Keep state out of the pot trade

Subject: Keep state out of the pot trade Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:31 pm

Even ardent advocates of Pennsylvania’s government monopoly over alcohol regulation, distribution and sales admit that they would not concoct such a scheme if they were starting from scratch. But, far down the road and with innumerable entrenched interests politically invested in the system, proponents argue that it would be too painful to change to private enterprise.

State legislators who hold that view likely will have the opportunity to prove it regarding the advent of a new enterprise subject to state regulation — recreational marijuana.

Marijuana is legal for prescribed medical use in Pennsylvania and momentum has grown for full legalization. Criminal justice advocates contend that enforcement unfairly penalizes minorities; many major police agencies and some prosecutors consider enforcement against personal use to be a waste of resources; libertarians claim it’s not the government’s business; many politicians salivate over the cascade of tax revenue that legalization would unleash.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has convinced Gov. Tom Wolf to endorse legalization. Other advocates include Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, many legislators and, in poll after poll, a growing majority of Pennsylvanians.

Republican legislative leaders oppose legalization. But it’s worth remembering that just 15 years ago, their predecessors opposed casino gambling, and Pennsylvania now realizes more than $1.1 billion a year in casino-generated tax revenue, by far the most of any state.

So if those casinos were to establish a betting line on full marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania, the odds would be in its favor. As on the casino issue, the prospect of substantial state revenue, now estimated to be at least $500 million a year, likely will win the day.

Some interested parties are getting ready for that day. Democratic state Rep. David Delloso of Delaware County, for example, has proposed a plan that would make the PLCB the principal purveyor of recreational pot.

“What I’m afraid of is if we don’t sell (marijuana) in the state stores, that big companies from throughout the United States are ... going to set up stores that won’t provide family-sustaining jobs, and all the profits are going to leave Pennsylvania,” he said.

The appropriate role for the state government in recreational pot sales is the same as its role in medicinal pot sales, and what it should be in alcohol wholesale and retail sales — regulation, licensing, enforcement and taxation.

The PLCB was created in 1933 by an otherwise good governor, Gifford Pinchot, a Prohibition advocate who designed it to “discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible.”

When, eventually, the Legislature has the opportunity to set standards for recreational pot sales, it should not make the same mistake.

https://www.citizensvoice.com/opinion/keep-state-out-of-thepot-trade-1.2542574

Keep state out of the pot trade

Keep state out of the pot trade

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