Invest Cannabis Tax Revenue in Communities

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New Jersey can lead the way in making sure that the communities most harmed by marijuana criminalization benefit from revenue generated by cannabis sales. Send a message to New Jersey’s elected leaders to create a more transparent and participatory reinvestment process to ensure that New Jersey lives up to its promise of fair and equitable cannabis legalization.

Message Recipients:
Governor Phil Murphy
Senate President Nicholas Scutari
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin
Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz
Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald
Senator Paul Sarlo
Assemblymember Eliana Pintor Marin

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Your Message

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Subject

In 2021, New Jersey legalized cannabis with the promise of investing almost sixty percent of all cannabis sales tax revenue and one hundred percent of the Social Equity Excise Fee (SEEF) in communities most harmed by the criminalization of marijuana. Since then, New Jersey has seen the first of those funds reach the State’s coffers, and in 2023, the state raised almost $30 million in adult-use cannabis sales tax revenue. These new funds require state elected leaders to engage New Jerseyans, so that residents can decide how the revenue should be allocated to best prioritize community needs.

Message Body

Unfortunately,  New Jersey failed to live up to its promise of community reinvestment when the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission voted to bypass its own regulations to keep the SEEF artificially low at the end of 2024, leaving millions of dollars on the table that should have been collected to invest back into communities most harmed by marijuana prohibition. In addition to delaying the collection of community reinvestment revenue, New Jerseyans have also not been given meaningful opportunities to weigh in on allocation of the reinvestment funds during the budget process, and it remains unclear how this new revenue was allocated in the State’s annual budget.

While New Jersey took an important step in the Legislation towards beginning to repair the harms of marijuana prohibition by creating community reinvestment provisions, the Legislature must create processes that make this commitment real:

• Ensure that the SEEF is raised annually in accordance with the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission’s regulations to ensure robust funding for community reinvestment, as envisioned by the State’s 2021 cannabis legalization law.

• Create a public tool that tracks the funding set aside for community reinvestment and how it is being used to support new resources and opportunities, as well as an annual report on cannabis community reinvestment that tracks how reinvestment dollars are used over time.

• Fulfill the demands of New Jerseyans regarding what investments they want to see in their municipalities. Community members want to see investments in resources that help people thrive, such as education, housing, employment, harm reduction, and social services, not more money for policing, prosecution, or incarceration.

• Institute a more participatory and community-driven process to determine how all community reinvestment from the cannabis sales tax revenue and Social Equity Excise Fee should be used, including annual legislative hearings on community reinvestment and meetings with community-based organizations.

• Establish a Cannabis Community Reinvestment Advisory Board to inform the allocation of community reinvestment funds. The board should be made up of New Jerseyans directly impacted by criminalization, through the criminal legal system, child welfare, housing, immigration, education, and employment.

This moment calls for action and leadership. New Jersey can lead the way in making sure that the communities most harmed by marijuana criminalization do not get left behind as money flows into industry and the State’s budget from cannabis sales. I urge you to work with your colleagues to adopt these changes to the annual community reinvestment allocation process, and to ensure that New Jersey lives up to its promise of fair and equitable cannabis legalization.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

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Invest Cannabis Tax Revenue in Communities

Act Now

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