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“Today is a joyous occasion to not only celebrate weed, but to seriously commit ourselves to full marijuana legalization and ending the War on Drugs.” said Senate hopeful and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
The gathering on Monday came on the heels of a weekend long event in Kutztown, the 2021 Pennsylvania Cannabis Festival. The event is held annually in Kutztown although it was founded in Scranton in 2015. The goal of the event is to end cannabis prohibition in Pennsylvania.
“The data is stark: Black people are arrested for violating marijuana possession laws at nearly four times the rates of white people. It's time to elect leaders who know that's beyond unacceptable — and who have the courage to speak up and do something to right these wrongs,” said Fetterman.
State Senator Dan Lauglin, a Republican representing PA's 49th district covering Erie, also spoke at Monday’s event.
Laughlin is the first Republican lawmaker to publicly support a recreational legalization bill.
"People are being arrested for something that is equally as harmful as liquor,” Laughlin said.
Sen. Laughlin joined Sharif Street, a Democrat representing PA's 3rd district covering Philadelphia, in sponsoring a bipartisan bill to legalize all adult-use of marijuana in Pennsylvania in February.
Their bill would legalize the use of marijuana for people over 21, but it would also help create a framework for regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry throughout the state.
Legalizing all adult-use of marijuana could generate up to $1 billion in tax revenue, according to the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office.
The Pennsylvania State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police “believes that marijuana is a dangerous drug that poses a real threat to public safety and public health and strongly opposes any efforts of legalization at the State or local level,” it said in a statement in response to the news of the bill in February.
The bill would amend the Medical Marijuana Act of 2016.
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