John 'Jay' Gustav Edwards IV[2] (born April 7, 1958 in Newport, Rhode Island) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives representing District 70 since January 2009.

Prior to that he had served as the Senior Deputy Majority Leader under Speaker Gordon Fox.

Along with Senator Miller, Edwards was also able to decriminalize simple possession of buprenorphine making RI the 2nd state in the US to do so.

In his freshman year, Rep Edwards was able to push through legislation that would increase the fines on industrial polluters from $1,000/day to $25,000/day in response to an environmental problem that occurred in the Bay Street area of his district in 2002.

In 2012 Rhode Island became the 15th state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana under legislation championed by Rep Edwards.