Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro has added his voice to other officials who are calling for legalizing adult-use recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania.

In a tweet posted Friday afternoon, Shapiro said after months of research and discussion with fellow law enforcement, “I am in support of efforts to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana use for Pennsylvanians over the age of 21.”

🗣️ANNOUNCEMENT



After months of internal research & discussions with fellow law enforcement, I am in support of efforts to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana use for Pennsylvanians over the age of 21. — AG Josh Shapiro (@PAAttorneyGen) September 27, 2019

In a follow-up tweet, he further called for the decriminalization of adult personal marijuana use and the expungement of those with non-violent minor marijuana convictions from their criminal record.

Continuing to criminalize adult personal marijuana use is a waste of limited law enforcement resources, it disproportionately impacts our minority communities and it does not make us safer.



We also must expunge records of those with non-violent marijuana use convictions. — AG Josh Shapiro (@PAAttorneyGen) September 27, 2019

Shapiro’s announcement comes on the heels of Gov. Tom Wolf’s Wednesday announcement in which he threw his support behind full legalization of marijuana. Wolf said he thinks the General Assembly should start the debate on recreational adult-use marijuana legalization and should immediately work on decriminalizing minor non-violent marijuana-related offenses as well as expungement of those offenses from people’s records.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to decriminalize minor marijuana offenses. Some Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate have offered or proposed marijuana legalization bills.

Wolf’s announcement coincided with the release of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s report from his statewide marijuana legalization listening tour which he said led him to believe that now a minority of Pennsylvanians oppose legalizing recreational pot by adults.

The attorney general was not available for comment on Friday afternoon to elaborate on his position statements.

In yet another tweet, Shapiro pledged to continue “prioritize serious threats in our communities—like the opioid crisis—and invest in educating our kids on the risks of substance abuse.”

As the Legislature considers this issue, I will continue to prioritize serious threats in our communities — like the opioid crisis — and invest in educating our kids on the risks of substance abuse. — AG Josh Shapiro (@PAAttorneyGen) September 27, 2019

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale was the first statewide official to support legalizing pot, saying taxing and regulating it could add more than $500 million to state coffers. Wolf said that would be a side benefit to legalization but indicated his backing of the idea is based on the broad support the listening tour has shown it has from Pennsylvanians.

While now four Democratic statewide elected officials support this idea, Republican leaders in the House and Senate, whose party controls both chambers, have no interest in moving the state in that direction. Instead, they have said they want to keep the focus on the medical marijuana program that Pennsylvania legalized in 2016 and will not consider legalization bills.

Critics of making recreational pot legal are hoping the Republican lawmakers hold fast to that position. They are forming a broad coalition of health, safety, business, and law enforcement groups to fight what they describe as an effort to establish a “commercial, addiction-for-profit marijuana industry" in Pennsylvania.

To date, 11 other states as well as the District of Columbia that have passed recreational marijuana legalization laws.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.