Report · Oct 5, 2026
Home Grow in NJ: Where the Bills Stand (Spoiler: Nowhere Yet)
You can buy six ounces in New Jersey, but one plant on your windowsill is a crime. Three home grow bills were introduced in January. None has had a hearing.
S2564 · S1758 · A1674, introduced Jan 13 2026 · Marijuana Policy Project · NJ Legislature
You can walk into a store and buy six ounces of weed in New Jersey, but if you put one seed in a pot on your windowsill, you're breaking the law. Almost five years after legalization, NJ is still one of the only legal states where growing your own is a crime.
How rare that is
According to the Marijuana Policy Project, 23 of the other 26 legal states let adults grow at home. New Jersey is one of the very few holdouts.
The bills on the table
Three home grow bills were introduced on January 13, 2026, the first day of the new legislative session:
| Bill | Who it covers | Plants allowed |
|---|---|---|
| S2564 | All adults 21+ | Up to 6 plants (10 for medical patients) |
| S1758 | Medical patients 21+ | 4 mature + 4 immature |
| A1674 | Medical patients 21+ | 4 mature + 4 immature |
S2564 is the big one: it would let any adult grow at home and give the CRC 90 days to write the rules. The two medical bills are matching Senate and Assembly versions, and they'd let a caregiver help patients who can't grow themselves. Plant counts are based on the bill summaries; final numbers can change if they get amended.
Where they are now
All three were introduced and referred to committee in January. Since then, as far as I can find, none of them has gotten a hearing or a vote. Nine months, nothing.
This isn't new either. Versions of these bills have been introduced session after session since legalization, and they keep dying in committee.
Why it keeps stalling
Advocates say a big part of the pushback comes from the licensed industry, which has spent a lot of money on licenses and buildouts and doesn't love the idea of people growing for free. Lawmakers have also pointed to concerns about enforcement and home grows leaking into the illicit market.
Meanwhile, prices keep falling, which kind of kills the argument that home grow would wreck the market. Most people are still going to buy. A lot of us just want the option.
Why it matters
- Medical patients: NJ has 43,043 registered patients. For people who need a lot of medicine, or a specific strain the dispos don't carry, growing could save serious money.
- Quality control: after everything we've learned about inflated THC labels and sketchy lab testing, being able to grow your own clean flower hits different.
- Fairness: legalization was sold as ending the criminalization of cannabis. Arresting someone for a couple of plants doesn't fit that.
What you can do
If you want this to move, call your state senator and assemblymembers and ask them to support S2564 and S1758/A1674, and to push for a committee hearing. You can find your district on the NJ Legislature website. Bills that nobody calls about don't get hearings.
I'll update this the second any of these gets on a committee agenda.
Sources
Right of reply
This is an explainer built from the bills and public reporting. Nobody was contacted for it. If a bill moves or anything here is out of date, tell me and it gets corrected on the page.
How this was put together
Written October 5, 2026. Bill status is from the state’s bill records as of that date, linked at the bottom. Plant counts are from the bill summaries and can change if the bills are amended.