Pennsylvania should decriminalize Marijuana, says Governor Tom Wolf

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on September 01, 2016.

Reiterating his support to marijuana, Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said that Pennsylvania needs to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational purpose in the state. “Yes, I do support decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of marijuana in PA”, Wolf Twitted.

While responding to various media persons as well as queries on micro blog site, Governor Wolf opined his support to small amount of recreational marijuana across the stat. He said, he believes there are too many families being broken up and too many people being denied employment for what he characterizes as doing stupid things often while young.

Since some localities have quit arresting small-time marijuana possessors, too many haven't. "I think we need to do that in a more systematic fashion," Wolf said. "There are too many people who are going to prison because of the use of very modest amounts or carry modest amounts of marijuana, and that is clogging up our prisons, it's destroying families and it's hurting our economy, so I think decriminalization is the first step."

However, Wolf maintained that he still can’t support full legalization of recreational marijuana as adopted by Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. He says decriminalizing recreational marijuana won’t lead to legalization anymore than allowing medical marijuana.

Wolf also pointed to the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians as a reason for not pushing for full legalization of the drug, saying the potential of increased revenues cannot be the driving force.

In Pennsylvania, decriminalization would require the support of the Republican-controlled and conservative legislature, which has shown no appetite for it till now.

Notably, Pennsylvania is one of only 17 states that control alcohol sales and the only state other than Utah to control wine sales.

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