Governor Wolf Wants to Decriminalize Small Amounts of Marijuana in Pennsylvania

Wolf said during a radio interview that marijuana arrests are "clogging up our prison" and "destroying families." But he's not yet sure he wants to legalize the drug.

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Governor Tom Wolf recently said he believes that possessing small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized in Pennsylvania.

During a “Small Talk” interview with Scott LaMar on WITF, Wolf said that “too many people are going to prison because of the use of very modest amounts or carrying modest amounts of marijuana, and that is clogging up our prisons, it’s destroying families, and it’s hurting our economy.”

Decriminalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania is the “first step” toward solving those problems, Wolf said, and he’d like to see decriminalization statewide, not just in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

“I think in a lot of local municipalities, decriminalization has already taken place,” Wolf said during the interview. “I think we need to do that in a more systematic fashion”

Wolf has long stated his support of decriminalizing recreational marijuana and legalizing medical marijuana, but he said he’s not yet sure about fully legalizing the drug, largely because of unknown health and economic effects.

Still, he’s not ruling it out completely.

“I think we can watch and see what happens in Colorado, Washington and Oregon,” Wolf said. “I think we have to wait and see.”

A bill expected to be introduced next month could allow Pennsylvania residents to carry up to 30 grams of marijuana without risking jail time.

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