NJ marijuana legalization: How the pro- and anti-weed camps plan to win your vote

With less than 80 days until Election Day, the campaigns for and against New Jersey marijuana legalization have been eerily quiet.

What has been a wall-to-wall media blitz in other states has been barely a blip on the New Jersey political spectrum, ever since the state Legislature last year — after years of Democratic leaders trying to pass a marijuana legalization bill themselves — punted the issue to the voters, placing a proposed state constitutional amendment the ballot.

That’s by design, said Axel Owen, campaign manager for NJ CAN 2020, the main group in favor of marijuana legalization.

“We’re in the final steps of the process to organize ourselves,” Owen said. “It’s been early and, for us, it’s important to start communicating at the right time.”

Many campaigns start in earnest after Labor Day, Owen said. And in a time where New Jerseyans are more concerned about their families surviving a global pandemic, it was key to wait until they were ready to grasp the election issues.

Within the next week or two, New Jerseyans can expect to see NJ CAN 2020 — a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, NAACP and the New Jersey Cannabusiness Association — take a much more active role, Owen said. [Read more at New Jersey Herald]