Pennsylvania Taxpayers Spend Billions On Marijuana Criminalization While Neighboring States Reap Benefits Of Legalization (Op-Ed)

“People carrying less than one ounce of weed make up 45 percent of all substance possession arrests in Pennsylvania. That amount would be perfectly legal in most surrounding states.”

By Chris Goldstein, NORML

Politicians in Pennsylvania’s Capitol are having a really sluggish dance with Mary Jane. It’s taking decades to debate the well proven concept of legalizing and regulating leisure hashish whilst some lawmakers say the reform is “inevitable.”

Neighboring states—Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Maryland—now encompass the Pennsylvania’s island of prohibition. Justice is being left behind within the excruciating delay.

While everybody waits for reform, 32 folks per day are nonetheless being arrested daily in Pennsylvania for weed. Every single arrest is somebody having their life needlessly upended over a plant.

Massive finances financial savings are additionally being utterly missed. Taxpayers in Pennsylvania probably spent greater than $1 billion to keep up legal hashish prohibition within the final decade alone.

The overwhelming majority of enforcement doesn’t goal overseas cartels or severe kingpins. All that cash leads to tens of thousands of native arrests throughout the state for low-level possession. That’s in response to greater than a decade of data I reviewed from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system.

People carrying lower than one ounce of weed make up 45 % of all substance possession arrests in Pennsylvania. That quantity could be completely authorized in most surrounding states.

There had been 189,504 adults arrested in Pennsylvania between 2013 and 2023 only for having just a few grams of hashish.

During the identical interval, far fewer folks had been arrested within the state for decidedly extra harmful substances.

For instance, there have been 106,353 adults arrested within the class that features heroin, opiates and cocaine.

An vital notice concerning the UCR knowledge: None of the folks was committing any extra severe concurrent crimes. That means no one within the substance possession totals had an unlawful gun, and none had been concerned with a DUI.

Half the so-called “drug war” in Pennsylvania is being waged in opposition to hashish shoppers. Even earlier than the taxes and income of full legalization are realized, stopping possession arrests alone might assist stability budgets.

Many states determined to stop arresting shoppers years earlier than regulated merchandise had been offered. It’s a transfer that saves large quantities of money and time throughout our whole system.

In 2014 the Philadelphia City Council handed a landmark hashish decriminalization ordinance. Under the change, police are allowed to concern civil citations in lieu of handcuffs.

Weed arrests declined within the metropolis by greater than 72 % within a year of implementation, and so they by no means rose once more. Millions have been saved and redirected in Philly budgets with the shift.

Marijuana-related therapy admissions in Philly additionally declined by nearly 80 percent after decriminalization. It turned out that almost all resulted from court-related referrals. Those important therapy sources as an alternative had been rapidly utilized for alcohol and opiates.

Over the years Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, State College, Erie and greater than 85 different cities have additionally downgraded marijuana penalties in some kind. Statewide, nevertheless, folks getting caught with only a few grams of hashish stay practically equal to arrests for all different substances mixed.

Areas in Pennsylvania with no native downgrade ordinance really turned extra harmful for hashish shoppers.

Dave Sunday served because the district lawyer for York County when there appeared to be a concentrate on weed. Now he’s the state’s lawyer common.

Sunday’s tenure between 2019 and 2023 noticed greater than twice as many individuals arrested in York County for marijuana possession (5,658) than for all different substances mixed (2,649).

Sunday testified as an invited visitor in recent times earlier than a number of hearings about full hashish legalization in Harrisburg. He’s not a fan of reform, and it exhibits in his document.

Under his course, greater than 70 % of juveniles caught with small quantities of hashish in York County had been despatched to legal courts. Ordering probation or supervision over weed really prices taxpayers much more.

Dozens of states have ceased these tragic wastes of sources. For instance, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Ohio and Maryland have utterly stopped low-level weed arrests of individuals of all ages.

Those neighboring states additionally now regulate marijuana gross sales to adults 21 and older.

Ending the racial bias in enforcement is a serious pressure behind reforming these legal guidelines. Compared to most different crimes, hashish prohibition is most harshly policed in communities of shade.

A 2022 report from the Pennsylvania Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup found that regardless of the native decriminalization ordinances, enforcement disparities stay.

It might look like the Keystone State is late to an inevitable THC social gathering. But there’s already $150 million in authorized weed being offered in Pennsylvania each month. Every gram is totally accredited by the state authorities, particularly the Department of Health.

Nearly 500,000 residents are presently registered within the state’s medical hashish program, and gross sales are steadily rising. Pennsylvania has been quietly working a strong business for years.

Large, multi-state medical hashish firms personal a lot of the working permits. Legislators and properly paid lobbyists have labored collectively each session to cross legal guidelines that help the business.

The payments contained every part from enjoyable product security testing to granting beneficiant tax breaks. And they loved swift, bipartisan passage. Everyone’s at it.

From small-business fairness to state-run shops, Democrats and Republicans have supplied a dizzying array of various plans for the long run. Ignoring the obtrusive downside and large prices of ongoing prohibition enforcement received’t get us to the aim.

Police knowledge can’t inform us the numbers of Republicans or Democrats who’re arrested for marijuana. My expertise tells me it’s about equal.

The first step in the direction of a regulated hashish market ought to be to cease arresting shoppers.

Chris Goldstein is a author primarily based in New Jersey. For the final 25 years, he’s been a hashish shopper activist. Today, he’s a volunteer regional organizer for NORML in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Chris helped write Philadelphia’s landmark 2014 ordinance decriminalizing hashish, and in 2024 he acquired a presidential pardon certificates for federal marijuana possession.

Marijuana Consumers Are Under Attack In Multiple States, And It’s Time To Fight Back (Op-Ed)