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As Pennsylvania lawmakers prepare for another push to legalize adult-use marijuana this session with the governor\u2019s support, the new Republican state attorney general is raising concerns about the \u201cpotential harm that could be caused criminally\u201d by enacting the reform.<\/p>\n
Asked to share his thoughts on the legalization push from certain legislators, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday (R) first said that \u201c99 percent, if not more\u201d of cannabis possession cases in the state are handled by district attorneys rather than his state office. He then pivoted to talk about his concerns with the idea of legalizing marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a policy perspective, what I can say is\u2014and this is something that I said all throughout the campaign\u2014regardless of what policy issue we\u2019re talking about\u2026 you have to have voices from from from all parts of the community on this, and I would be remiss as a prosecutor and now as a chief law enforcement officer for Pennsylvania if I wasn\u2019t a voice outlining the potential harm that could be caused criminally as a result of that,\u201d he told NBC10.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clearly up to the citizens to take that information in to digest it [and] the legislators to take it in and digest it and ultimately make their decision on how they want to move forward,\u201d Sunday said. \u201cBut I do think that I would not be doing my job as a chief law enforcement officer if I didn\u2019t explain\u201d concerns about potential consequences.<\/p>\n
\nThe official offered an example, pointing out that, in Pennsylvania, \u201cover half of our DUIs now are either drug DUIs or drug and alcohol combined.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a firm believer, as I think most people should be in the legislative process, [that] our laws are the will of the people, as exhibited through the ballot box, and I appreciate, recognize, understand and support that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so to that point, what I will do as this conversation progresses is explain facts and things that I know that could be harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to take that into consideration as we\u2019re moving down this path. And I will obviously respect the will of the legislature, regardless of the decision they make,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n To that end, the Republican chair of a key Senate committee in Pennsylvania recently said he\u2019s expecting to take up legislation this year that would make the state the 25th in the U.S. to legalize adult-use marijuana. He also thinks that more of his GOP colleagues could get on board with the reform<\/a> soon than have in the past.<\/p>\n Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), a proponent of cannabis reform in past sessions, chairs the Senate Law and Justice Committee and told a local news outlet that he expects the panel to \u201cbe one of the most active committees in the state\u201d in the forthcoming session.<\/p>\n While many legalization advocates and observers think Pennsylvania is among the most likely states to pass a recreational marijuana law this session, the devil is in the details. One lawmaker has floated a\u00a0relatively simple bill to decriminalize personal possession<\/a>, while two others plan to introduce\u00a0more sweeping legislation that would legalize through a state-run system of stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n Laughlin, a longtime legalization advocate, last spring introduced a bill meant to\u00a0remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms<\/a>. While it didn\u2019t move forward, the lawmaker said in the recent interview that he believes political support for legalization more broadly has been building.<\/p>\n The senator said an event last May that the state is \u201cgetting close\u201d to legalizing marijuana, but\u00a0the job will only get done if House and Senate leaders sit down with the governor and \u201cwork it out.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Reps. Dan Frankel (D) and Rick Krajewski (D) announced last month that they planned to file legalization legislation, emphasizing that\u00a0there\u2019s a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d to repair harms of criminalization<\/a>\u00a0while also raising revenue as neighboring state markets mature.<\/p>\n Frankel said sponsors hope for a vote on the bill \u201csometime early spring,\u201d though questions remain as to whether the legislature would be willing to get behind the push to end cannabis prohibition, especially through the state-run sales model he is proposing.<\/p>\n A separate decriminalization measure, meanwhile, from Pennsylvania Rep. Danilo Burgos (D), would\u00a0make simple possession of cannabis a summary offense punishable by a $100 fine without the threat of jail time<\/a>. Currently, low-level possession is considered a misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine or both.<\/p>\n \u2014 Additionally, in September, bipartisan Reps. Aaron Kaufer (R) and Emily Kinkead (D)\u00a0formally introduced a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill<\/a>, alongside 15 other cosponsors.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is on board with ending prohibition in the Keystone state, and he said last month that he plans to once again call for the reform as part of his next budget proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n In July, the governor said his administration and lawmakers would\u00a0\u201ccome back and continue to fight\u201d for marijuana legalization<\/a>\u00a0and other policy priorities that were omitted from budget legislation he signed into law that month.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a\u00a0top GOP Pennsylvania senator who has long expressed concerns about marijuana legalization\u00a0told advocates recently that she\u2019s against arresting people over cannabis<\/a>, noting that the policy change could protect her son and disclosing that if it weren\u2019t for marijuana, she might not have met her husband, according to an activist who spoke with her.<\/p>\n As Pennsylvania\u2019s legislature reconvenes amid rising pressure to enact legalization, advocates view the comments from Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R) as a positive sign that the dam on cannabis reform measures might be weakening in the commonwealth.<\/p>\n As for medical marijuana, the governor in October signed a\u00a0bill to correct an omission in a law that unintentionally excluded dispensaries<\/a>\u00a0from state-level tax relief for the medical marijuana industry.<\/p>\n About three months after the legislature\u00a0approved the underlying budget bill that Shapiro signed<\/a>\u00a0containing tax reform provisions as a partial workaround to a federal ban on tax deductions for cannabis businesses, the Pennsylvania legislature passed corrective legislation.<\/p>\n Separately, at a Black Cannabis Week event hosted recently by the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) in October, Street and Reps. Chris Rabb (D), Amen Brown (D), Darisha Parker (D) and Napoleon Nelson (D) joined activists to\u00a0discuss their legislative priorities and motivations behind advancing legalization<\/a>\u00a0in the Keystone State.<\/p>\n Other lawmakers have also\u00a0emphasized the urgency of legalizing as soon as possible given regional dynamics<\/a>, while signaling that legislators are close to aligning House and Senate proposals.<\/p>\n As for cannabis and gun ownership, Laughlin had been looking at the issue for more than a year before introducing last year\u2019s bill,\u00a0writing last February to the state\u2019s acting police commissioner<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cstrongly encourage\u201d he review a federal ruling that the\u00a0U.S. government\u2019s ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana is unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, further federal court cases have questioned the constitutionality of the federal firearm ban. A federal judge in El Paso, for example, recently ruled that the ongoing ban on gun ownership by habitual marijuana users was\u00a0unconstitutional in the case of a defendant who earlier pleaded guilty to the criminal charge<\/a>. The court allowed the man to withdraw the plea and ordered that the indictment against him be dismissed.<\/p>\n Trump Pardons Silk Road Drug Market Operator Russ Ulbricht, Despite Calling For Execution Of Drug Sellers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Pennsylvania\u2019s GOP Attorney General Warns Of \u2018Potential Harms\u2019 Of Marijuana Legalization Amid Bipartisan Push For Reform In 2025<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
As Pennsylvania lawmakers prepare for another push to legalize adult-use marijuana this session with the governor\u2019s support, the new Republican state attorney general is raising concerns about the \u201cpotential harm that could be caused criminally\u201d by enacting the reform. Asked to share his thoughts on the legalization push from certainContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":79846,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79845"}],"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=79845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79847,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79845\/revisions\/79847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania\u2019s GOP Attorney General Warns Of \u2018Potential Harms\u2019 Of Marijuana Legalization Amid Bipartisan Push For Reform In 2025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"