[ssharp]

If NJ doesn't require a NJ ID in order to buy in-state, the differences are huge. NJ is in a much denser area than Washington, Oregon, or Colorado.

Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are all reasonable drives away and NYC is right next door.

[chrisabrams]

It would be quite ironic for NJ to pass it, and watch my NYC friends who said they would "never visit Jersey" all the sudden find a reason to come...

[dec0dedab0de]

Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are all reasonable drives away and NYC is right next door.

not to nitpick, but Philadelphia is just as close as NYC (maybe even closer) I routinely joke that Philadelphia and NYC are part of New Jersey, usually to upset citizens of said cities. Then I point out that the culture in those cities is much more like NJ than the rest of their own states.

[SmellTheGlove]

I grew up in NJ - I'd do the same thing to rile people up, but deep down I knew: South Jersey is part of Philly, and anything north of Mercer Co is basically NY. Except for the shore counties - they hate all of us equally. So I consider them to be New Yorkers out of spite.

[dec0dedab0de]

Most of the "hate" is just as superficial as programmers teasing people that use other languages, or sysadmins trash talking other operating systems. I can see the Walt Whitman bridge from the end of my road, and I have made friends with plenty of people from North, and Central Jersey.

...Another fun one is to pretend that Central Jersey doesn't exist, or to claim to be a proud Shoobie (or Benny) to the shore people :-)

[SmellTheGlove]

Totally. Jersey Pride is actually a unifying force. Kind of like how we all pretend to not like Seaside and Wildwood.

[simplicio]

I know the Netherlands has had issues with drug tourism after their legalization efforts. I wonder if Jersey won't have similar issues. Other states that have legalized have been protected from this by geography, but Jersey City is smack in the middle of a gigantic greater metropolitan area and mass transit system that spans multiple states.

But the plan is to delay actual legalization till 2019 (the Gov just wants the legislation passed in his first 100 days), so presumably they're conscious that legalization will bring about a bunch of logistic issues like this that need to be worked out.

[bradleyjg]

Amsterdam and Jersey City aren't really similarly situated. Drug tourism comes with some problems, and if you can get beautiful canals, the Dutch Masters, and Anne Frank House tourists instead you'd much prefer those. But if that's not an option drug tourism is probably better than nothing. If not to JC, which is gentrifying rapidly, then certainly to Newark which is just a couple of stops further on the PATH.