Pennsylvania Looks to Catch Up in Legalized Cannabis

The state of Pennsylvania’s lawmakers has long debated the initiation of legal weed. Despite this progressive thinking, the state’s war on weed consists of a disproportionate number of marijuana arrests in BIPOC communities.

The nonprofit National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws released this data to this news organization once they obtained police records. They show a one percent increase in marijuana arrests between 2019 and 2020. Yet, 31 percent of those PA cannabis arrests identify perpetrators as African American. This in a state where blacks make up only 12 percent of the population.

Jeff Riedy, Executive Director of Lehigh Valley NORML, said, “These numbers remind us of the continued impact of the criminalization of cannabis at home while reflecting the racial disparity among arrests nationwide. The only real solution is enacting immediate decriminalization and eventual legalization of cannabis in Pennsylvania. We know that too many people’s lives are ruined for a simple possession charge, and that must end now.”

Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Wolf once advocated the support for legalized marijuana. He briefly changed his mind in 2019 before again prodding the Republic-led legislative body to legalize recreation. The goal is to use generated tax revenue to help get the state back on track after the pandemic’s impact.

Recently, state senators Sharif Street (D-Phil) and Daniel Erie (R-Erie) produced a proposal to legalize cannabis. The lawmakers believe legalization can enhance public safety and better minors getting their hands on it. Legalization will boost the economy, raise funds for the treasury, and end the disproportionate marijuana arrests in the state’s BIPOC communities. This is an argument the governor agrees with.

During a news conference in Monroe County, the governor said a legalized market would raise billions for the state. Gov. Wolf did not put exact numbers to the fiscal damage. Analysts estimate the state is looking at a two-year budget shortfall at about $5 billion. That includes over $1 billion in unused federal COVID-19 relief packages.

Wolf planned to utilize “significant amounts” of any tax revenue from legalization for communities and businesses that have been dynamically affected by the coronavirus.

Wolf said his administration was already in the process of correcting the impact the state suffered due to the war on weed in the 1930s. If all goes as plan, Pennsylvania plans to legalize recreational use this November. He probably takes New Jersey’s legalization (and New York’s recent cannabis bill) into consideration. Somewhere in the vicinity of 30 percent of the state’s population live within a half-hour of those states. He predicted residents will travel there to get their weed.

Opponents to legalization believe legalization is not the move right now. Not during an epidemic opioid abuse crisis. House Republicans have introduced a bill that would boost the economy through established through private-sector job creators and unions.

Those same opponents are waiting for a legalization plan that would regulate the industry, where to sell weed, minimize impact amid the functioning medical cannabis industry and positively impact disproportionate PA cannabis arrests.