Pennsylvania lawmakers have held another hearing on marijuana legalization, this time focusing on criminal justice implications of prohibition and the potential benefits of reform.
As the governor steps up his push for legalization, including the policy change in his budget request last month, members of the Health Subcommittee on Health Care and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Corrections met to take up the issue on Wednesday.
“I think we are really well-positioned to move forward with legislation,” Rep. Dan Frankel (D), chair of the full Health Committee who previously sponsored cannabis legalization legislation, said at the beginning of the hearing.
Rep. Rick Krajewski (D) stressed that criminal justice components of legalization and expunging prior records is one area lawmakers “really need to get right, and get right on the first time, given what we know about the criminalization of cannabis and the ways it has impacted Black and brown communities, working class communities and the ways in which that record still carries a burden.”
Rep. Emily Kinkead (D) said “we have criminalized whole groups of people for the use of marijuana at a far greater rate than we have other groups,” referencing racial disparities in enforcement. “Now the groups that did
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