Staff Reports
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is considering the hot topic of legalizing marijuana, and they are being super careful not to mess up – like other states have. They are like, “Hey, we see all the mistakes y’all have made, and we’re gonna try not to do the same dumb stuff.”
So, Rep. Rich Krajewski from Philadelphia is all, “Yo, if we’re gonna legalize weed and make money off it, we also gotta fix the past, you know? We gotta make it right for all those peeps who got in trouble for it before.”
Marijuana legalization: ‘Do not under-resource those regulators’https://t.co/ImzdsZAkch
— DustinEdlin (@blackbear675) March 21, 2024
And then there’s this guy, Frank Stiefel, who’s all about changing the law to not just make weed legal, but also doing some serious justice reform. He’s talking about letting people out of jail or changing their sentences if they got busted for pot.
And they’re looking at what they did in Minnesota with an independent board to handle all that. Proactive, proactive, proactive!
They’re also talking about this Clean Slate law that seals up criminal records for small-time felonies. Sharon Dietrich, who’s a big shot in Philly, is saying it’s like the best thing ever and helps tons of people get their lives back on track. She’s all about sealing or wiping out records for weed charges if it becomes legal because having a record makes it hard to get a job.
And check this out – they’re saying legalizing weed could actually help cops too! Chad Bruckner from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership says it could help them deal with stress and not hit the bottle so hard. He was drinking lots of beer and then got a medical prescription for non-smoking cannabis and cut out the booze and lost a bunch of weight.
But, even with all the good stuff, they’re still sweating the details. They’re looking at all the problems that came up after Colorado made weed legal in 2012 – more crime, more people dying ‘cause of weed, and a ton of kids smoking it. They’re throwing out stats saying the bad stuff that comes with legalizing weed is way worse than the money it brings in.
This big shot, Bob Troyer, who used to be a U.S. attorney in Colorado, is waving a flag and saying, “Hey, before you do this, make sure you’re throwing enough cash at the folks who are gonna deal with it. You gotta fund those regulators up the wazoo, or it’s gonna be a hot mess.”
He’s like, “Don’t leave any wiggle room, and don’t cheap out on these peeps. We skimped on the Colorado weed regulators, and it was like the wild west up in here. Stuff was all over the place because nobody knew what they were doing.”
So, Pennsylvania is treading lightly, taking notes from other states, and trying not to turn into a crazy circus show when it comes to legalizing weed.
