Download the 2022 Insider 100: Cannabis Power List or view it below:

COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!

Welcome to InsiderNJ’s 2022 Insider 100: Cannabis Power List, a tribute to politically influential voices in New Jersey’s cannabis movement. You’ll meet activists and advocates who did the work to legalize weed as well as lobbyists, lawyers, caretakers, and industry types looking for their slice of New Jersey’s multibillion dollar cannabis industry. 

There are many good reasons to legalize cannabis such as giving sick people better access to medical cannabis therapy. There’s also the growing consensus that locking people up for weed is a bad and very costly idea.  But what about legalizing pot for the people who enjoy getting stoned?

Let’s normalize that, shall we?

I’ll go first: My name is Jay Lassiter, I’m 50 years old and I like to smoke pot pretty much every day and frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that. And thanks to voters, smoking pot for pleasure is no longer a crime here in the Garden State. But cannabis is still a Federal crime. And it’s still illegal to grow your own in New Jersey, even for medical users, leaving the Garden State very much out of line with other states where some version of home cultivation is permitted. 

So It’s easy to understand why folks remain circumspect (or even closeted) about marijuana use, even in the year 2022. Anyone old enough to read this grew up during the cannabis prohibition era when using or purchasing weed was very much illegal and very heavily stigmatized. 

That stigma persists until more people come out of the pot closet but (and it’s a big but) folks remain closeted about their pot use because of the stigma. 

It’s a vicious cycle. 

The tributes on this year’s Cannabis Power List are devoted to ending that cycle. 

Download the 2022 Insider 100: Cannabis Power List or view it below: