Wolf asks lawmakers to legalize pot
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday asked lawmakers to send him a bill to legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults.
The state House and Senate have 11 session days over four scattered weeks left before the November election, a limited period to wrap up their business as the two-year session winds down.
Wolf wants to direct some of the tax revenues from the sale of recreational weed to a program to repair what he called a release of "the harm done to crime victims and communities as a result of marijuana criminalization."
About half the proposed weed tax would go to help historically disadvantaged businesses, which are those more than half owned and operated by people who are Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander — groups deemed to have traditionally been discriminated against in financial dealings.
Wolf signed legislation authorizing the state's medical marijuana program in 2016, and last fall announced he also supported making the drug legal for recreational purposes. Pennsylvania law treats possession of any marijuana outside the medical marijuana program as a crime, although there is a diversion program for first-time, nonviolent offenders and a few municipalities have enacted what is effectively decriminalization of possession of very small amounts.
Wolf said he hoped there would be support for legalization for those at least 21 years old within the GOP-dominated Legislature.
"I think we've had a little more time to see what's happened in places like Colorado with revenues, for example, that this might be one way to plug a hole," Wolf said at press event outside a child care center in Middletown.
The governor's fall legislative agenda also calls for suspending the alcohol tax for six months and letting businesses purchase booze at cost from the state during that period, both measures designed to help the state's restaurants and bars.
