The issues have been examined, pot advocates say. Now, it’s time for lawmakers to legalize marijuana.

Joel Bissell | MLive.com

Legalization doesn't introduce marijuana to the consumer market. Rather, it reflects the reality that it is already widely used by adults and provides lawmakers and health and safety experts the opportunity to regulate the market. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist

By Paul Armentano and David L. Nathan

After coming up just a couple of votes short a month ago, the New Jersey Legislature is now on the verge of regulating the cannabis market in the Garden State. Now is the time for the majority of New Jerseyans who support legalization to contact their legislators and urge them to vote “yes” on Senate Bill 2703 and Assembly Bill 4497.

Let’s be clear: Regulation of cannabis is impossible without legalization of its use by adults, and the bill before the state Legislature ensures that legalization here will be accompanied by strong, effective regulation that prevents underage use.

Legalization does not introduce cannabis to the consumer market. Rather, legalization reflects the reality that cannabis is already widely used by adults and provides lawmakers and health and safety experts the opportunity to regulate the market accordingly.

Critics of this effort claim that legalization supporters ignore the health risks of cannabis, particularly to young people or to those predisposed to mental illness. But in fact, just the opposite is true. It is precisely because cannabis use may pose potential risks that lawmakers in New Jersey must take action to regulate its use and sale accordingly.

Some have voiced concerns that children may be inadvertently exposed to cannabis-infused edible products. Yet these concerns are addressed in New Jersey’s legalization bill by the requirement for childproof packaging along with a ban on products and packaging that appeal to young people, such as gummy bears.

Critics have also cited the potential adverse effects of high potency cannabis concentrates. But under a regulated system, all legally purchased products will be tested and clearly labeled with accurate information on potency and serving sizes, so consumers can know what they’re getting. 

Packaging will also include warnings indicating that some potential consumers may be at greater risk of an adverse reaction. By contrast, in New Jersey’s currently unregulated environment, cannabis is not tested for purity, contaminants, or potency. The same thing happened during Alcohol Prohibition, when consumers could only purchase unregulated alcohol of unknown potency or purity, often with lethal results.

In legalized states, licensed sellers are required to check ID prior to making any sale, or they risk having their business operations shut down. This scenario is certainly preferable to today’s illegal market in which teens can often obtain cannabis in a matter of minutes, along with more dangerous drugs that illegal dealers offer. Not surprisingly, teen cannabis use has remained level in states where adult use is legal, and studies show that retail cannabis in these jurisdictions is not being diverted to minors.

Such common-sense statewide regulations already exist governing the use, production, and retail distribution of alcohol and tobacco – two substances that are far more dangerous and costly to society than cannabis. The enforcement of these regulations, coupled with the promotion of public awareness campaigns designed to better educate consumers as to these products’ health effects, have proven effective at reducing the public’s use and misuse of these two substances — particularly among teenagers. According to 2018 data compiled by the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study, alcohol use by young people fell 49 percent since the early 1990s, while underage cigarette use fell 70 percent – an all-time low. We must apply these proven principles to the cannabis market.

Legalization opponents also express concerns that cannabis regulation might serve as a potential ‘gateway’ to opioid abuse. But scores of scientific studies find just the opposite to be true. 

For example, the establishment of recreational cannabis sales in Colorado was associated with a “reversal of the upward trend in opioid-related deaths,” according to data published in 2017 the American Journal of Public Health. Another study published this year determined that among respondents with legal access to cannabis, 70 percent said that they substituted it for prescription medications (primarily opioids), 45 percent acknowledged substituting it for alcohol, and 31 percent said that they used cannabis in place of tobacco.

Instead of inflexibly opposing cannabis legalization, New Jersey lawmakers concerned about cannabis use should embrace this necessary and long overdue regulation of the cannabis market. 

If we want to reduce the risks associated with the plant’s misuse, we must institute a regulatory framework that controls commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to adults, reduces points of access by young people, and creates a legal environment that fosters open and honest dialogue between parents and children about cannabis’ potential harms.