NEED FOR WEED?
PUSH GROWS FOR LEGAL RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA
Gov. Tom Wolf last week asked lawmakers to send him a bill to legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults, though there seemed little appetite from GOP leadership to take up such a bill in the waning days of the current session.
“It was Winston Churchill who said: ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-34 of Centre County, in a statement. “We have long maintained that state laws should be changed because they are good policy for the people of Pennsylvania – not because of their potential to generate money. We do appreciate, though, the governor recognizing the need for the General Assembly to play a role in this.”
Corman went on to say that his caucus looks forward to receiving specifics about regulation, sales locations and enforcement, as well as plans to minimize the impact on the medical marijuana industry, but said movement on the issue “should not be expected his fall.”
Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus spokesman Jason Gottesman went one further, criticizing the Democratic governor as inconsistent and contradictory in calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana shortly after renewing a disaster declaration for an opioid crisis that continues to ravage Pennsylvania.
“Instead of legalizing drugs as a way to tax and spend on new government programs, the governor should work with the General Assembly to help get Pennsylvanians safely back to work, (help) our children get the best educational opportunities, and provide the return to normalcy Pennsylvanians long for,” said Gottesman.
Wolf signed legislation authorizing the state’s medical marijuana program in
2016, but he and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman have long signaled a desire for Pennsylvania to join other states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Fetterman held a listening tour on the issue across the commonwealth last year, after which Wolf announced he supported making the drug legal for recreational purposes.
In his most recent announcement, Wolf said he hoped to gain support from the legislature to legalize marijuana for those at least
21 years old and that about half a proposed tax would go to help historically disadvantaged businesses.
Pennsylvania law treats possession of any marijuana outside the medical marijuana program as a crime, although there is a diversion program for firsttime, nonviolent offenders and a few municipalities decriminalized possession of small amounts, including Folcroft and Upper Darby.
Eddystone Councilman Rob Yannuzzi said this week that he also plans to introduce an ordinance soon decriminalizing personal use to ensure people who aren’t caught up in the criminal justice system for possessing or using small amounts of marijuana.
“I also would like something that, when the inevitable legalization happens at the state level, Eddystone benefits from the industry,” he said. “My only fear is that it becomes a partisan issue on council and Eddystone ends up missing the opportunity because we can’t agree on the way to incorporate that industry into our community.”
County Council last week had a first reading of a proposed county-wide ordinance to make the purchase, possession or smoking of 30 grams or less of marijuana a civil penalty with a $50 fine, rather than a criminal offense.
Council Chairman Brian Zidek explained the ordinance, if eventually approved, would not remove any police powers to charge people where officers believe that would be appropriate, but would give them another tool and the discretion to make that call themselves.
Zidek said the ordinance had come at the request of law enforcement organizations and council intends to have a public hearing in the coming weeks to gather more information from the public.
“I have heard from police officers that they would prefer to have this as an option, that it would give them another tool at their disposal so they can make a decision on their own as to what should be done in a particular instance, rather than have fewer tools and they’re forced to make an arrest when they don’t think that that’s the best course of action,” he said.
As far as recreational marijuana, Zidek said he would like to have some public hearings just to gauge the support of residents, but council considers the issue outside of its jurisdiction and has not taken a stance either way.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on local and state economies, and Wolf last week pointed to states like Colorado that have seen success with recreational marijuana as a revenue booster and a way to “plug a hole.” As of July, Colorado has realized more than $1.4 billion from taxes, licenses, and fees since making marijuana use recreational in 2014, according to state statistics.
While it might be attractive to use that revenue to prop-up state finances amidst the continuing pandemic, Delaware County
District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, a fellow Democrat, said he does not think legislation should be drafted purely for economic gain.
“Just as a citizen, I get a little concerned when we start talking about legalizing what are considered vices just so we can tax them for revenue purposes,” he said. “We did this with gambling, there’s talk about doing this with marijuana now, and I don’t think that’s the right reason to do it.”
If the science supports that marijuana is not as harmful as was once thought and the majority of people believe it should not be illegal, then it should be considered, he said, but a proposal of this magnitude should not be rushed and likely will not be accomplished in the short term.
“From a law enforcement perspective, we don’t think this should be looked at as a revenue tool, we think it should be looked at from a public health point of view, (whether) this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Stollsteimer added that there might be some unforeseen consequences, like having more impaired drivers on the road. Then again, there might be less cars due to the pandemic, or even self-driving cars, he said.
“My personal experience with legislation has been that the devil is in the details, so I would like to see the actual proposal before I would comment on anything, but I do think one thing that’s very important is that people from law enforcement should be involved in the drafting of legislation,” said Stollsteimer.
He noted that the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association has already told Wolf that it does not support recreational use at this time, but does support decriminalization like that proposed by county council.
State Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26 of Swarthmore, said he anticipates the state will go recreational eventually, which he thinks makes sense for a number of reasons, but he does not think it would be the panacea to the state’s coronavirus-related budget issues.
“The budget deficit is billions of dollars … in terms of state revenue that hasn’t come in because of the COVID crisis,” he said. “Every little bit is going to help, but it’s not going to be a gamechanger.”
Kearney said he does not want the legislature to rush process, but to examine what has worked or not worked elsewhere in trying to adopt best practices. Farmers could certainly benefit, he said, but hempbased textiles with “almost limitless potential” could also be a huge production driver for Delaware County.
State Rep. Dave Delloso,
D-162 of Ridley Park, last year introduced a bill for the legal sale of marijuana to adults through the state store system as a way to reduce property tax burdens for seniors. He said at the time that his bill would create more than 18,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue, and allow Pennsylvania to be competitive with its neighboring states.
“We don’t want to fall behind,” he said Friday. “We would be sticking our head in the sand if we sat around and did nothing right now. During this global pandemic and the Pennsylvania budget struggles, we would be out of our minds to not take advantage of this. The science is there and we shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for Delaware, New Jersey and other surrounding states to make a move on it and be last to the table.”
State Rep. Chris Quinn,
R-168 of Middletown, said he was the only Republican lawmaker locally to attend Fetterman’s tour, where he said the two big issues residents raised were the price of getting into the medical marijuana program and the availability of cheaper marijuana on the street.
“I’m someone who doesn’t believe we should be sending anyone to jail for pot,” said Quinn. “It’s just one of those things that needs to be decriminalized, we need to expunge records, that’s just where I am personally on the subject. I am concerned right now that a few weeks before an election, we’re trying to switch topics and talk about something else.”
Quinn said the government should be focusing more on dealing with the opioid epidemic and a mental health crisis in the state that has been compounded by the stress of dealing with coronavirus rather than drafting legislation to legalize marijuana.
“I don’t think this is the time to have this conversation,” he said. “I think we need to go back and get our house in order. We need to restart our businesses, we need to deal with this overwhelming mental health issue that we have going on. I’m open to having conversations, but I think that any tax revenue that is generated from it needs to be plowed back into programs, back into opioid programs to help people get off of drugs.”
State Rep. Leanne Krueger, D-161 of Nether Providence, noted the state has allocated $100 million in a loan program and
$225 million in grants to help small businesses in the state, but the demand for help is “exponentially” greater than that.
“We need to figure out how to help them, but we also need to figure out how to pay for it, so I was pleased to see the governor proposing that at least some of the revenue from adult use cannabis be directed to supporting small businesses, because it is in desperate need right now,” she said. “In Washington state, adult use cannabis brought in $315 million (in
2017), in Colorado, it was
$266 million (in 2018). We could certainly spend all of that helping small businesses in Pennsylvania that have been impacted by COVID-19.”
Krueger said she polled her own district this week and there was more support than opposition to the idea of legalization, though there were questions of how it would be enacted. She said regulation would obviously be of chief concern, which is why she agreed with Delloso’s idea to use the alreadyestablished state store system.
Krueger added that while medical marijuana has been a boon for people with various illnesses, it still only covers 23 conditions and many people who fall outside of those parameters are still, in essence, having to self-medicate through street dealers.
“So adult use (recreational) marijuana also means getting medicine into the hands of people who need to treat health conditions,” she said.
While various bills like Delloso’s have already been floated, said Krueger, they are sitting in committee waiting for action that may never come from the current GOP-controlled House and Senate. In order to get any movement there, she said there may need to be a shake-up in November.
“I think we need to have a real debate on this issue and Republican leadership should permit a bill to come to the floor for debate,” she said. “Or, under a Democratic speaker, this needs to be a priority.”