U.S. Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill Tuesday to make marijuana legal at the federal level, marking the first time the New Jersey Democrat has come out in favor of full legalization and further stoking tensions with a Trump administration that has sought to roll back the clock on federal drug policy.

The Marijuana Justice Act, as Booker is calling his bill, would also allow people serving time for marijuana-related offenses to be resentenced and automatically expunge federal marijuana use and possession crimes. States whose marijuana laws disproportionately affect minorities or poor people would lose federal funding for law enforcement and prison construction, among other funds.

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The call to legalize marijuana in New Jersey has been loud and clear, lately. Legalization rallies have occurred in groups in Trenton, and front-runners from both parties of the gubernational primary elections have been vocal in their support of legalization. What is there to know about the legalization of marijuana in New Jersey?

The state's medical marijuana program added 5,000 participants last year, and total enrollment now exceeds 10,000, according to the state's Health Department. There are five state-licensed dispensaries, also known as alternative treatment centers, and Secaucus just got approval to open its own dispensary.

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Regarding "Marijuana should be legalized" (Your Views, June 6):

The points the writer raises regarding legalizing cannabis are ignorant and obviously not factual. They are clearly just his uneducated opinion. Just how will legalization reduce street drug markets? Issues of increased tax revenue, economic boost to retail and job creation, and not contributing to homelessness and violence are irrelevant.

Do you want to be driving your car at 70 miles an hour on the Turnpike with your kid in the back, next to someone who is high because he just finished smoking a recreational joint?

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Regarding "Opioid crisis continues to grow" (Editorial, July 22):

Most of the efforts on overdosing of opioids in Governor Christie's programs have to do with treating the addict. We need more to be done to prevent the addiction from happening in the first place. And at the same time, we should not shame people who want to use soft drugs.

When we have a legal drug, alcohol, which causes far more harm than cannabis does, there is something wrong. We need to acknowledge that some people have a need to benefit from cannabis, and we gain nothing by censuring them. The "stigma" hasn't really worked very well. People have found benefit from this plant. We would be better off accepting this rather than putting them through arrests and worse.

Roy Sutton

Rahway, July 25

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The national opioid crisis is spreading. Despite increased awareness of the dangers of abusing prescription drugs, the numbers of fatalities and overdoses continue to rise. That is too true in Bergen County.

As Staff Writer Steve Janoski reports, despite the efforts of Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, the county appears on track to surpass last year's totals of 320 overdoses; 259 of which were opioid related. Ninety-eight people died. That's an 11 percent increase in overdoses from 2015 and a 12.6 percent increase in fatalities.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - A Pennsylvania man charged with trying to drive through the Holland Tunnel with a cache of weapons on his way to rescue a teenager from a drug den will ask New Jersey's governor for a pardon after a judge denied his request to enter a pretrial intervention program.

Attorney James Lisa told a judge Thursday that he will seek a pardon after the judge denied allowing John Cramsey, of East Greenville, to enter the program after he earlier rejected a plea.

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Medical patients in severe pain seek comfort in a variety of ways. Some remedies, they find, work better than others. Some medications, they find, are less addictive than others. These are factors that must be weighed as New Jersey considers the pros and cons of whether to expand its list of "debilitating medical conditions" for those who wish to participate in the state's medical marijuana program.

More than 12,500 residents have been registered under the program since it was legalized in 2010, yet many more patients and caregivers want to participate and say the state's existing rules are too restrictive. We agree.

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Looking beyond Gov. Chris Christie and seeing a more socially liberal future, Democratic lawmakers opened their campaign to legalize marijuana in New Jersey with a lengthy legislative hearing Monday.

Although no vote was planned on the bill that was introduced last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing formally set in motion a campaign to make New Jersey among the first states in the Northeast to legalize marijuana. Voters in eight other states and Washington, D.C., have approved marijuana legalization, but New Jersey would be the first to do so through legislation.

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Anyone looking to buttress the argument for decriminalizing marijuana in New Jersey should take a close look at a new American Civil Liberties Union report regarding the War on Pot. To sum up: It's a needless fight being waged badly.

Pot arrests have been rising steadily under Gov. Chris Christie, which shouldn't be a surprise. Christie continues to regard marijuana as a gateway drug to harder substances, and dragged his feet on implementing New Jersey's medicinal marijuana law. Christie's compassion and enlightenment regarding drug addiction and how best to combat it seems to stop at opioids.

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The legalization of small amounts of marijuana for people 21 and over came before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday as the committee considers abill introduced by Sen. Nicolas Scutari, D-Union.

According to Scutari's office, no vote was taken. (To listen to the hearing, click here.)

In the bill, Scutari mentions the cost to New Jersey for enforcement. Marijuana possession arrests made up three out of every five drug arrests in New Jersey in 2012. The state shells out about $127 million per year on marijuana possession enforcement efforts.

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West Milford police revived a 31-year-old Hewitt woman suffering from a heroin overdose on Jan. 21.

[photo] A West Milford police car sits idle behind town hall on Dec. 31, 2016.(Photo: Joe Sarno/NorthJersey.com)

WEST MILFORD -- Local police revived a 31-year-old Hewitt woman suffering from an apparent heroin overdose on Saturday afternoon.

West Milford police officers administered the opioid-blocking medication naloxone to the resident after finding her unresponsive at approximately 2:12 p.m. on Jan. 21, according a Jan. 24 press release from the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office.

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McKesson Corporation agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations from federal authorities that the company failed to monitor and report suspicious sales of oxycodone and hydrocodone.

The Washington Post reported on the settlement in December, gleaned from a publicly disclosed Form 8-K filed by McKesson on April 30, 2015.

Tuesday was the first mention of the settlement by federal law enforcement authorities.

The settlement stemmed from an earlier case.

In 2008, McKesson agreed to pay $13.25 million after the government alleged it failed to create and maintain a system to detect and report suspicious orders of increasing amounts of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills to independent and small chain pharmacies.

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[Name redacted] of Denville, was charged by Wayne police with possession of heroin.(Photo: Courtesy of Wayne Police)

[Name redacted], 26, of Denville was arrested and charged with possession of 39 bags of heroin, among other charges, on Jan. 4.

According to police records, Officer Tomasz Cydzik observed a 2000 Honda Civic parked in the CVS parking lot on Hamburg Turnpike with her head down "as if unconscious" around 9:40 p.m. When the officer approached, [name redacted] opened her eyes and police observed an uncapped syringe inside the vehicle, according to police reports. After further investigation, five Suboxone under-the-tongue films, one Clonazepam pill, a sandwich-sized plastic bag containing suspected marijuana, two additional hypodermic needles, multiple open glassine bags of suspected heroin, 39 additional bags of heroin stamped "suicide squad" and one small zip lock bag containing suspected cocaine, police records show.

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Anti-drug advocates hailed Gov. Chris Christie's pledge Tuesday to make New Jersey's addiction crisis a top job in the final year of his term in office, but there were worries about funding and follow through.

Using soaring rhetoric, heartfelt personal stories of loss and unmistakable zeal, the governor used his State of the State address to outline a series of new initiatives to battle the opioid epidemic that has devastated New Jersey.

Paul Ressler, who lost his son Corey to a heroin overdose and now runs an organization that informs the public about the use of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, praised the goal of getting more teenagers into treatment. Christie promised to change state regulations that exclude 18 and 19 year olds from treatment facilities for children.

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[photo] Gov. Chris Christie led a roundtable discussion at Integrity House in Newark, following the signing of an executive order declaring opoid addiction a public health crisis. At right, Integrity House President Robert Budsock. At left is Vanessa, an Integrity House program graduate.(Photo: Dale Mincey / NorthJersey)

NEWARK -- In front of a small group of recovering addicts, Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order on Tuesday declaring the opioid addiction problem in New Jersey a public health crisis.

The event, which was held at Integrity House -- an substance abuse recovery home on South Street in Newark -- took place less than an hour after Lt. Gov. Kim Guagdano announced her candidacy to succeed him as governor.

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[photo] Governor Christie's attorney asked for the dismissal of a probable cause finding on an official misconduct complaint over the George Washington Bridge lane closures.(Photo: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey)

Chris Christie plunged himself into the center of a crisis on Tuesday. It's a place where he's comfortable and often compelling.

It's also a place where he thrives.

"Our friends are dying. Our neighbors are dying. Our co-workers are dying. Our children are dying. Every day. In numbers we can no longer ignore,'' Christie said in his seventh State of the State speech, which was part sermon, part call to arms for the Legislature to confront the state's drug addiction crisis that "is ripping the very fabric of this state."

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[photo] Governor Chris Christie delivers his State of the State address on Tuesday.(Photo: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey)

As he composed a lengthy State of the State speech dedicated to battling New Jersey's heroin and opiate crisis, Governor Christie said he was intent on including one component that will not only challenge lawmakers in Trenton, but drastically alter the health care industry around the state.

He insisted on a new law mandating that no resident with health insurance could be denied coverage for the first six months of inpatient or outpatient treatment, an unprecedented length of time, experts say. He told his administration two months ago to figure out how such a major change could be done.

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The opioid epidemic may have cost as many lives as have been recently lost in Syria. Yet understanding it is difficult.

I saw an Associated Press article that showed that pharmaceutical companies are focusing on lobbying state legislatures. There is a strong relationship between Medicare prescriptions and state income. The poorer the state, the more opioid prescriptions, presumably showing that legislators are particularly vulnerable to Big Pharma if their constituents don't have much money. There is a correlation also with a state's Republican leadership suggesting that less regulation leads to more Medicare opioid prescriptions.

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The program launched by the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office provides rehabilitation to those without insurance.

Heroin and fentanyl deaths are rising in Ocean County.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Anyone suffering from addiction can now drop into two police departments in Ocean County and get treatment, whether they have insurance or not, officials announced Monday morning.

The program also allows addicts to turn in their drugs without fear of being prosecuted, Al Della Fave, the spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said. The office is spearheading the program known as the Heroin Addiction Response Program.

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[photo] A medical marijuana dispensary is proposed for 1154 N. Main St. in Algonquin.

Algonquin officials are considering a medical marijuana company's proposal to open a dispensary in a medical office complex.

ILDISP III LLC, represented by Ross Morreale, is seeking a special-use permit for a free-standing building at 1154 N. Main St., out of which the company would sell marijuana to patients with a prescription.

An attached garage would also be added onto the building, which formerly housed an MRI center, as a secure area for deliveries and waste removal, according to the proposal.

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