PA Headlines 3/1/22
HARRISBURG – The Center Square is reporting… The legalization of marijuana for adult recreation use may be a matter of when, not if, for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Senate Law & Justice Committee held a hearing Monday to “fully understand which states are models of success,” Sen. Mike Regan, R-Cumberland, said in his opening remarks as committee chairman. “It is not necessary for us to go about this blindly when 18 other states have gone through this process already,” Regan said. The committee discussed potential tax revenue from a legalized market, adjusting DUI laws, and how to transition the market from a medical one to a medical and recreational one.
“This would be historic legislation for the state of Pennsylvania, and critical from a revenue perspective going forward,” said Sen. James R. Brewster, D-Allegheny. The revenue could be historic as well. Trent Woloveck, the chief commercial director for Jushi, which has 18 dispensaries in the Commonwealth, in his testimony estimated a legalized market could generate as much as $250 million in tax revenue every month. That’s $3 billion annually. But those revenues will depend on how well Pennsylvania’s tax structure captures the market.
“Colorado is a great example,” Brandon Nemec, the government and regulatory affairs associate for PharmaCann, said. “I’ve seen projections that Colorado is now 80%/20% licit-to-illicit, and that’s eight to nine years into the adult use regulated marketplace.” Other states, such as California and Illinois, may have taxes set too high to capture more than 50% of the market, Nemec said. What’s important is growing the legal market to undermine the black market. “The speed to establishing the adult use framework is paramount,” Jesse Alderman, a cannabis lawyer with FoleyHoag LLP, said. “The illicit market loves a vacuum of authority.” If Pennsylvania creates a legal market, though, DUI laws will have to adjust.
Currently, a driver can be charged with a DUI if they have marijuana in their system, even if they aren’t impaired. Sober, unimpaired drivers are still at risk of getting a DUI charge. “The mere presence of marijuana should not constitute a per se DUI,” said Patrick Nightingale, a consumer advocate with NORML, a pro-legalization organization. Yet, problems beyond taxation and DUI laws remain. “None of this legislation is going to make it to the governor’s desk if it doesn’t address our Second Amendment issues that are still illegal on the federal level,” said Sen. Daniel Laughlin, R-Erie. Until some federal issues get resolved, Laughlin said, state Republicans may be reluctant to embrace legalization.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — AP is reporting… A group suing over Pennsylvania’s new map of congressional districts asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to reconsider whether they are entitled to an emergency order to halt the plan. The petition came three days after U.S. District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson in Harrisburg denied their request for a temporary restraining order against the 17-district map, saying she first would sort out “jurisdictional issues.” The six plaintiffs said those issues concern whether they have standing to challenge the map. The U.S. Supreme Court asked for a response by late Thursday.
The plaintiffs, including two Republicans running for Congress this year, claim the new map favors Democrats, including by putting Republican U.S. Reps. Glenn Thompson and Fred Keller into the same central Pennsylvania district. The Legislature must approve the congressional map, they argued. Relief is urgently needed because candidates are already campaigning for office under this unconstitutional map, and the statutory deadline for obtaining the needed signatures on nomination petitions is March 8,” the plaintiffs told the U.S. Supreme Court. A congressional districting plan passed by Republican majorities in the General Assembly had been vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
The plaintiffs also argued that the state Supreme Court-selected map improperly contains congressional districts that vary from each other by two residents, when it’s possible to meet federal standards with deviations of just one person. Unless state lawmakers and Wolf produce a new set of district lines, they want this year’s congressional election to be run “at-large,” rather than district-by-district. That would have voters in all parts of the state picking all 17 members of Congress. The Democratic-majority state Supreme Court last week made its choice for a new map and revised the petition-gathering schedule for congressional and statewide candidates.
“Having a court ‘suspend’ or delay the primary-election calendar to accommodate the judicial creation of a new congressional map is not an option,” the plaintiffs argued in the U.S. Supreme Court filing. The defendants are Wolf, Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman and Jessica Mathis, Wolf’s director of the Bureau of Election Services and Notaries. A Department of State spokesperson has declined to comment on the case, citing ongoing litigation. Wilson allowed a group whose proposed map was chosen by the state Supreme Court to join the case. She said they had argued to be allowed into the case “in order to protect this collateral attack to their Pennsylvania Supreme Court litigation.”
