Legal weed: A money grab, a hustle and pure trickery
Senator Ronald L. Rice (D) New Jersey / September 23, 2019
For the last two years, I’ve been very vocal about calling New Jersey’s push to legalize marijuana what it is: A money grab.
It’s not about our economy or about social justice, as some leaders in Trenton claim. It’s about enabling their friends and connections to invest in and reap profits from a virgin industry to be preposterously situated in the most densely populated state in the nation.
Beyond being a bad idea, it’s trickery.
Maybe the best way to explain this trick is through the well-known scam that we’re all too smart for: Three-card Monte.
A hustler convinces gullible passersby to bet money that they’ll be able to track the movement of three cards while they are tossed over each other and rearranged. Usually, the con begins with the hustler showing the unsuspecting “marks” a jack of spades, a jack of clubs and a queen of hearts and tells them to keep their eye on the queen. He then slowly places them facedown in a row and starts switching their positions. It seems easy to follow and at the end, most marks are confident that they were able to follow the queen. But when the card they point to is turned over, a jack appears where the queen should have been.
The nature of gambling being what it is, the duped bettor usually wants another chance to win back his or her money. And to add to the treachery, the hustler often works with a shill who raises the stakes while pretending to be just another innocent bystander.
Luckily, most of us know to void Three-card Monte because unless the hustler wants us to, there’s no way to win. When we see it playing out on a cardboard box on a street corner, we might check it out for the entertainment value, but we won’t open our wallets.
We’re too smart for simple, garden variety, in-your-face street hustlers.
Unfortunately, a lot of us are much less sophisticated when it comes to big business or other organizations that concoct their own sleight of hand behind the scenes and present ideas to the public without telling us about all the moving parts we can’t see.
I thought New Jersey’s recent yearlong travesty of trying to force recreational marijuana legalization through the Legislature felt a lot like a Three-card-Monte swindle. Maybe you’ll agree.
Some of us were told to keep our eye on the card that would use legalization to correct our current social injustice and the biased criminal justice system that incarcerates black and brown people at a rate three times greater than white people with the same small-amount use and possession charges. That was the decriminalization card.
Others of us were told to keep our eye on the card that would use legalization to free up the $147 million New Jersey spends each year to arrest, convict and incarcerate small amount drug offenders. We were told that that money could go instead toward things like lowering property taxes. That, also, was the decriminalization card.
So the cards were being switched around right in front of us and at the end, surprisingly, none of us were able to keep our eye on the right card and get the prize. The “game” was declared over because the collective wisdom of our Legislature prohibited enough votes to pass legalization. Given all the facts, my lawmaker colleagues concluded that legalization would harm our state, not help it, and the matter has now, rightly, been put into the hands of voters at the polls in November 2020.
But here’s where it gets confusing: If officials in Trenton wanted all New Jerseyans to benefit from social justice reform and get poor people out of jail now to go home to their kids; if Trenton really wanted to allow people who couldn’t afford good lawyers to finally have their charges reduced or their records expunged so they are free to get a better job or apartment now — the decriminalization card is still on the table. We can still point to it, pick it up and win — right here on the spot!
Why on earth would we all just walk away and leave that card sitting there? Why would we hold so many of our residents hostage to languish in jail or to have their lives on hold because of unfair criminal records? The card we want is here! Let us win!
We also need to ask whether Trenton leaders ever really wanted to free up that $147 million and put it to better use throughout the state. If that truly was the goal of legalization, what would keep officials from letting our residents cash in on it right now by simply decriminalizing marijuana? Why not just hand that card over and let the money fund programs and lower taxes immediately?
My biggest question is: If the citizens of New Jersey will get the chance to vote on recreational marijuana legalization next year, why do we have to wait until then to make two monumental improvements to our state’s economy and judicial system?
I hate to be suspicious of marijuana industry investors lurking as shills in the background, but I really believe this whole exercise had nothing to do with social justice or lowering property taxes. Maybe it was only an elaborate hustle so that some group makes money. Maybe it was just a series of fake card tosses covering something behind the scenes.
I have to ask if those cards are being tucked away now so they can be put back in play in 2020 to manipulate legalization votes?
Maybe those cards will show up in political commercials next fall when the people of New Jersey get ready to choose how to handle a substance that has caused serious problems in every state where it has been legalized. Maybe we’ll be told once again to keep our eye on whatever card will make us the winner.
I think these questions deserve to be honored by every single one of us contacting our representatives and asking it.
Because we’re smarter than all this. Aren’t we?
State Sen. Ronald L. Rice is a Democrat who represents District 28 in Essex County.
It’s not about our economy or about social justice, as some leaders in Trenton claim. It’s about enabling their friends and connections to invest in and reap profits from a virgin industry to be preposterously situated in the most densely populated state in the nation.
Beyond being a bad idea, it’s trickery.
Maybe the best way to explain this trick is through the well-known scam that we’re all too smart for: Three-card Monte.
A hustler convinces gullible passersby to bet money that they’ll be able to track the movement of three cards while they are tossed over each other and rearranged. Usually, the con begins with the hustler showing the unsuspecting “marks” a jack of spades, a jack of clubs and a queen of hearts and tells them to keep their eye on the queen. He then slowly places them facedown in a row and starts switching their positions. It seems easy to follow and at the end, most marks are confident that they were able to follow the queen. But when the card they point to is turned over, a jack appears where the queen should have been.
The nature of gambling being what it is, the duped bettor usually wants another chance to win back his or her money. And to add to the treachery, the hustler often works with a shill who raises the stakes while pretending to be just another innocent bystander.
Luckily, most of us know to void Three-card Monte because unless the hustler wants us to, there’s no way to win. When we see it playing out on a cardboard box on a street corner, we might check it out for the entertainment value, but we won’t open our wallets.
We’re too smart for simple, garden variety, in-your-face street hustlers.
Unfortunately, a lot of us are much less sophisticated when it comes to big business or other organizations that concoct their own sleight of hand behind the scenes and present ideas to the public without telling us about all the moving parts we can’t see.
I thought New Jersey’s recent yearlong travesty of trying to force recreational marijuana legalization through the Legislature felt a lot like a Three-card-Monte swindle. Maybe you’ll agree.
Some of us were told to keep our eye on the card that would use legalization to correct our current social injustice and the biased criminal justice system that incarcerates black and brown people at a rate three times greater than white people with the same small-amount use and possession charges. That was the decriminalization card.
Others of us were told to keep our eye on the card that would use legalization to free up the $147 million New Jersey spends each year to arrest, convict and incarcerate small amount drug offenders. We were told that that money could go instead toward things like lowering property taxes. That, also, was the decriminalization card.
So the cards were being switched around right in front of us and at the end, surprisingly, none of us were able to keep our eye on the right card and get the prize. The “game” was declared over because the collective wisdom of our Legislature prohibited enough votes to pass legalization. Given all the facts, my lawmaker colleagues concluded that legalization would harm our state, not help it, and the matter has now, rightly, been put into the hands of voters at the polls in November 2020.
But here’s where it gets confusing: If officials in Trenton wanted all New Jerseyans to benefit from social justice reform and get poor people out of jail now to go home to their kids; if Trenton really wanted to allow people who couldn’t afford good lawyers to finally have their charges reduced or their records expunged so they are free to get a better job or apartment now — the decriminalization card is still on the table. We can still point to it, pick it up and win — right here on the spot!
Why on earth would we all just walk away and leave that card sitting there? Why would we hold so many of our residents hostage to languish in jail or to have their lives on hold because of unfair criminal records? The card we want is here! Let us win!
We also need to ask whether Trenton leaders ever really wanted to free up that $147 million and put it to better use throughout the state. If that truly was the goal of legalization, what would keep officials from letting our residents cash in on it right now by simply decriminalizing marijuana? Why not just hand that card over and let the money fund programs and lower taxes immediately?
My biggest question is: If the citizens of New Jersey will get the chance to vote on recreational marijuana legalization next year, why do we have to wait until then to make two monumental improvements to our state’s economy and judicial system?
I hate to be suspicious of marijuana industry investors lurking as shills in the background, but I really believe this whole exercise had nothing to do with social justice or lowering property taxes. Maybe it was only an elaborate hustle so that some group makes money. Maybe it was just a series of fake card tosses covering something behind the scenes.
I have to ask if those cards are being tucked away now so they can be put back in play in 2020 to manipulate legalization votes?
Maybe those cards will show up in political commercials next fall when the people of New Jersey get ready to choose how to handle a substance that has caused serious problems in every state where it has been legalized. Maybe we’ll be told once again to keep our eye on whatever card will make us the winner.
I think these questions deserve to be honored by every single one of us contacting our representatives and asking it.
Because we’re smarter than all this. Aren’t we?
State Sen. Ronald L. Rice is a Democrat who represents District 28 in Essex County.