“It’s about starting the conversation for legalizing recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
It also comes amid a growing worldwide embrace of marijuana, with billions of investment dollars pouring into cannabis companies and main street brands saying they are considering jumping in the pool.
Wolf signed Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law in 2016, and he has overseen the program’s implementation, beginning with the first sale last February. His administration also is starting to license commercial hemp production under a new federal law.
Legalizing the sale of marijuana for recreational use would require action by Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature.
While lawmakers overwhelmingly approved Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program, the Legislature has been hostile to the idea of legalizing recreational use. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, last month criticized marijuana as a “gateway drug,” but Fetterman said the research he has read supports no such theory.
Fetterman said he supports legalizing marijuana because criminal penalties tend to be imposed disproportionately on minorities and enforcing the law over possession of small amounts is a waste of law enforcement resources. He also said legalizing it could mean a strong new stream of revenue for the state and so many people already use it “it’s not like it’s not already out there.”
“I would like to think so, but we’re also going out there to listen to everybody,” Fetterman said. “We want to get everyone’s views, and there are differing opinions on things and we want to reach out and develop some kind of a consensus on where we can go as a state.”
A general consensus may already be there.
A 2017 poll by Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster found that 59 percent of those Pennsylvanians surveyed supported the legalization of marijuana use. That was up from just 22 percent in a 2006 Franklin and Marshall College poll.
Colorado and Washington first approved the sale of recreational marijuana in 2012. Now, 10 states have approved recreational marijuana. However, each of those states, except Vermont, legalized marijuana through voter referendum, and Pennsylvania law allows for no such direct access to the ballot.
Meanwhile, governors in neighboring New York and New Jersey are calling for legalization there.
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