During a Twitter Q&A on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D-York) hinted at a change of heart in his stance toward recreational marijuana legalization in the commonwealth.
“I think it is time for Pennsylvania to take a serious and honest look at recreational marijuana,” tweeted Wolf in response to a question asking when Pennsylvania would catch up to other states in this regard.
California, Washington, and Colorado have dispensaries where anyone can purchase legal marijuana. After a successful ballot initiative, Michigan legalized marijuana on Dec. 6. New Jersey’s recreational weed bill cleared committee recently and is one step closer to becoming law. Delaware isn’t far behind.
Before the election in November, Wolf was more sheepish on recreational marijuana, going as far to say in an August interview with KDKA radio that he didn’t think “citizens of Pennsylvania are ready for it.” He said he was happy with the progress and reforms to the state’s medical marijuana program, but didn’t indicate openness to backing recreational use.
Of course, a poll taken in September 2017 showed that 59 percent of Pennsylvanians do support recreational marijuana. Advocates like Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman (D-Braddock), Auditor General Eugene DePasquale (D-York), and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto have pushed recreational marijuana as a way to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars into state coffers.
Chris Goldstein of marijuana advocacy group Philly NORML takes Wolf’s comments as a positive sign for recreational marijuana’s prospects in the state.
“It is a big shift in position for Gov. Wolf,” says Goldstein. “Previously, he was in the wait-and-see mode. Maybe now he sees that recreational marijuana is a good choice.”
Goldstein thinks Wolf’s latest statement can be influential in moving others towards supporting recreational marijuana.
“Pennsylvania was kind of this one standout state,” says Goldstein. “And everyone was looking at Gov. Wolf’s opinion, and that was kind of holding back some progress.”9
Pennsylvania state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Hill District) introduced a recreational legalization bill earlier this year. Goldstein hopes the governor can get behind that or a similar bill.
The Pennsylvania House and Senate are both controlled by Republicans, though less so than before thanks to Democratic victories in the midterm elections. Typically, Republicans are less amenable to marijuana reform than Democrats, but Goldstein told City Paper in November he believes there is room for bipartisan support.
This article appears in December 19, 2018 – Pittsburgh City Paper.
Those who believe in limited government, personal responsibility, free markets, and individual liberty should embrace the ending of this irrational, un-American cannabis prohibition. It should be the cornerstone of current GOP policy.
Federal studies show 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 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. For the most part, cannabis prohibition only successfully prohibits 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 regular 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, police and court resources are unnecessarily tied up by pursuing and prosecuting victimless ‘crimes’, public mistrust and disrespect for our legal system, police, and government is increased, which can be devastating to our country.
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, grants and subsidies 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.
America was built on the principles of freedom and liberty. 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.