New Jersey’s voters have elected U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill to be the next Governor of the Garden State. This is a clearer step towards a policy change that has been long anticipated by both consumers and marijuana advocates.
Sherrill, the new governor of New Jersey, may have already created a market for cannabis used by adults. Phil Murphy (R), who will be the next governor, could make it easier to improve on voter-approved laws in many ways.
Sherrill, just a few days before the elections, gave an overview of her marijuana policy priorities. These included preventing access by youth to THC-containing products, distributing taxes effectively, and providing a solution for the absence of home growing options.
The legislature has the feeling that they didn’t get it right. Sherrill told an interview the cannabis industry feels that there is a problem with the current law. “So some of the kind of low-hanging fruit is the THC drinks that are now unregulated and being sold in 7-Elevens, ensuring that young kids don’t have access to cannabis products, making sure we’re doing better enforcement—because I’ve heard from some mayors concerns about, in bodegas, very young kids are getting access to edibles that look like candy, and their parents don’t realize it’s not.”
“At a similar time, I would like to see some home grow provisions addressed, something that I am in favor of. And then, we should have better regulation around where cannabis can be sold,” said she. The cannabis industry is only interested in it because they are looking to legitimize the business.
Sherrill, in separate remarks, said that “commonsense rules, limits and safeguards” are needed for recreational and medical home grows. She also pledged to collaborate with law enforcement and other stakeholders to implement a model of regulation that will be “safe and thoughtful.”
New Jersey is one of the few states to still prohibit both adult and medical marijuana patients from cultivating cannabis at home. Murphy, New Jersey’s current Governor, has said on numerous occasions that home cultivation should not be allowed until the adult-use market in the state matures.
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.
Chris Goldstein of NORML in New Jersey said, in an op/ed published by MEDCAN24, that it is encouraging to have a candidate like Sherrill who has “wholly supported legalization” and taken several significant pro-cannabis measures while in Congress. He said that Sherrill’s embrace of cannabis cultivation at home represents “a big shift” for an ex-federal prosecutor.
Sherrill, when asked her opinion on how tax revenues from cannabis sales should be allocated, said “some money is supposed to really go to more provisions that ensure kids do not have access,” but this “hasn’t been done.”
She said, “I would like to see a portion of the money go where it was stated in legislation.” But then, naturally, if more money can be put towards the many programs that we would like to see implemented statewide, it’d be great.
Sherrill voted for Democratic bills in both 2019 and 2021 to legalize federally marijuana and promote social equality. That legislation—the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act—cleared the House both times, but didn’t advance in the Senate.
Sherrill, who was elected to Congress as of 2018, endorsed the federal reclassification of marijuana.
As someone who is running for a federal office and has also served as an U.S. Attorney, I’d like to see [marijuana] taken off the Schedule 1 controlled substances list,” she said. Because, quite honestly, it means that there is no medical purpose and the substance cannot be studied. We all know this is not true. “That’s what I want to happen first.”
She’s also supported Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which prohibits federal regulators to penalize financial institutions for working with licensed cannabis businesses in states.
In 2023, the congresswoman sponsored an amendment to defense legislation to expedite the waiver process for military recruits and applicants who admit to prior cannabis use by allowing the lowest-level defense employees to issue such waivers.
The prior year, Sherrill proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
Another amendment she filed for the 2025 NDAA, which was blocked from floor consideration, would have expanded eligibility for expungements of non-violent drug convictions by removing an age restriction limiting relief to those who were under 21 at the time of the offense.
The congresswoman supported amendments in the House of Representatives for 2019 and 2020 to shield all state cannabis programs from federal interference. In 2022, she voted in favor of legislation to expand medical cannabis research that was ultimately signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.
This session, meanwhile, the congresswoman filed a bill that would require Elon Musk and other workers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk has since left, to submit to drug testing to maintain their “special government employee” status.
Outside of marijuana, Sherrill joined other bipartisan congressional lawmakers in 2023 in asking leadership to instruct federal health agencies to include active duty military service members in psychedelic studies.
She voted twice against the amendments of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-NY), that sought to remove certain restrictions on research for Schedule I substances, such as cannabis and psychoactives.
NORML has given Sherrill an “A” grade in its voter guide.
Although it is not known to what extent the marijuana platforms of New Jersey’s two leading candidates for governor affected the vote, Jack Ciattarelli, a former Assemblyman from the state, opposes marijuana legalization, calling marijuana a gateway drug.