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Sweeney Hopes Lawmakers Pass Marijuana Bills This Summer

Senate President Steve Sweeney

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney says he’s hoping lawmakers will pass legislation by the end of the summer to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults.

Sweeney says he’s working with Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin on bills they can advance that would expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program and make recreational pot use legal.

He says the medical bill will be tied to the recreational use measure and won’t move forward without it.

“I’m more than willing to do the medical, but I want the recreational one also. So we’ll do them together. And that’s where the social justice pieces come in with the recreational where you do amnesty or expungement of records and take care of the people who have low amounts of marijuana or whatever we come up with.” 

No legislative hearings on those measures have been scheduled yet.