As the New Jersey Legislature closed shop for summer recess, thoughts of what could have been on the marijuana legalization effort that stalled flitted among legislators and lawyers.

Why the weed bill failed this year was baffling. Many considered it a slam dunk in a state with a Democratic-controlled Legislature and a Democratic governor who not only supported the measure but made legalizing adult use of marijuana a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign in 2017.

In hindsight, some believe that the closeness of the vote tally in the Senate—at least 18 or 19 legislators were publicly on board of the needed 21 votes for passage—means it was only a matter of “when” and not “if” adult use of marijuana would become legal.

However, according to several key lawmakers, it now remains the expectation that the issue will be resolved in a 2020 ballot question—the same route that gambling in Atlantic City, and more recently, sports betting at casinos and racetracks, took.

“The only way is going to be the referendum,” Senate President Stephen Sweeney told the Law Journal in late June, the day the Legislature approved a $38.8 billion state budget, 10 days ahead of the July 1 deadline to avert a government shutdown.

Marty Judge, co-chairman of the cannabis group at Flaster Greenberg in Cherry Hill, summarized the weed bill's fade to black in the Legislature.

Marty Judge/courtesy photo

“It was a combination of political things and misplaced chess pieces by both supporters and opponents,” he said. “Gov. Murphy ran on a ticket that he supported the legalization of recreational use cannabis. He was overwhelmingly elected and he viewed it as a mandate from the people.”

Added Judge: “There's bipartisan support in certain parts of the state, and there is partisan opposition as well. A lot of these policies are not necessarily going to get popular support from all people, or those from the middle that one would surmise from the election translating over to the area of cannabis. There are number of unanswered questions … and I'm not sure the experience of other states has been around long enough to learn from.”

But some, such as Michael McQueeny, co-chairman of Genova Burns' cannabis practice group in Newark, say the expansion of medical marijuana use in New Jersey with additional dispensaries coming online in the coming months will only keep the momentum alive for recreational use.

McQueeny said the structure in place for medical marijuana is essentially the same regulatory framework for recreational marijuana use.

“Virtually, there is no loss of momentum with medical expansion of marijuana, with the ultimate goal of adult use,” McQueeny said. “We will improve upon the concepts of adult use.”

Sen. Steve Sweeney. Photo: Carmen Natale/ALM

The 300-plus page New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory and Expungement Modernization Act outlined how to organize and regulate a new cannabis industry, who would benefit from it and by how much, and had set social reform as a key target.

But after sailing through judiciary committees of both chambers after its official rollout in mid-March, the bill failed to garner the support needed to remain on the voting board lists of each house just a week later. On May 15, it was declared “dead” for the remainder of this legislative calendar year by Sweeney.

“The votes aren't there,” Sweeney said at the time, alluding to his 40-member Senate chamber.

“That's on me. This is a defeat.”

But what wasn't on him, he said, was the governor's role in the bill's collapse. Sweeney blamed in part Murphy for expanding medical marijuana at the same time, which he said took the wind out of the recreational weed bill.

“Once the governor announced the expansion of medical marijuana against the advice of the Legislature, it was over,” Sweeney said at a Statehouse news conference in May. “That took the energy out of the recreational piece. There was no longer an urgency in getting it passed with the expansion of medical. It took the pressure off.”

Observers say the bill gradually fell apart for various reasons: intraparty squabbles, regional differences, and a side plot over tax incentives, with competing investigations and legal teams pitting Murphy against South Jersey politico George Norcross, who is closely aligned with Sweeney.

When it came to derailing legalization legislation, “there was a lot,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Nicholas Scutari, D-Middlesex, recently said. “There were a number of different reasons, to the point that there's many people who just don't believe in it to begin with. There are others that didn't believe in some of the things we were trying to do with it—the oversight, amount of licenses, the taxation rate.

“It was an extremely thorough, well-crafted bill,” Scutari said during a break in one of the Senate's final voting sessions before summer break. “Tons of hours [were] spent on it among leaders, myself, sponsors, advocates and groups. The bill was well done. It just did not have enough. We were close, but we just don't have enough votes, and I don't see that changing right now.”

So will the pot bill make a comeback?