Murphy to sign medical marijuana bill Tuesday

Gov. Phil Murphy will sign a bill expanding the state’s medical marijuana program on Tuesday.

“On Tuesday, @FirstLadyNJ and I will join the Honig family in Freehold to sign the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act into law,” Murphy said on Twitter. “We must continue to knock down barriers so that this life-changing medical treatment is affordable and accessible.”

If that plan holds up — there’s no reason to expect it won’t — the state will finally have implemented one part of its three-bill marijuana legalization package.

For all intents and purposes, the state’s legalization efforts are on hold until 2020 after Democrats failed to rally enough votes for recreational marijuana in the legislature’s upper chamber. Lawmakers are now looking to pass the measure via referendum in 2020.

They aren’t doing a referendum this year because turnout is expected to be low with Assembly races at the top of the ticket.

The third part of that package is an expungement bill awaiting Murphy’s signature.

It’s not clear when he’ll take action on that measure.

Members of the legislature’s Black and Hispanic caucuses held a press conference pushing the expungement bill and a decriminalization bill that has yet to find support from Murphy and Senate President Steve Sweeney.