Eugene DePasquale

On Sept. 21, Franklin & Marshall College released its latest political poll showing Pennsylvanians are emerging with clear eyes in their support for legalizing recreational marijuana. According to the poll of about 400 registered voters, 59 percent of Pennsylvanians say that recreational marijuana should be made legal. Only 31 percent say that it shouldn’t be made legal, with 9 percent undecided. The support and opposition are both the highest and lowest results, respectively, the poll has ever seen.

Support for legal weed is up 3 percentage points since May 2017 and up 19 points since June 2015.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who first suggested the state seek to legalize recreational marijuana in March, spoke to Pittsburgh City Paper while he was in Pittsburgh on Sept. 21. He said this latest poll is mounting evidence that the state government should let Pennsylvanians smoke.

“The public is ahead of the politicians on this issue,” said DePasquale. “They know the way we are dealing with marijuana right now makes no sense. It is time to regulate and tax it. It will be better for the people of Pennsylvania. It will generate tax revenue, it will actually help create jobs, and it will save law enforcement time in trying to prosecute people who are not a threat to society.”

DePasquale noted the support of more than the majority of voters indicates that recreational marijuana is receiving backing from voters across the political spectrum and feels that “even among conservatives, it’s growing in support.” In April 2016, the state passed a law legalizing medical-marijuana use.

“When you get to 60 percent support, it is not just one group,” said Pasquale. “That means it is really growing across the board.”

In the F&M poll, 191 registered Democrats, 152 Republicans and 55 independents responded to the questions. Democrats, who are typically more liberal and provide greater support for legal marijuana, only made up 48 percent of the poll. So, at least an additional 11 percent of Republicans and independents also believe Pennsylvania should legalize recreational marijuana.

Pasquale said that the poll should remind the state legislature that now is the time to act on legalizing recreational marijuana.

“I thought they should have acted before,” said DePasquale. “Especially considering the budget debacle we are in right now. But when you get to 60 percent, it’s not just liberals, conservatives or moderates — it’s starting to go across the board.”

In 2006, only 22 percent of Pennsylvanians supported legalizing recreational weed, according to past F&M polls. But since then, support has increased, with the exception of a slight decrease in 2014. But 2017 has been a banner year for support of recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania, with support largely outweighing opposition. Patrick Nightingale, of marijuana-advocacy group Pittsburgh NORML, says the rising approval is not just attributed to less stigma, but also from noting the benefits that come to state governments.

“People in Pennsylvania read the news, they see the shows, they see the progress in other parts of the country,” says Nightingale. “We need property-tax relief, our schools needs more funding, and we have a gigantic deficit in the state budget. They know recreational marijuana can help that.”

DePasquale said in March that Pennsylvania could see $200 million in additional revenue if the state legalized and regulated recreational marijuana. In Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, 2016 brought in $200 million in weed-related revenue, and the state of Washington brought in $256 million, according to VS Strategies, a pro-legalization research company in Denver.

And some local officials are ready and waiting for Pennsylvania to join the eight other states, and Washington, D.C., in having legal recreational marijuana available.

“I just think Pennsylvania should go full Colorado,” says Braddock Mayor John Fetterman. “We have a budget deficit right now, and we have this substance that we can legalize. We can make it safe, take it out of the shadows, we could tax it. We could put those dollars toward whatever we as a commonwealth decide to do.”

This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2017.

9 replies on “Poll shows support for legal recreational marijuana, Pennsylvania Auditor General says time to legalize is now”

  1. Marijuana consumers deserve and demand equal rights and protections under our laws that are currently afforded to the drinkers of far more dangerous and deadly, yet perfectly legal, widely accepted, endlessly advertised and even glorified as an All American pastime, alcohol.

    Plain and simple!

    Legalize Marijuana Nationwide!

  3. if New Jersey beats us to legalization, as it appears they will, I fear millions of $ that could have been used to balance our budget, will go to New jersey’s as PA residents cross the border.

  4. Instead of outsourcing the permits to grow recreational marijuana I would suggest that the Commomwealth actually look to those that are illegally growing said plant. They would know what the climate is like here as well as have experiance. It would create more jobs here in businesses founded by local residents, and generate tax revenue.

  6. If Colorado can make 250 million dollars PA would make over a billion easily, lets get this train a rollin’.

  7. About half of the U.S. population has tried cannabis, at least 15% use it regularly, over 80% of high school seniors have reported cannabis “easy to get” for decades. Those who really want to use cannabis heavily already are. Prohibition does little or nothing to prevent problematic use. In many cases prohibition makes cannabis usage problematic where it would not have been otherwise, be it light, moderate, or heavy usage. The main thing that cannabis prohibition successfully prohibits is effective regulation.

    A few issues created by prohibition: there are no quality controls to reduce contaminants (harmful pesticides, molds, fungus, other drugs), there is no practical way to prevent underage sales, billions in tax revenue are lost which can be used for all substance abuse treatment, underground markets for all drugs are empowered as a far more popular substance is placed within them expanding their reach and increasing their profits, criminal records make pursuing many decent careers difficult, public mistrust and disrespect for our legal system, police, and government is increased, which can be devastating.

    Prohibition is also very expensive, though, a cash cow for a number of powerful groups such as those related to law enforcement and the prison industry. These organizations have powerful lobbies and influence that perpetuate a failed drug policy through ignorance, fear, disinformation and misinformation. This ensures an endless supply of lucrative contracts and grants from the government and its taxpayers to support their salaries, tools of the trade, and other expenses. Cash, property and other assets from civil forfeiture laws also significantly fatten their coffers while often violating civil rights.

    Those who wish to live in a free society must accept that this means freedom for all people of that society, not only for certain groups and the activities they happen to enjoy. Obviously in some cases there are extreme circumstances that warrant intervention with criminal law. In the case of mind-altering drugs we have already set this precedent with alcohol. Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol to the consumer and especially to others. If we are to have justice, then the penalties for using, possessing and selling cannabis should be no worse than those of alcohol.

    Considering the many issues created by cannabis prohibition, coupled with little, if any, reduction in problematic use, its continued support is irrational and harmful. Please help bring end to this irrational, costly and unjust prohibition. The organizations listed below fight every day to bring us sensible cannabis policies. Help them fight by joining their mailing lists, signing their petitions and writing your legislators when they call for it:

    NORML – National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws – http://norml.org/
    DPA – Drug Policy Alliance – http://www.drugpolicy.org/
    MPP – The Marijuana Policy Project – http://www.mpp.org/
    LEAP – Law Enforcement Action Partnership – http://www.leap.cc/

  8. Disabled people are getting assaulted and harassed by the way the law is and who wants to give away their guns for medical marijuana when you have children and you want to go to the forest and hunt. I smoked pot since I’ve been 20 I’m now 40 years old and I never got punished till now. Because the system is that corrupt. Soon I’ll be on Massachusetts

  9. What happened to the Commonwealth with disabled people. You give us no choice but to go to Massachusetts to see if we even want to have medical marijuana card… point blank it’s a trap for the year 2018…….

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