A former New Jersey Senate leader who’s now running for governor says “it is time” to give medical marijuana patients an option to grow their own cannabis plants for personal use. He’s also pledging to expand clemency for people impacted by marijuana criminalization if elected, and is expressing support for the establishment of cannabis consumption lounges.
Steve Sweeney, who was the longest-serving Senate president in the state’s history, said on Monday that he’s heard public calls to legalize medical cannabis home cultivation—and he agrees.
“I have been involved with the journey toward legalization of cannabis for several years, from medical use to the transition to adult recreational use,” he said. “We even phased out the tax on medical cannabis as adult recreational options became available to keep the price more affordable for medical patients.”
“Home cultivation was always going to be part of this process, it was essential to first establish a strong commercial foundation,” Sweeney said. “Now, several years into adult recreational use, it is time to allow home cultivation for medical patients.”
I hear you, New Jersey — and I’ve been involved with this journey for years.
Now that we’ve established a strong commercial foundation, it’s time to allow home cultivation for medical patients. pic.twitter.com/W7syCjZna1
— Steve Sweeney (@SteveSweeney_NJ) March 17, 2025
Unlike most other states that have enacted cannabis legalization, New Jersey continues to prohibit home cultivation for both adults and medical marijuana patients.
Separately, Sweeney recently responded to a questionnaire from the New Jersey Home Grow Coalition, expanding on his thoughts about cannabis policy reform objectives.
“I believe it’s time for registered medical cannabis patients in New Jersey to have the right to home cultivation,” he said. “Patients deserve affordable and accessible treatment options, and home grow would provide a critical alternative for those who rely on cannabis for their health.”
“As Governor, I would support clear and transparent regulations to ensure a responsible and well-regulated medical cannabis home cultivation program,” he said.
Asked about his position on broader home cultivation rights for recreational consumers, Sweeney said he currently only supports letting registered patients grow their own plants.
“I believe home cultivation can be responsibly implemented with clear guidelines on plant limits to balance patient access with a well-regulated marketplace,” he said. “Protecting patient care while ensuring a strong and stable regulated market is key.”
The candidate also weighed in on what he’d do as governor to expand cannabis clemency for those who’ve been impacted under prohibition.
He said he’d “work closely with legal experts, community organizations, and advocacy groups to implement a robust clemency program for non-violent cannabis-related offenses.”
“We must ensure that those who were unjustly criminalized under outdated laws have the opportunity to clear their records and rebuild their lives,” he said. “This is an issue of fairness, and it is time New Jersey fully addresses it.”
Further, Sweeney voiced support for allowing licensed cannabis consumption lounges in the state that “provide a safe and responsible space for adult-use consumers and medical patients.”
“These spaces would allow for social consumption in a controlled environment while ensuring compliance with public health and safety regulations,” he said.
The former Senate president also said he agrees that people should be allowed to responsibly consume cannabis on their own time without it impacting their employment, similar to how alcohol is treated.
“Responsible adult cannabis consumption should not be grounds for workplace discrimination, just as we do not penalize legal alcohol use outside of work,” he said. “We need common-sense protections for workers that respect both personal freedom and workplace safety.”
Chris Goldstein, an organizer with NORML who received a presidential pardon certificate under the Biden administration after being formally forgiven for a 2014 cannabis possession case, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that he and the cannabis coalition “certainly welcome Steve Sweeney in supporting medical cannabis cultivation at home.”
“New Jersey residents face some of the highest regulated prices in the country and inconsistent product safety. Allowing a few personal gardens won’t hurt the billion dollar industry,” he said. “I’m also pleased to see the Democrats leading the race for NJ governor consistently supporting personal cannabis cultivation.”
The former senator’s comments on home grow depart from what current Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has said on multiple occasions, arguing that the state’s adult-use marijuana market needs to further mature before home grow is authorized.
Seemingly contradicting that claim, dozens of New Jersey small marijuana businesses and advocacy groups recently called on the legislature to allow adults to cultivate their own cannabis.
The more than 50 businesses and advocates, which formed a collective known as the New Jersey Home Grow Coalition last year, signed an open letter to Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D), pushing leadership to advance pending legislation to legalize home grow for patients.
Meanwhile, advocates are closely monitoring gubernatorial candidates’ cannabis records ahead of the November election.
One of those candidates—Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D)—said recently that “cannabis shouldn’t be treated any differently than other restrictions on indoor or outdoor gardening, so long as it’s not commercial and is not in a public space where minors would have access.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop (D) separately said he’d be “fully supportive of allowing home cultivation of cannabis for personal recreational and medical use with some common sense guardrails in place to prevent unregulated commercial activities and to protect quality of life.”
That’s despite Fulop’s controversial effort to maintain a policy prohibiting police from using marijuana off-duty, regardless of the state’s legalization law.
While there seems to be growing support for allowing a home grow option under New Jersey’s marijuana laws, including within the small cannabis industry community, there’s been continued resistance from the current governor and key lawmakers.
Murphy said in late 2023 that he remains “very much open-minded” about the idea of adding a home grow option to the state’s marijuana law—but he still wants to give the licensed industry more time before opening up home cultivation.
“I’m very much open-minded to this. I would bet—if I were a betting man—that down the road that that’s exactly where this would land,” he said. “I understand, having said that, why wasn’t in our initial regs, because I think there’s a rightful objective to get this industry up on its feet and make sure that the folks who are in this as a matter of commerce are successful and, again, with a huge amount of focus on equity.”
Murphy has been repeatedly pressed on the state’s lack of a home cultivation option, and he’s maintained his openness to the policy before and after New Jersey’s adult-use cannabis market launched in 2022.
What he hasn’t offered, however, is a concrete sense of what exactly he’d want to see in terms of industry maturation before he’d be willing to seriously engage on the issue administratively or legislatively.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s (D) office recently tempered expectations about advancing home cultivation legislation in the short-term, for example, telling NJ.com that the speaker “remains supportive of legal cannabis cultivation and sales remaining exclusively with the regulated market where the state has established strict testing and packaging requirements that ensure consumers’ health is protected.”
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Meanwhile, in January applications officially opened to operate a licensed marijuana consumption lounge in New Jersey. That came nearly a year after the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) finalized rules for the lounges.
In December, in addition to releasing application forms for the new license type, NJ-CRC also approved a cannabis fee increase to support the state’s social equity program.
Also that month, regulators announced that New Jersey marijuana sales officially exceeded $1 billion for 2024.
Since the adult-use market launched in April 2022—and the number of licensed dispensaries surpassed 190—the state has seen more than $2 billion in cannabis sales.
Jeff Brown, the executive director of NJ-CRC, had predicted that the state would hit the $1 billion sales mark by the end of 2024 in an interview with Marijuana Moment last year.
Regulators have also stressed that they will not be letting the state’s medical cannabis system fall by the wayside even as they work to support the burgeoning recreational market. To that end, the commission eliminated the cost of obtaining a medical cannabis card.
Separately, the governor has proposed increased a special tax on marijuana to generate revenue that would go toward social service and violence intervention programs.
Read Sweeney’s responses to the cannabis coalition questionnaire below:
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