Conservative New Jersey lawmaker wants to allow residents to grow marijuana

Summary

Senator Gerald Cardinale has introduced a bill in support of marijuana. He claims that New Jerseyans should be permitted to plant marijuana. Sen. Cardinale's legislation asked for permission to grow a maximum of six marijuana plants. According to him, the residents will never be restricted from growing marijuana once they have made it legal through voting. However, under present state law, cultivating marijuana is a crime punishable by several years' imprisonment. The states that have legalized recreational marijuana allow the residents to produce a restricted number of marijuana plants. Phil Murphy, New Jersey's governor, and his other party leaders in the legislation have struggled on agreeing to enable legislation to decriminalize marijuana and regulate its possession and sale (Friedman, 2021). Cardinale's bill doesn't have any co-sponsors yet; however, support from a conservative Republican demonstrates some ideological changes to permit individuals to grow marijuana. Cardinale claims that failing to make marijuana a legal plant while other legal plants seems to create a center for the licensed persons.

Analysis

The legislation intending to allow New Jerseyans to grow up to six plants might be taken in different ways by the residents. People might start growing it in large numbers, not for recreational purposes but for sale. The home growing of marijuana might lead many people, including children, into using the drug. Additionally, after legalizing marijuana, the residents might bring about new issues like removing the number of plants to grow. Sen. Cardinale claims that the government should legalize marijuana just like other plants such as tomatoes. However, those are different plants in terms of their importance and effects on society. There have been issues of abuse of marijuana and how it affects those or misuse it, which is not the case on the other legal plants.

Reflection

This article has both negative and positive impacts on society. Irrespective of whether the readers of the article will analyze it or not, it will affect them. Some readers who have been trying to grow marijuana will find the legislation as a good move by Sen. Cardinale. Some readers will feel that the bill will increase criminal activities since growing marijuana has been a criminal offense that has sent many people to prison for years. The article impacts my local and state government's perspective in that there will be a need to decriminalize an old offense. When reading this article, several questions run to my mind, for example, will the legislators support the bill? What will happen when children start having marijuana? Will it be a crime? What about people who were imprisoned for growing or having marijuana? Will, they released from prison if it gets decriminalized? Is it permission to grow six plants per person or family?

Reference

Friedman, M. (2021).  Conservative New Jersey lawmaker wants to allow residents to grow marijuana . Politico PRO. https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2021/01/29/conservative-new-jersey-lawmaker-wants-to-allow-residents-to-grow-marijuana-1361111 .