Politics
New Jersey Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Previews Marijuana Policy Priorities If Voters Elect Her Next Week
The Democratic candidate for New Jersey governor previewed her priorities for marijuana policy if voters elect her next week, stressing the need for “better regulations” that prevent youth access to THC products, effectively distribute tax revenue and address the lack of a home grow option.
In an interview with CBS News’s “The Point” that aired on Sunday, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) said that “everyone in New Jersey wants to see the laws changed” around cannabis. And while she support legalization—unlike her Republican opponent, former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R)—the congresswoman said she sees areas for improvement.
“The legislature feels as if they haven’t really gotten the law right there. The cannabis companies feel as if the law isn’t right,” Sherrill said. “So some of the kind of low-hanging fruit is the THC drinks that are now unregulated and being sold in 7-Elevens, ensuring that young kids don’t have access to cannabis products, making sure we’re doing better enforcement—because I’ve heard from some mayors concerns about, in bodegas, very young kids are getting access to edibles that look like candy, and their parents don’t realize it’s not.”
“At the same time, addressing some of the home grow provisions, which I’m supportive of, and then ensuring that we have better regulations around cannabis, where it can be sold,” she said. “The reason the cannabis industry wants it is because they want to legitimize their business.”
Asked about her views on the allocation of tax revenue from legal cannabis sales, Sherrill said that, under the current law, “some of the cannabis money was really supposed to go into more provisions ensuring that kids didn’t have access to it,” but “that hasn’t happened.”
“I’d like to see some of it going where the legislation was saying that it would go to,” she said. “But then, of course, if we can have more revenue to put into a lot of the programs we want to see statewide, I’d welcome that.”
For voters who support marijuana reform, the November 4 gubernatorial election results could meaningfully impact the future of New Jersey’s cannabis market depending whether Sherrill or the GOP candidate Ciattarelli wins office.
In Congress before entering the race, Sherrill in 2019 and 2021 also voted in favor of Democratic-led bills to federally legalize marijuana and promote social equity. That legislation—the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act—cleared the House both times, but didn’t advance in the Senate.
Before being elected to Congress in 2018, Sherrill endorsed federal rescheduling of marijuana.
Additionally, she’s consistently supported the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act to prevent federal regulators from penalizing financial institutions simply for working with state-licensed cannabis businesses.
In 2023, the congresswoman sponsored an amendment to defense legislation to expedite the waiver process for military recruits and applicants who admit to prior cannabis use by allowing the lowest-level defense employees to issue such waivers.
The prior year, Sherrill proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
Another amendment she filed for the 2025 NDAA, which was blocked from floor consideration, would have expanded eligibility for expungements of non-violent drug convictions by removing an age restriction limiting relief to those who were under 21 at the time of the offense.
In House floor voters, the congresswoman in 2019 and 2020 backed amendments to protect all state marijuana programs from federal intervention. In 2022, she voted in favor of legislation to expand medical cannabis research that was ultimately signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.
This session, meanwhile, the congresswoman filed a bill that would require Elon Musk and other workers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk has since left, to submit to drug testing to maintain their “special government employee” status.
Outside of marijuana, Sherrill joined other bipartisan congressional lawmakers in 2023 in asking leadership to instruct federal health agencies to include active duty military service members in psychedelic studies.
Ciattarelli, meanwhile, has expressed support for allowing home cultivation for medical cannabis patients, but recently resurfaced comments reveal that he’s historically been hostile to reform, characterizing marijuana as a “gateway drug” during a 2021 town hall event when he previously ran for governor.
He also said at the time that, if New Jersey’s voter-approved recreational legalization law proved to be a “disaster,” he would look into reversing the policy, possibly by putting a measure on the ballot to roll back the law.
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Meanwhile in New Jersey, as the state’s first marijuana consumption lounges started opening, regulators have shared information about where to find the sites and offered tips about how to responsibly use cannabis at the licensed businesses—including classic stoner cultural customs like “puff, puff, pass.”
New Jersey officials also recently completed the curriculum of a no-cost marijuana training academy that’s meant to support entrepreneurs interested in entering the cannabis industry.
Separately, New Jersey Senate President Nick Scutari (D) filed a bill that would re-criminalize purchasing marijuana from unlicensed sources—one of the latest attempts to crack down on the illicit market and steer adults toward licensed retailers.
In March, a former New Jersey Senate leader unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year said “it is time” to give medical marijuana patients an option to grow their own cannabis plants for personal use. He also pledged to expand clemency for people impacted by marijuana criminalization if elected, and he expressed support for the establishment of cannabis consumption lounges.
The comments from Steve Sweeney, who was the longest-serving Senate president in the state’s history, on home grow depart from what current Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has said on multiple occasions, arguing that the state’s adult-use marijuana market needs to further mature before home grow is authorized.
Seemingly contradicting that claim, dozens of New Jersey small marijuana businesses and advocacy groups recently called on the legislature to allow adults to cultivate their own cannabis.
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.
