None of Bucks County’s politicians have been talking about cannabis even though an estimated 1 in 25 people in Bucks County are registered medical marijuana patients. That’s around 28,000 Bucks Countians, or about 6% of the 441,000 Pennsylvanian medical patients in total. Yet our elected leaders in Bucks County don’t appear to care at all.
“Not their highest priority” is usually what I hear – an absurd position considering that tax revenue collected from PA medical marijuana sales (combined with PA gaming revenue) is likely the reason why our state has been operating at a surplus in recent years. With $8 billion in total sales since the first licensed sales of medical marijuana began in early 2018, we’ve diverted roughly $400 million dollars of tax revenue out of the illegal market and into our own state’s coffers.
One Bucks County Republican legislator told me off the record, “The legalization bill is inevitable.” So I asked him, “Well, then don’t you want to be a part of it – to shape the bill according to the needs of your constituents?” His reply? “A majority of my constituents do not want it.”
A poll published in September 2024 shows the opposite, with 64% support for legalization among Bucks Countians in House District 41, while 39% who strongly support it. Data such as this should compel every elected leader in Bucks County to ask their constituents again, and soon!
Every 45 minutes a Pennsylvanian is arrested for cannabis. That’s 32 people a day , arrested for behavior that is legal or decriminalized in most of our country, leading to potentially jailable offenses and records that hurt employment and housing opportunities. Neighboring states New Jersey, New York, and even Ohio have already legalized adult-use cannabis.
Think about this: $420 million in annual tax revenue could be collected if recreational marijuana sales in Pennsylvania were legalized. Instead, taxpayers may still be spending more than $100 million annually to imprison Pennsylvanians while millions of would-be tax dollars dissipate into the “illegal market”, aka “Ohio.” The solution is “imminent,” yet not one Bucks County elected leader wants to stick their neck out for this issue.
The primary concern among all legislators I spoke to is fear of increased underage use. Contrary to popular belief, underage use is lower in states where cannabis is legal for adults because the cannabis products can be tracked and regulated with enforceable age-compliance for all retailers.
However, since no regulatory system is in place for recreational cannabis, a new “gray market” of hemp-derived products has entered our communities. Since the naturally occurring, psychoactive cannabinoid delta-9 THC cannot be sold recreationally in PA, loopholing gray-marketers have found a way to chemically-alter hemp-derived CBD into Delta-8 THC, THC-O, and THC-10, which are then legally sold in smoke shops across Bucks County. Why would legislators prefer under-regulated Frankenweed be sold in Pennsylvania instead of seed-to-sale legal cannabis? The reason is they really don’t know a thing about cannabis.
On October 1, leaders from Bucks County NORML, Lehigh Valley NORML, and Pittsburgh NORML joined with activists from across our state inside the Pennsylvania State Capitol’s rotunda to advocate for the rights of our state’s hundreds of thousands of cannabis users. Undeterred by the rainy weather, our planned rally pivoted into a concentrated lobbying carpet bomb. Bucks County NORML visited the offices of Senators Frank Farry and Steve Santarsiero and State Representatives Tim Brennan, Tina Davis, Joe Hogan, and Jim Prokopiak, receiving noticeably nicer receptions from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Regarding legalization or decriminalization, all of the offices we spoke to agreed on one thing: the speed of reform is fated against the outcome of four hotly contested senate seats: SD-15, SD-37, SD-45, or SD-49 . For every one of those four districts that flips from Republican to Democrat, a bipartisan deal towards legalization is more attainable. Otherwise, a Republican-led stalemate will persist in the State Senate, stalling the voting of hundreds of bills in order to embarrass the Democratic-controlled House and Governorship.
There is, of course, the much less likely possibility that Republicans will cross party lines according to their personal beliefs or constituent data earlier than the election. Senator Farry previously voted in favor of SB 3 in 2016, establishing the medical marijuana program. Strategically speaking, any Republican support of a decriminalization bill prior to the elections would be a net-positive for them – partially mitigating the effects of a strong Democratic national ticket.
One thing is for certain: when cannabis is kept illegal, the wrong people are making money from it, such as jailers, smugglers, Ohioans, and more.
We need a legal market with regulated, safer cannabis. We want our citizens to be able to grow plants at home to keep corporate price-gouging at bay. We want those who were harmed by prohibition to have a leg-up in the licensing process. We want it legalized because it is the smart and sensible thing to do.
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