May 20, 2015
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf officially announced his support for decriminalizing marijuana during an interview Tuesday.
Speaking with Pittsburgh television station WPXI, Wolf said that he thought decriminalization had several benefits, noting the criminal justice dilemma that the legal status of the drug creates:
“I believe, for a number of reasons, that we ought to decriminalize marijuana use. I think our prisons are over-crowded as a result of people going to jail for reasons that, you know, we break up families for reasons that we shouldn’t.
We destroy lives and we make it hard to find employment. So often right now possession of a small amount is a felony and an employer looks at that and dismisses (the person) automatically.”
Wolf also said he would support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, saying they should treat patients with what they think is best.
His comments come after the state's Republican controlled Senate passed a bill legalizing certain forms of medical marijuana.
However, as Holly Otterbein of Philly Mag points out, the bill doesn't allow smokeable marijuana to be prescribed and has received some backlash from pot activists.
That bill might also experience trouble in the state house, as Representative Matt Baker, a Republican from Tioga County, said he wouldn't even bring the legislation to the floor after it passed the senate. Baker is the Chair of the House Health Committee, giving him the power to block it from seeing a vote in the house.
Baker's reasoning claims scientific and health experts backing. The Daily Chronic, an online publication strongly in favor of legalization, points out that Baker has received a number of campaign contributions from pharmaceutical manufacturers.
