Trenton – Senator Sandra Cunningham issued the following statement today on the Senate Judiciary Committee passing legislation to decriminalize cannabis, which she sponsored alongside Senators M. Teresa Ruiz, Ronald Rice and Nicholas Scutari:

“We have been over-penalizing marijuana offenses for far too long. We all know it is not nearly as dangerous as heroin or cocaine and it has no place being classified with them in statute, especially after the voter approval of adult-use cannabis. This legislation will begin to right the ship, revising the damaging criminal codes put in place under the ‘War on Drugs’, which were intentionally created to target the black community, and halting marijuana-related arrests as we wait for legalization to go into effect.”