Apr 14, 2019 6 min read

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Mike Tony/For the Observer-Reporter

State Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, left, tells attendees at Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s recreational marijuana listening tour stop in Fayette County last month that he was there to follow his grandmother’s motto of using the two ears and one mouth that God gave him in proportion. Now he wants to keep listening, this time in publicized, recorded hearings with testimony from experts including those from other states where marijuana has already been legalized for recreational use.

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Fetterman and Dowling

Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

State Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown, right, appears with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman during Fetterman’s stop in Fayette County last month amid a 67-county listening tour gathering feedback from Pennsylvanians regarding the legalization of recreational cannabis.

Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

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Mike Tony/For the Observer-Reporter

Bill Kozlovich, chairman of the Fayette County Republican Party, argued against legalizing marijuana for recreational use at Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s Fayette County listening tour stop last month.

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1. Buddine Dilemma series

The listening sessions have come and gone. So what comes next?

More listening.

A 67-county listening tour to gather feedback about adult recreational marijuana already came to Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties, attracting well over 500 attendees combined. Many delivered impassioned arguments for and against legalization.

One of them, Bill Kozlovich, 65, of Menallen Township, was so passionate that he took to the microphone twice to argue against legalization at Fayette’s listening stop, arguing it would escalate crime and addiction.

“We don’t need this in our state,” Kozlovich said.

Kozlovich chairs the Fayette County Republican Party, and the state GOP is also not on board with legalizing recreational pot.

The prime sponsor for the Senate bill that approved the state’s medical marijuana program in 2016, Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon City, has said he won’t support recreational cannabis, and the House and Senate’s majority leaders don’t back it, either.

The vast majority of local state legislators are Republicans who support a call from Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, for hearings on the subject.

“I want to have publicized, recorded hearings with people from other states (where cannabis has been legalized) to talk about the benefits and the problems,” Stefano said after the Fayette listening tour stop. “That’s the only way we’re going to make the proper decision.”

Stefano chairs the Senate Law and Justice Committee, which oversees marijuana legislation, and plans to have the hearings later this year and next year.

Having sat through the listening sessions in Fayette, Westmoreland and Somerset counties, Stefano said he also wants to hear from law enforcement, hospital, health and business representatives, and sponsors of marijuana legalization and decriminalization bills in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

“Public hearings are critical,” agreed Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport. “The more data and input we can gather, the better.”

Brewster, minority chair of the Law and Justice Committee, wants Pennsylvanians to weigh in at the ballot box. He’s proposed placing a nonbinding referendum on the ballot in November 2020 asking voters whether they support the General Assembly legalizing marijuana.

“At the listening tour, many citizens have an opportunity to express their opinion. The ballot question would give even more citizens a chance to weigh in,” Brewster said.

Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use, and Vermont has been the only state to do so through the legislative process rather than a ballot initiative, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, would like to see Pennsylvania let voters weigh in directly as well.

“I think for an issue like this, the people need to decide,” Snyder said.

Stefano doesn’t want legalization to hinge on a referendum, fearing it could provide an inaccurate reflection of support levels if voter turnout is low. He favors the legislative process instead.

Reservations about legalizing recreational pot abound among area lawmakers.

Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, state Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown, Snyder and Stefano have all said that the state’s medical marijuana program should be allowed to develop further before recreational marijuana is approved. Legislators worry that testing people for driving under the influence of marijuana could be a public safety issue. Testing for impairment is challenging due to the lack of an accepted limit of the drug since marijuana can stay in a user’s system for weeks despite no longer causing impairment.

Looking to states where recreational pot already has been approved, Bartolotta noted the thriving black market in California (where illegal marketplace consumers can avoid taxes that near 50 percent in some communities, according to the Associated Press) and an increase in illegal growing activity on public lands in Colorado, according to a Colorado Department of Public Safety report.

Stefano acknowledged statewide polling showing support for recreational cannabis legalization around 60 percent.

Still, he puts the issue in the “lower third” of issues among the electorate.

“But it’s a topic of the day, and we find that a lot,” Stefano said.

“There is a great deal of momentum for legalization, yet I do not believe legalization will be considered in the short-term,” Brewster said.

That’s despite efforts from lawmakers like Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Upper Merion Township, and Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, who last month signaled they would introduce legislation to legalize and regulate pot, and Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Pittsburgh, who introduced a recreational cannabis legalization, revenue and justice reform bill earlier this year that was referred to the state Health Committee in February.

“I think that everyone needs to hear all the evidence on both sides,” Bartolotta said.

Mike Tony is a staff writer for the Uniontown Herald-Standard.

Cannabis legalization is opposed by Republican leadership in the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly, but there has still been some cannabis-related legislation introduced in by state lawmakers in the current legislative session:

• Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Pittsburgh, in January introduced House Bill 50, which would legalize and levy a tax on adult-use cannabis, expunge criminal records and exonerate anyone incarcerated for cannabis charges made legal, and direct cannabis tax revenue to housing, afterschool programs and student debt forgiveness and incentivize grower/processors to partner with Pennsylvania farms to grow or process cannabis. House Bill 50 was referred to the Health Committee in February.
• Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Upper Merion Township, and Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, last month signaled they would introduce legislation to allow private consumption of cannabis by anyone who is 21 years old or more, allow people to grow up to six cannabis plants in their homes for personal use and automatically expunge previous criminal convictions for cannabis-related offenses and commute sentences resulting from such convictions.
• Sponsored by Street and Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, Senate Bill 233 would reduce possession of small amounts of marijuana (30 grams or eight grams of hashish) to a summary offense that doesn’t result in any driver’s license suspension. The legislation, which is based on local ordinances already in place in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Erie, would make the penalty for possession a $25 fine for all offenses and the penalty for public consumption a $100 fine for all offenses. Senate Bill 233 was referred to the Judiciary Committee in February.
• Street in March introduced Senate Bill 465, which would establish a cannabis banking commission as part of the state Department of Banking & Securities aimed at improving access to banking for legal cannabis businesses in Pennsylvania in response to cannabis remaining a Schedule I drug per the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and thus forcing many cannabis-related businesses to forgo traditional banking institutions. Senate Bill 465 was referred to the Banking and Insurance Committee in March.