A New Jersey lawmaker introduced a bill Monday to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, according to multiple sources.
New Jersey already has a small medical marijuana program in place, but state Sen. Nicholas Scutari's proposal would dramatically open up the law to allow people to carry up to an ounce of weed and and grow up to six plants.
“Anybody that looks at the facts, knows that the war on marijuana has been a miserable failure," the Democratic lawmaker, who is also a municipal prosecutor, said in a press release, according to Pix 11.
Scutari said legalizing pot would cut down on crime, free up resources for law enforcement to use elsewhere and raise much-needed money through taxes that the state could use to fix its roads and bridges, the Courier Post reports. Individual towns would have the freedom to ban weed or to levy additional local taxes on the drug, Scutari added, according to the local outlet.
The lawmaker, who heads the state's Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Wall Street Journal in January that he was modeling the legislation on Colorado's law.
However, the measure will have a tough time becoming law, as Gov. Chris Christie has said numerous times that he is opposed to legalizing the drug -- except for people with chronic illnesses -- because it sends "the wrong message" to kids.
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