Editorial: In Harrisburg, a bipartisan bill on marijuana shows a constructive path
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Two Pennsylvania senators — Dan Laughlin, a Republcian from Erie, and Sharif Street, a Philadelphia Democrat — are not typically on the same side of any issue.
Laughlin is a committed member of the GOP delegation. He voted against reseating Jim Brewster while the 45th District still was being contested by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli. Brewster was sworn in a week later after the matter was resolved in court. Street, a former community activist, is just as Democratic.
It wouldn’t seem like there is much that could bring these two together. But marijuana did.
The two have introduced a bill that would legalize cannabis in Pennsylvania and expunge criminal records for people with related nonviolent crimes.
This does more than just put two diametrically opposed legislators on the same team. It puts a Republican state politician on the same side of the issue as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, who have been open and aggressive about championing legalized weed.
The bill isn’t just a get-out-of-jail-free card and a permission slip. It also has plans for how to make it happen, like utilizing the dispensaries that already are distributing medical marijuana to people who have a doctor’s approval. It would make licenses to grow cannabis less rigidly controlled.
It’s almost like people have sat down to discuss multiple sides of a complex issue — a process that allowed them to think about not just what should happen but what happens first and what happens next.
“In close collaboration with Sen. Laughlin, key community groups and stakeholders throughout the commonwealth, we developed a bill that is a Pennsylvania approach to adult use marijuana legalization,” Street’s statement said.
That is what bipartisanship should be. More than horsetrading where each side gets their slab of pork. The point should be a discussion of issues, complications and plans. None of that has to be party specific. None of it should be.
Pennsylvania should move slowly and deliberately on the question of legalizing recreational marijuana, looking at the experiences of other states and observing the ill effects (impaired driving, for example) and scrutinizing the supposed benefits. But the debate can only be honest if it is bipartisan.
This show of bipartisanship is happening at an important time.
In 2020, Harrisburg may have been almost as mired in party paralysis as Washington, D.C. A Spotlight PA story showed that of 140 bills that were passed, 126 were introduced by Republicans and 14 by Democrats. At the same time, Wolf broke out his veto pen a record 19 times.
The only thing the two parties ever seem in total agreement on is dissent. Maybe Laughlin and Street’s bill can show the way toward constructive dialogue.