Nick Scutari, both Democrats, said that the issue will be on the ballot next November in a constitutional referendum. Even though both houses of the legislature are of the same party as the Governor, they can't get enough votes to pass a bill for Murphy to sign. Of course the Governor expressed his displeasure in a statement, making it a racial issue, one of his usual pandering, fallback positions. He was elected, in part due to his promise to make recreational marijuana use legal.

Without fulfilling that promise himself, he may feel his chances for re-election may be compromise. He should feel more vulnerability on a number of other issues, moving in a far more left positions than most New Jersey residents are comfortable with. Things such as his indifference to outrageously high taxes, sanctuary state policies and an overall way out of touch attitude toward real working folks. The one thing I can agree with the Governor on, is that adults should be able to decide whether or not to smoke a joint in the privacy of their own home over having a glass of alcohol. God knows we need some form of escape from the pressures and expenses of living here.

My position has always been that prohibiting any drug doesn't solve the problem of substance abuse, but only makes it worse. Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s didn't work and only helped to build huge organized crime syndicates, just as the "war on drugs" has helped to strengthen gangs and drug cartels. It's a medical and/or social issue and not a legal one. Portugal made that decision and the results have been more than positive since they did it almost 20 years ago. If it's "my body, my right" when it comes to abortion, and that actually involves another body, then why doesn't it work with drugs or even prostitution for that matter?

The vote won't matter to me personally, since I don't smoke weed. My interest is in personal rights, liberty, and freedom. We're curious to see how the citizens of New Jersey will vote on the ballot question next year. No doubt it will be as confusing and full of interpretive booby traps as most public questions in New Jersey usually are. We'll just ask you straight up, should New Jersey legalize recreational weed.

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