The debate has begun after Gov. Josh Shapiro called during his 2024-25 budget address for legalization of recreational marijuana.
The Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission is not in support of such legalization.
“There are many complex issues and concerns that will need to be addressed if the state is considering legalization,” AICDAC Executive Director Kami Anderson said.
“Our local resources are already stretched thin due to the opioid epidemic and increased use of methamphetamines combined with a workforce shortage in behavioral and physical healthcare, law enforcement, courts and jails,” she continued. “Since medical marijuana was legalized, we have seen an increase in impaired driving charges, use by adolescents and marijuana-induced psychosis, among other things.”
On Tuesday, Shapiro was talking about issues “where we’re falling behind other states” and transitioned from increasing the minimum wage to something that for now remains on Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Or, according to a U.S. Department of Justice website, “drugs or chemicals that have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” including heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methaqualone, peyote and marijuana.
Former Lt. Gov. and current U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, is a longtime proponent of legalizing marijuana and has called for what he has termed “an end to the racist War on Drugs.” He brought a listening tour about marijuana to locations across the state in 2019, including the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
On Jan. 30 he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Maine, led nine of their Democratic colleagues in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram, urging them to remove marijuana from Schedule I.
Fetterman said the letter followed an August 2023 recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services that marijuana be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III, a less restrictive category that would lessen but not eliminate criminal penalties. The senators are calling for a complete descheduling of marijuana, consistent with state law, public sentiment, and the need to eliminate criminal and civil penalties for marijuana use and possession.
The senators asked that the DEA and DOJ provide more information on steps taken to act on HHS’s rescheduling recommendation no later than Monday, Feb. 12.
“Last year, 57 percent of voters in Ohio supported an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana,” Shapiro told members of the General Assembly gathered under the capitol rotunda. “And now, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland — practically all of our neighbors — have legalized marijuana.”
The governor said Pennsylvania is “losing out on an industry that, once fully implemented, would bring in more than $250 million in annual revenue, And our failure to legalize and regulate this only fuels the black market and drains much needed resources for law enforcement.”
At least two bills are before state Senate committees that take on the issue.
“I’m pleased to see Governor Shapiro’s push to legalize recreational adult-use marijuana,” said state Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, who introduced bipartisan legislation in both the 2021-22 and 2023-24 sessions to legalize it with Sen. Daniel Laughlin, R-Erie. “Not only will Pennsylvania benefit from the tax dollars brought in through legalization, but it also would correct decades of mass incarceration, disproportionate enforcement against marginalized communities, as well as the criminalization of personal choice and the perpetuation of violence.”
In a sponsorship memoranda written by Street and Laughlin, they said Senate Bill 846 “will improve upon our proposal from last session, Senate Bill 473.”
SB 846, which has three co-sponsors, all Democrats, was referred on July 6, 2023, to the Senate Law and Justice Committee and remains there.
Street also sponsored Senate Bill 1028, which would amend the state’s Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act to lessen from being a misdemeanor to being a summary offense “possession of a small amount of marihuana (sic) with the intent to distribute it but not to sell it,” describing a small amount as 30 grams of marijuana or eight grams of hashish, and adding that “conviction under this subsection shall not trigger application of the mandatory license suspension provisions” for motorists.
His primary co-sponsor is Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Monongahela, with Laughlin and 14 Democrats also listed as co-sponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa Jr., D-Pittsburgh. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 12.
The Lehigh Valley chapter of NORML posted on Facebook after Shapiro’s speech that, “suddenly, cannabis has become cool! Obviously, based on the social media graphics by Gov. Josh Shapiro it’s all about the cash and balancing the budget.”
The NORML chapter continued, “You can stop the arrests today, and grab your cash tomorrow, Gov. Shapiro!”
In January 2022, Indiana Borough Council authorized Solicitor Patrick Dougherty to draw up a draft ordinance that would cover decriminalization of marijuana possessed for personal use, typically 30 grams or less, and also could cover drug paraphernalia used to smoke marijuana.
According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, at the time it would have made Indiana the 16th municipality in the commonwealth to take such action.
In June 2022, however, Indiana councilors set aside that proposal.
Shapiro told lawmakers Tuesday that he also wants “those who have been convicted for nonviolent possession of small amounts of marijuana (to) have their records expunged,” concluding, “let’s stop hamstringing ourselves and start competing.”
Citing a posting by Shapiro on X, the former Twitter, that “we need to legalize marijuana here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the Lehigh Valley NORML chapter said, “he is right about that, but for all of the wrong reasons. SB1028 would decriminalize less than 30 grams, and requires no infrastructure! We should end the arrests now! Pass an amended SB1028.”
Anderson has been seeing hamstringing of another sort at AICDAC offices in Shelocta, Indiana and Kittanning, regarding those who use medical marijuana.
“We have clients coming to us requesting help with their basic needs, such as housing and transportation, because they are spending so much purchasing their medical marijuana from the dispensaries, when there are other legal forms of medication on their public and private formularies that can treat their conditions,” the AICDAC executive director said.
“There are no long-term studies that can provide information on side effects and outcomes of use,” she went on. “Many people have turned to buying their medical marijuana from street dealers, and I predict that will only get worse through recreational legalization. Therefore, the tax windfall that politicians predict will come from legalization will likely not be as high as what has been predicted. There have been studies done that for each $1.00 profit from marijuana sales, there are and additional $4.50 in various costs to the community. And these costs will need to come from our local communities and taxpayers.”
Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy advisor to Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton, heads up Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action, a Virginia-based social welfare organization “dedicated to promoting healthy marijuana policies that do not involve legalizing drugs.”
He said Shapiro “has apparently bought the marijuana industry’s lies and misinformation hook, line and sinker. He’s ignoring the science and the data from states that have legalized THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, a substance found in cannabis or marijuana).”
Sabet zeroed in on Shapiro’s call to the General Assembly “to catch up” and “come together and send to my desk a bill that legalizes marijuana,” and ensures that “the industry is regulated and taxed responsibly,” to “create jobs and build wealth here in Pennsylvania, especially in the communities that have been disproportionately harmed by criminalization.”
As Sabet put it, “more drugs won’t bring social justice, or tax revenue. They will mean adding to the mental health crisis, more youth use, and more drugged driving for Pennsylvanians. Any notion that Pennsylvania will be immune to the damaging effects of this industry is just nonsense.”
Also contributing to the debate is the Pennsylvania Association of County Drug and Alcohol Administrators, an affiliate of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
It is a professional association representing 47 Single County Authorities across the commonwealth, that receive state and federal dollars “to plan, coordinate, and manage, fiscally and programmatically, the delivery of drug and alcohol prevention, intervention, treatment, case management, and recovery support services at the local level.”
PACDAA said the SCAs “have a keen interest in the current discussions regarding potential legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. We believe that any changes to public policy or law should be based on research and evidence, not public opinion polling. Our hope is that public health concerns will drive the conversation and the subsequent policy decisions. We believe that SCAs and the prevention and treatment community need to be key stakeholders in the process and welcome the opportunity to participate in the discussion.”