Gerry Cardinale did not make it to the final voting session on marijuana legalization Monday. He died on Saturday at the age of 86.
But the conservative Republican senator from Bergen County was sorely missed, as was the sanity and levity he brought to such issues.
The passage and signing by the governor of three bills on marijuana legalization followed three years of arguing among the Democrats who control the Statehouse.
When I last spoke to him on Feb. 1, Cardinale told me he was getting fed up with the debate, which focused on such issues as taxation and regulation – two things he hated.
So in characteristic form, he crafted a bill that would have permitted people to grow enough pot for their personal use.
That was a typical turnaround for Cardinale, who had been perhaps the loudest voice in the state Senate opposing legalization.
“I was one of the people who voted against making marijuana legal,” he told me. “But the people want it and we need to respect the will of the people.”
In November, the voters expressed that wish by a 2-1 margin as they passed a ballot question on marijuana legalization.
Among the issues debated by the supporters of legalization was the question of how to crack down on the black market once pot became legal.
But there’s a common-sense way to eliminate the black market, Cardinale told me.
“It will take the continuing illegal trade down if people can grow it in the back yard,” he said. “It’s no different than carrots or beets or tomatoes. The plant doesn’t know whether it’s legal or not.”
No, it doesn’t. In my studies of the subject, which included a trip to Canada to witness the first day of legalization there, I couldn’t help but notice that once a buyer leaves a government dispensary, the weed he has purchased is indistinguishable from weed bought on the black market.
If Cardinale’s plan had been adopted by the Legislature we could be spared the spectacle of a new bureaucracy called the “Cannabis Regulatory Commission” that was created by one of the bills signed yesterday by Gov. Phil Murphy.
That was part of a package of three bills that were adopted yesterday after a debate that was difficult to follow for even the legislators themselves.
Republican Assemblyman Hal Wirths invoked the spirit of the late senator as he questioned the majority Democrats on the bill.
“Why wouldn’t this bill allow you to grow your own plants?” asked Wirths. “We’re decriminalizing a lot of other things but if someone gets caught growing six plants, or even one plant, that’s a serious crime.”
When I called Wirths later, he said Cardinale had introduced his bill to illustrate what he termed the hypocrisy of the bills’ backers.
“If it’s truly about having less people arrested for marijuana, why have this very severe penalty for someone who has a pot plant?” he asked.
When I’ve discussed this with the sponsors they argue that the state needs to regulate cultivation to keep the pot from flowing to the black market.
But Amol Sinha of the ACLU told me that the state’s tight controls will actually help the black market or “the legacy market” as he terms it.
He said the bill would cap the number of cannabis cultivators at 37 for the first two years. But most of the current cultivators are having a hard time even meeting the demand for the current medicinal market
“One of the reasons why the Legislature chose to legalize is to drive down the legacy market,” Sinha said. “They say they do that to make sure prices are reasonable. But the way to keep prices reasonable is to encourage competition.”
At the moment, Sinha said, New Jerseyans are in a curious position. Possessing up to six ounces of pot is now legal. But there’s nowhere to get that pot until that bureaucracy is up and running.
Wirths said that even when that weed hits the market it will probably be priced higher than black-market weed.
“I don’t think people will want to pay an extra $150 an ounce to get pot with a ‘Jersey Fresh’ label on it,” said Wirths, who comes from Sussex County and does a lot of work on behalf of the farmers there.
How this will all work out is anyone’s guess. But the prime backer of the bill, Democratic state Sen. Nick Scutari of Union County told me he’s proud of one big accomplishment. As of today if the police catch an adult with a personal supply of marijuana “They won’t charge you.”
As for how you get that pot, Cardinale might not be around anymore.
But his bill is.
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Gerry Cardinale: Conservative curmudgeon was correct on cannabis | Mulshine - NJ.com
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