in the recreational Cannabis world today holds a lot of significance it marks 3 years since Governor Murphy signed the bill legalizing adult use marijuana a key component to the law was and remains social justice and today a number of activists acknowledge the amount of marijuana related arrests that have been prevented because of the law but pointed out to Ted Goldberg there are still plenty of inequities within the system free the weed free the people free the we free the people on the third anniversary of Governor Phil Murphy signing the bill that legalized recreational Cannabis Statewide activists marched smoked and spoke in Trenton about what's next for cannabis we do not consider a state fully legal without home cultivation rights and we are severely lacking and behind other states in this area Most states that legalize cannabis also legalize growing your own plants New Jersey has not and will enforce heavy penalties if you get caught even today today 3 years later a registered cannabis medical patient could end up in prison for 5 years just growing one plant a plant that 3 million new jerseyans voted to legalize we don't want to see anyone going to prison because of non nonviolent cannabis offense I'm here today to say don't let patients continue to suffer for the sake of corporate home or for the sake of corporate greed it's tough to remain hopeful when things look this bad activists say they're not asking to grow Acres of cannabis at home just enough to fill a grow tent like this some patients say the strains available at commercial dispensaries aren't what they need and can even make their symptoms worse having epilepsy and brain damage I'm very strain specific certain strains can actually trigger seizures while other ones can stop them right now I can't get my medicine in the dispensaries but if I were to try to grow a plant at home I would have 5 to 10 years in prison potentially there have been several bills introduced to legalize and regulate homegrown cannabis but they've gone nowhere in the state state house in 2021 legislative leaders dismissed home grow as a nonstarter when it should have been recognized as a no-brainer what makes New Jersey special why couldn't New Jersey legalize cannabis but also include home grow uh when it was first legalized a few years back there is no good reason not to do it Senator Vin Gopal has introduced a bill to legalize homegrown multiple times I think we should have done this when we did it on day one just like every other state don't get a lot of co-sponsors you know there's 120 legislators uh folks that want hom grow need to reach out to their legislators ask them to to sponsor our bills co-sponsor our bills and uh it's it's had trouble getting support uh Beyond me senator gopal says some of his constituents would prefer to grow their own since it's cheaper and it requires less travel the purpose of legalizing cannabis is not just so a bunch of Corporations from out of state can come in and make money it was supposed to be for a criminal justice purpose and I I don't believe we've gotten there uh is supposed to be for a health care purpose uh I don't believe we've gotten there he's also heard the argument that big business is keeping homegrown cannabis from getting off the ground home grow and every state has shown does not have an impact on the on the business Market uh businesses will allow to operate to to have someone do 4 ,6, 8,10 plants is going to have no impact there we've seen in other states it can be regulated Governor Murphy has said before that he would sign a bill legalizing homegrown cannabis but there's a lot of cultivating to do before a bill like that lands on his desk in Trenton I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news