PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two days after New Jersey legalized its recreational marijuana marketplace, some Pennsylvania senators are pushing to follow in the Garden State’s footsteps.
Democratic state Sen. Sharif Street of Philadelphia and Republican Sen. Dan Laughlin of Erie introduced a bill calling for legal marijuana for adult use only.
Street believes it’s the right thing to do, “both economically and socially.”
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Economically, because not only would this create thousands of jobs, but “there’ll be revenue from licensing, there’ll be a reasonable tax, and there will be a lack of enforcement,” he said. “It’s not just the tax on cannabis. There’s all the ancillary industries that grow out of it.”
Socially, this legislation would expunge the records of people who have been previously convicted of nonviolent cannabis crimes.
Street shared a firsthand account from a coworker’s son: “Her son had spent his entire life working in an industry doing telephone calling of people. He had done OK. But many of the careers he wanted were closed to him because he has a felony conviction for cannabis possession.”
Street also emphasized getting rid of the black market.
“People will know what they’re purchasing,” he said. “The likelihood that somebody will get addicted to some very serious controlled substance because it was laced in cannabis, and they used it unwittingly, will be eliminated.”
He said this should cut down on kids using pot too, as they’re likely getting it from illegal dealers.
Unlike the Garden State, this bill would allow medical marijuana patients to grow weed at home — to an extent — so people who can’t afford it can grow it themselves.