Will Point Pleasant Beach Marijuana Ban Remain? It's Not Clear

POINT PLEASANT BORO — Point Pleasant Beach voters mostly agree: Marijuana should be legal, even though the town voted to ban the drug's sale – if marijuana was legalized – two years ago.

But it's not clear if the town's ban on pot sales will remain now that New Jersey has voted to legalize the drug.

Point Pleasant Beach was one of the first towns to ban the retail sales of marijuana after Gov. Phil Murphy was elected in 2017. The legalization could make that ordinance ultimately "null and void."

Or will it?

Lawmakers need to work out the details of marijuana legalization, and one of the proposals that's been floated is that communities that have passed bans can keep them.

Mayor Paul Kanitra said he's not sure what will happen to the town's pot ban now that voters have approved it.

"I guess it depends on what the law says we’re allowed to do and not do," he said.

After years of debate, the legislature decided to let voters weigh in on the matter, and on Tuesday, voters across New Jersey voted by a 2-to-1 margin to approve amending the New Jersey Constitution to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults 21 and older.

Unofficial tallies show 1,836,058 New Jersey voters — more than 66 percent — said yes to legalizing recreational marijuana use, with 912,387 voting no, according to the Associated Press. Read more: NJ Legalizes Recreational Marijuana, AP Says

The results in Ocean County and Point Pleasant Beach were similar.

The Ocean County Board of Elections reports 158,953 yes votes cast countywide out of 268,470 responses to the question, or more than 59 percent. There have been 109,517 no votes tallied so far in Ocean County, according to those unofficial counts.

In Point Pleasant Beach, 1,724 voters voted yes on the question, or 64.35 percent percent of the mail-in ballots counted. There were 955 no votes out of the 2,679 votes on the marijuana legalization question.

The Point Pleasant Beach Council approved the prohibition on the sale of marijuana — both recreational and medicinal — in December 2018, less than a year after Murphy was sworn in.

Point Pleasant Beach is one of more than 50 towns that have banned retail sales ahead of the proposed marijuana legalization.

The amendment legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults takes effect on Jan. 1, 2021. But state lawmakers and the Cannabis Regulatory Commission need to hammer out the finer points, such as how much marijuana people could legally possess and whether people will be allowed to grow cannabis at home.

Many experts estimate it would likely take at least a year and possibly longer before the first legal pot in New Jersey would be sold.

The approval of the question does not mean it's legal yet to use marijuana recreationally.
Here's what Attorney General Gurbir Grewal had to say on Wednesday:

"All of the state's criminal laws relating to marijuana continue to apply, until, among other things, the Legislature enacts a law creating that regulatory framework. It is important that residents accurately understand the current situation, so they do not inadvertently engage in criminal conduct relating to marijuana — conduct that may be legal in the future once the Legislature acts, but is not presently legal based on yesterday's vote. While my office will soon issue additional guidance for law enforcement and prosecutors to address this situation, we have reminded them of the broad discretion they already possess in handling low-level marijuana offenses."

Medical marijuana patients remain the only people who can legally smoke cannabis in New Jersey at this time. Read more: NJ Voters Legalize Marijuana; Can You Be Arrested For Smoking?