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Philadelphia voters are sending a clear message to lawmakers, strongly approving a referendum on marijuana legalization<\/a> as a growing number of state senators and representatives are stepping up their push to get the reform enacted across Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n The measure adds a section to the city charter saying that \u201cthe citizens of Philadelphia call upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor to pass legislation that will decriminalize, regulate, and tax the use, and sale to adults aged 21 years or older, of cannabis for non-medical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n Preliminary results on Tuesday evening showed the proposal leading by a 73 percent to 27 percent margin, with 90 percent of electoral divisions in the city reporting.<\/p>\n While multiple Pennsylvania cities, including Philadelphia, have enacted local ordinances decriminalizing low-level cannabis possession, legislation to enact broader reform statewide has consistently stalled. The City Council responded by placing a referendum on the local ballot with the hopes of further motivating the legislature to move ahead with legalization.<\/p>\n Councilmember Derek Green (D) sponsored the measure to put the cannabis\u00a0question<\/a>\u00a0on the ballot, and it was unanimously approved by the Council and signed by the mayor in June.<\/p>\n While the resolution<\/a> would not make any immediate changes to the law its approval by voters in the state\u2019s most populous city adds pressure on state legislators to act.<\/p>\n Gov. Tom Wolf (D) and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) are already on board with legalization and have encouraged lawmakers to make the policy change. However, the GOP-controlled legislature has so far resisted calls from both the top officials and the public.<\/p>\n Advocates are hopeful that lawmakers are positioned to push reform through, however.<\/p>\n Last month, a much-anticipated bipartisan Senate bill<\/a>\u00a0to end prohibition in Pennsylvania that has been months in the making was formally introduced.<\/p>\n Sens. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sharif Street (D) unveiled the nearly 240-page legislation after first outlining some key details<\/a>\u00a0back in February.<\/p>\n Also last month, Rep. Amen Brown (D) announced his intent to file a reform bill<\/a>\u00a0that he\u2019ll be working on with\u00a0Sen. Mike Regan (R), who recently expressed his support for the policy change<\/a>.<\/p>\n A separate pair of state lawmakers\u2014Reps. Jake Wheatley (D) and Dan Frankel (D)\u2014also formally unveiled a legalization bill they\u2019re proposing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 While each measure generally seeks and end to marijuana criminalization by creating a regulated, commercial model for cannabis, there are some provisions that make each piece of legislation unique. For example, the proposals vary in how they would approach taxes, revenue and social equity.<\/p>\n While these recent moves to enact reform in the GOP-controlled legislature are encouraging to advocates, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R) tempered expectations about broader policy changes last month, telling The Philadelphia Inquirer that there\u2019s \u201cno significant support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in the House Republican caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n Fetterman, who is running for U.S. Senate<\/a>, told Marijuana Moment in a recent phone interview that he\u2019s optimistic about the prospects of reform with these latest proposals, though he acknowledged that there may be disputes between legislators over how tax revenue should be distributed.<\/p>\n Wolf, for his part, said that a bipartisan approach to legalization \u201cwould be a great thing. I think the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n While broad cannabis legalization proposals have not moved forward in the Republican-led legislature, Pennsylvania senators heard testimony in September on a bill to protect medical marijuana patients<\/a>\u00a0from being prosecuted under the state\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d DUI laws.<\/p>\n Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R)\u00a0first introduced an earlier version<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0bill\u00a0in June 2020. She said at the time that the state needs to \u201censure that the legal use of this medicine does not give rise to a criminal conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n Months after the standalone reform legislation was introduced, the Pennsylvania House approved\u00a0a separate amendment that would enact the policy change<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, a Pennsylvania lawmaker recently introduced a bill to expand the number of medical marijuana cultivators<\/a> in the state, prioritizing small farms to break up what she characterized as a monopoly or large corporations that\u2019s created supply problems.<\/p>\n Also last month month, a bipartisan coalition of Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a bill that\u2019s meant to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms<\/a>\u00a0for mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n Outside the legislature, Wolf\u00a0said earlier this year that marijuana legalization was a priority<\/a>\u00a0as he negotiated the annual budget with lawmakers. However, his formal spending request didn\u2019t contain legislative language to actually accomplish the cannabis policy change.<\/p>\n Wolf, who signed\u00a0a medical cannabis expansion bill in June<\/a>, has repeatedly called for legalization and\u00a0pressured the Republican-controlled legislature to pursue the reform<\/a>\u00a0since\u00a0coming out in favor of the policy in 2019<\/a>. Shortly after he did that, a lawmaker filed a separate bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana through a state-run model<\/a>.<\/p>\n In May,\u00a0Wolf pardoned a doctor<\/a>\u00a0who was arrested, prosecuted and jailed for growing marijuana that he used to provide relief for his dying wife. That marked his\u00a096th pardon for people with cannabis convictions<\/a>\u00a0through the Expedited Review Program for Non-Violent Marijuana-Related Offenses that\u2019s being run by the Board of Pardons.<\/p>\n A survey released last month found that 60 percent of Pennsylvania voters back adult-use legalization<\/a>. That\u2019s the highest level of support for the issue since the firm started polling people about it in 2006.<\/p>\n Legalizing Marijuana Reduces \u2018Race-Based Arrests,\u2019 American Medical Association Study Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Philadelphia Voters Approve Marijuana Referendum Calling For Statewide Legalization<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia voters are sending a clear message to lawmakers, strongly approving a referendum on marijuana legalization as a growing number of state senators and representatives are stepping up their push to get the reform enacted across Pennsylvania. The measure adds a section to the city charter saying that \u201cthe citizensContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":50925,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50926,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50924\/revisions\/50926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Philadelphia Voters Approve Marijuana Referendum Calling For Statewide Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"