Philadelphia voters will have four ballot questions to answer during the general election on Nov. 2. One asks whether the city should urge Harrisburg to decriminalize and legalize marijuana. Another proposes a way to streamline civil service hiring decisions. The third would create the Department of Fleet Management to oversee the city's vehicles, and the fourth would require Philadelphia to allocate a percent of it annual budget to the Philadelphia Housing Trust Fund.
Below are more details about each question:
Republican Sen. Mike Regan, a former U.S. marshal who spent years fighting the drug wars, is now calling for marijuana to be legalized in Pennsylvania.
“I think it’s inevitable,” said Regan, R-Cumberland/York counties. “It’s common sense to think we’re going to do it at some time and it should be done smart.”
Regan’s bill would allow adults to use marijuana for recreational purposes. Gov. Tom Wolf signed the law allowing marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2016.
The event comes the same week that two state lawmakers from western Pennsylvania unveiled new legislation to decriminalize, regulate and tax adult-use, recreational marijuana statewide. The proposal was not immediately listed on the state Legislature’s website, but it will be labeled House Bill 2050, said sponsors state Reps. Jake Wheatley and Dan Frankel, both D-Allegheny.
Pennsylvania Democrats, as expected, are trying again to legalize adult-use cannabis through legislation.
State Reps. Jake Wheatley and Dan Frankel on Tuesday introduced House Bill 2050, which would create a recreational marijuana market with limited licensing, a social equity emphasis and a retail sales tax rate that would begin at 6% and gradually go up to 19% by the fifth year.
Pressure has increased on Pennsylvania to legalize recreational marijuana sales now that neighboring New Jersey is preparing to launch a market next year.
State Reps. Jake Wheatley and Dan Frankel, both Democrats from Allegheny County, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would make it legal for anyone age 21 and older to purchase and consume cannabis for recreational purposes in Pennsylvania.
The legislation, House Bill 2050, bears the same name as a failed marijuana legalization bill that Wheatley introduced in 2020. Several previous bills also have failed to gain traction in the GOP-controlled legislature.
When New Jersey legalized adult-use months ago, equity received widespread attention — and it is an issue in legalization efforts now pending in the Pennsylvania legislature.
In the context of marijuana legalization, equity encompasses many issues, such as seeking to remedy the societal damages from the War on Drugs, which incarcerated tens of thousands of non-white individuals and left many more with arrest records that hinder chances for economic, educational, and employment advancement.
It took New Jersey years to become the first in the tri-state region to legalize recreational marijuana and it looks like it may already be losing its head start. This week New York’s governor and Legislature finalized a deal to make the drug legal for adults.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is pushing for the legalization of marijuana in Pennsylvania. And New Jersey jumping into the game makes it all the more urgent. He hopes this accelerates the timeline for Pennsylvania.
“Anywhere between 30 to 40% of our population lives a half-hour drive or less from New Jersey. So, it’s something that we’re going to have to confront as well as the massive outflow of dollars,” Fetterman says.
A conservative revenue projection from the taxation of marijuana, he says, would see at least $5 billion over 20 years.
New Jersey officially became the 13th state to legalize marijuana as Gov. Phil Murphy last week signed three bills that put an exclamation point on the will of Garden State voters. Twenty other states, including Pennsylvania, have legalized medical marijuana use. The federal government still considers any marijuana use as a crime.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, as expected, has made legalizing recreational cannabis one of his administration’s top legislative priorities this year.
Wolf highlighted recreational marijuana in his budget proposal Wednesday and mentioned the urgency given adult-use legalization in neighboring New Jersey and the legalization push in New York.
“Now as our neighbors move toward legalizing recreational marijuana, we cannot afford to be left behind,” Wolf said in a news release laying out his legislative plan. The plan didn’t provide licensing details.