Medical cannabis advocates are condemning New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill’s (D) silence on stalled home cannabis garden growing.
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Legalizing NJ Cannabis Home Garden Growing Gridlock
Despite explicit campaign promises to support safe, regulated home grow, the Governor’s office has repeatedly ignored formal requests from patient advocacy groups seeking to discuss the ongoing legislative gridlock, according to a press release.
Sativa Cross, the NJ Homegrowing Coalition, and the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of New Jersey (CMMNJ) have been frustrated for months with the lack of progress.
New Jersey is one of only two states with a legal adult-use market that treats cultivating a single cannabis plant as a third-degree felony. It carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three to five years in prison.
There is bipartisan legislation, such as S2564, which would allow adult-use and medical home cannabis gardening, and S1758. The second bill only legalizes medical cannabis home gardening. But they are both stalled in Trenton due to opposition from Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union-22).
Medical Cannabis Advocates Rage Over Indifference
Advocates have noted that executive leadership has been entirely absent on the issue.
“We are being met with a deafening excuse from Trenton,” said Sativa Cross Vice President Sue DeGregorio-Rosen, Registered Nurse (RN). “State leadership hides behind loud, unproven claims about protecting the commercial market and stopping illicit trade. Governor Sherrill campaigned on a promise of common-sense home grow reform. Turning her back on patients now and refusing to even acknowledge our requests for a meeting is a profound betrayal.”
“For thousands of disabled, low-income, and critically ill patients across the State, this total ban creates an insurmountable financial barrier, forcing them to pay some of the highest corporate retail cannabis prices in the nation. What’s wrong with that picture?” she asked.
“We have reached out to the Governor and her team through many different avenues, only to be met with complete silence,” DeGregorio-Rosen added.
Advocates are calling on all New Jersey residents, medical patients, and civil rights allies to demand transparency. The coalition demands Sherrill honor her campaign platform by publicly calling for a committee hearing on home grow legislation.
“Silence from the highest office in the state is a policy choice,” DeGregorio-Rosen argued. “It is a choice to prioritize corporate market margins over the health, safety, and legal freedom of New Jersey citizens.”
Industry Support for Medical Cannabis Home Growing
When asked about the issue, Scutari has repeated rhetoric about protecting the industry in an imagined zero-sum game.
Thus, it is notable that NJ Cannabis Trade Association (NJCTA) President Todd Johnson told Heady NJ they would support medical cannabis home growing via gardening S 1758 becoming law.
The NJCTA represents some of the largest cannabis Multi-State Operators (MSOs), along with some newer local independent companies.
Heady NJ hears many MSO executives and lobbyists share the zero-sum game mentality, especially in the adult-use cannabis market.
This is in stark contrast to the many local and craft cannabis companies that support the NJ Homegrow coalition. The most prominent one is former NJ CannaBusiness Association (NJCBA) President and Township Green Dispensary Owner Scott Rudder.
Under Sherrill, Jersey has been all-in on a crackdown on shady smoke shops and convenience stores selling infused/intoxicating hemp.
Troubles for Sherrill
Along with being accused of indifference toward sickly medical cannabis patients and the pro-home grow majority of the New Jersey cannabis community, Sherrill has problems of her own.
The honeymoon with her since taking office in January ended when she turned the NJ State Police on protestors enraged at the Trump Administration’s ICE deportation prison Delaney Hall in Newark.
But more recently, there have been very unfortunate allegations against New Jersey Lieutenant Dale Caldwell. He has been accused of sexual harassment. There is an ongoing investigation. Sherrill has hired former Republican NJ Attorney General Christopher Porrino to spearhead the investigation.
The NJ Senate Republican Minority Leader Anthony Bucco has called for him to resign. Unlike his Democratic counterpart Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex-27), he is a medical cannabis home growing legalization sponsor.
Notably, Porrino was recently the top attorney for the corporate MSO Curaleaf in their recent anti-labor union case.
Some of Caldwell’s female supporters counter-launched a movement to defend him.
Caldwell and the NJ State Department
While Lt. Governor, Caldwell is also Secretary of State. The NJ State Department handles several functions, including the Division of Elections as well as the NJ Business Action Center, which administers the NJ Cannabis Training Academy (CTA).
The CTA is doing well and on track to celebrate its 2nd anniversary next week month teaching NJ cannabis entrepreneurs and professionals.
Unfortunately, controversy has developed with the Division of Elections about certain individuals accidentally registered to vote. The US Department of Justice under President Donald Trump (R) is seeking to investigate. The Republicans are eager to capitalize on the outrage.
Sherrill picked the former president of a small college to be her top deputy and Acting Governor when she leaves the State, according to New Jersey Law.
So now it might be very difficult for her to leave the State to campaign during the 2026 midterms, which she did before the Caldwell scandal broke.
