NJ.com report
Gov. Phil Murphy, who successfully pushed to legalize cannabis for recreational use, said he wasn’t concerned that the state may not meet a Feb. 22 deadline for selling weed to the public.
“I’d rather get it right than get it fast,” Murphy told NJ Advance Media on Sunday. “They’re doing a really good job. They want to do a job that’s different and better than any other state that’s ever done it, in particular as it relates to addressing inequities, which has been a central theme of mine.”
Murphy used his State of the State and his second inaugural address this month to tout the positive impact on the economy and jobs that he said he believed the state’s legal cannabis industry would have.
But he said he wasn’t concerned with the possible delay. Jeff Brown, executive director of the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, told NJ Cannabis Insider last week that New Jersey may not meet its self-imposed deadline for selling recreational weed.
“We all want it sooner than later but let’s make sure it’s right,” Murphy said. “That to me is the most important.”
“It’s going to be an industry that’s going to be around 50, 100, 200 years from now. Let’s get it right.”
Even as divisions between Democrats and Republicans grow over such issues as coronavirus vaccinations, Murphy said there are enough topics for the governors to come together over, referring to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ description of states as “laboratories of democracy.”
“There’s a significant amount of common ground,” Murphy said. “You have to exercise good judgment about where you’ve got a real shot and where you don’t, and focus on where you do. It cant work for every policy area and you probably bang your head and get a bloody head trying to get every policy area, but double down on the areas where you can.”
