Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, who has undergone something of a metamorphosis when it comes to legalizing marijuana, certainly picked the right guy to lead the charge.
In his first term, Wolf opposed any notion of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, even while being a firm supporter of medical marijuana, which became law in Pennsylvania in 2018.
Funny what cruising to an easy re-election win does for your outlook. After crushing Republican — and fellow York County resident — Scott Wagner in a lopsided gubernatorial race, Wolf suddenly announced he was keeping an “open mind” on the drumbeat for legal weed.
That might have had something to do with the man standing beside him claiming victory. Wolf had a new running mate — and a polar opposite at that.
Wolf looks for all the world like the prim, proper businessman turned politician. Not so for new Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The hulking, tattooed former mayor of Braddock, Pa., looks like a lot of things. A politician is not one of them.
So in one of their first acts, Wolf and his new bud announced Fetterman would be embarking on a statewide listening tour to gauge public opinion on the issue of legalizing marijuana.
Monday night they arrived in Delaware County. They were in Chester County the week before, and also have made stops in Berks and Montgomery. Delco was the 44th stop on the tour, which is expected to conclude in early May. Fetterman will eventually hit every county in the state.
This is a good thing. It’s nice to see our elected officials making such a concerted effort to actually listen to what residents think about a fairly important issue. No, it’s not taxes, education funding or a cure to the public pension crisis. But it’s still a big issue looming not just in Pa. but across the nation.
Fetterman has stressed he wants to hear all voices, and all the comments are being recorded. What he heard in Delco echoed sentiments heard across the state. Public opinion seems to be solidly in favor of legalizing sales and possession of small amounts of marijuana.
And for a lot of reasons, including getting these kinds of nuisance cases out of our clogged court system, rectifying what certainly appears to be lopsided arrest and jail time for minorities caught up in pot busts, and helping those with prior arrests clear their records.
But all of those reasons pale beside the obvious: Legalizing marijuana could have a huge effect on the state’s bottom line. We’re talking revenue. Legalize it and tax it.
The pro-pot effort picked up steam in Pa. just as New Jersey seemed on the precipice of joining states such as Colorado in legalizing marijuana. The revenue numbers from Colorado are eye-popping, and don’t think for a moment that Pennsylvania elected officials are going to sit back and watch all that money drive across the bridge to New Jersey every day.
Think about legalized gambling. Only instead of rolling the dice, this time Pa. is going to roll it up and smoke it.
For decades the state has been sticking it to tobacco users with any and all variety of so-called “sin taxes.” Now it’s pot’s turn.
A caution here. The push is not without its opponents. There are those who fear an increase in people driving under the influence of pot, as well as the old warning against marijuana in the belief that it is a gateway to other drugs.
Then there is politics. This is Pennsylvania after all. There is always politics.
Wolf and Fetterman are Democrats. Both the state House and Senate remain firmly in the control of the GOP. And Republican leaders are a bit more tepid in their stance on legalizing marijuana.
Recently a group of Republican state reps took off the gloves in their opposition, attacking Fetterman’s tour as nothing more than “a cover to an agenda of legalizing drugs.”
They wonder if Fetterman is actually “listening” to the voices of those who oppose this idea, blasting the tour as a “sham.”
We’re not ready to go there. We take Fetterman at his word and laud the effort by both the governor and his second-in-command to actually go out and listen to what people have to say.
Legal marijuana is likely not coming to Pennsylvania anytime soon. One look at the torturous, long-distance battle waged before finally winning the medical marijuana tour is ample evidence of what lies ahead.
But if and when it comes — and we’re betting that it eventually will — you can also bet the house it will have a lot more to do with padding the state’s bottom line than any social or justice mores.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
