“I think it’s inevitable. It’s common sense to think we’re going to do it at some time and it should be done smart,” says Senator Mike Regan, a Republican in PA.
Regan is a former U.S. Marshal and is looking at marijuana from the perspective of law enforcement, seeing it as a waste of their resources.
“Our law enforcement agencies and justice system do not have the manpower or time to handle these minor marijuana offenses that clog our courts and produce little return.”
Regan is the second Republican from the state to advocate for legalization, following Dan Laughlin from Erie County, who teamed with a Democratic Senator from Philadelphia to write up a legalization bill earlier this year.
Regan’s proposal, however, is more friendly to the Republicans in that it doesn’t offer expungement of records and doesn’t allow citizens to grow their own plants. He sees this as a way to get more bipartisan support.
All in all, this feels like a pretty promising way forward for the state of Pennsylvania to finally get recreational marijuana, albeit in a relatively skeleton and basic manner. Perhaps other, more Republican-idealized states could see this as a possibility in their own areas, especially after seeing the amount of tax revenue funneled through the system.
Read the full article at PennLive.
