By Jordan Gesko
I am proud to be a New Jerseyan right now. We just elected the first pro-cannabis governor in the state’s history, Phil Murphy will be in office 2018.
Phil aims to legalize recreational cannabis within the first 100 days of being in office. He sees it as an opportunity to correct unjust laws from the past and to create a new responsible sustainable adult industry. In addition, it will also boost and recover New Jersey’s economy. There are so many people in this state, yet it is so small. It’s going to help out so many people because it’s going to create jobs that people actually want and it will help provide value to this area.
Cannabis tourism; a lot of people are going to visit from the surrounding cities, and I feel New Jersey is going to thrive because of this. New Jersey has a lot to offer, farms, woods, mountains, rivers, and beaches – all kinds of recreation, and pretty soon we are going to have recreational cannabis; another great reason to come visit the garden state. I believe it will produce some of the best cannabis and it is expected to be the second biggest cannabis industry behind California. New Jersey has the potential to become a $2-3 billion industry by 2020 and will add tens of thousands of new jobs.
NJCBA has been promoting framework of a responsible adult use market, also educating elected officials and general public about the science behind the plant, as well as all the positive things going on around the country in other states. Even though we have a new governor and legislative leaders like Nick Scutari coming in that supports legal cannabis, we still have to wait and hope that special interest groups funded by big pharma don’t try to delay the process. Either way I’m really excited for the future of New Jersey. I know it’s going to help the whole country once New Jersey is apart of the recreational industry. I feel like New Jersey has always influenced politics and I’m really happy to be around during this time in history.
