Trenton — New Jersey CannaBusiness Association President Scott Rudder, a former Republican mayor and state legislator, issued the following statement today regarding New Jersey’s 21 Republican county chairs backing a resolution opposing cannabis legalization:
“This is such an incredibly short-sighted, poorly thought out decision. We know the war on cannabis has been a total failure. We know it has disproportionately impacted minority communities and needlessly ruined the lives of many for no good reason. We know that many of the myths about cannabis – some of which the chairs clearly buy into – have been disproven.
“Legalization is as much a Republican issue as it is a Democratic issue. It will reduce government spending while creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in revenue for the state. It will close the book on failed policies of the past that disproportionately harmed the same communities Republicans must reach out to if they ever expect to be relevant again in New Jersey. Republican and Democratic-led states across the country have realized all this and acted on it. In fact, the entire country of Canada has legalized cannabis. New Jersey, hopefully, will be next and when it is, the chairs will see then what they apparently fail to understand now: that they are planting their feet firmly on the wrong side of history.”
