Today, the New Jersey Legislature approved a bill to implement a new recreational marijuana market in the state.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, president and co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), its New Jersey affiliate, New Jersey Responsible Approaches to Marijuana Policy (NJ-RAMP), and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration, released the following statement:

“As we have said from the start, New Jersey’s marijuana market will not benefit people of color and other disenfranchised communities. Instead, it will continue the trend of the marijuana industry enriching mostly white men while expanding substance use disorders and predatory marketing in vulnerable communities.

“As was pointed out in a recent piece by Senator Ron Rice, who has been with us in this fight from the beginning, ‘black, brown, and white residents have been played for fools with half-truths and empty promises’ in this sham of a process. Social justice is nowhere to be found in this bill, and neither are any commonsense public health regulations such as caps on THC potency. As a result, the bill is instead full of future addiction, harms, and even death.

“We look forward to working tirelessly with those at the local level to encourage towns and neighborhoods to ban marijuana industry activity in their communities to help mitigate future harms and further normalization of the use of this drug.”