A Pa. Republican senator’s hearing shows the depth of opposition to adult-use pot legalization in the state

One day after New Jersey cleared the way for its first legal recreational-weed sales, possibly before the end of April, a Pennsylvania Republican state senator held a hearing Tuesday on what panelists described as the perils for children and youth of adult-use pot legalization.

The hearing of the Senate Aging and Youth Committee, chaired by State Sen. Judy Ward, of Blair County, represented a counterpoint to a series of three Senate Law and Justice Committee hearings in February and March billed as preparation for a bill legalizing recreational cannabis for adults.

“This step would represent another monumentous policy change for the commonwealth,” Ward said in her opening remarks, referencing the legalization of medical cannabis in 2016. “Before taking this step, I strongly believe that we must consider the potential impact of this decision on our children and youth.”

State Sen. Maria Collett, a Democrat who represents parts of Bucks and Montgomery Counties and is minority chair of the Aging and Youth Committee, strongly supports legalization, but said “we must confront and address the potential detrimental effects legalization could pose to children, just as we do with alcohol and tobacco.”

Ward’s Senate committee heard from law enforcement, public health, and addiction experts about risks of legalization — including the danger of cannabis-infused edibles that look like candy — to children and youth. But two experts said there was no strong evidence that allowing adult-use cannabis led to higher usage by teenagers.

Looming over the earlier Law and Justice hearings, led by state Sen. Mike Regan, a former law enforcement officer who represents parts of Cumberland and York Counties, were foreign drug cartels. Regan wants to put them out of business by legalizing and regulating weed sales.

Scott Bohn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the first person to testify Tuesday, criticized Regan’s hearings.

“I believe that the citizens of Pennsylvania are entitled to the facts and deserve much better than what was presented at the hearings on marijuana legalization at the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Those hearings presented a very one-sided view,” Bohn said. “The table was set for the marijuana industry to testify despite their clear conflict of interest in standing to profit from more Pennsylvanians using marijuana.”

Several panelists warned lawmakers not to be tempted by the tax revenue.

Given the anticipated cost to society of legalization, “the only revenue windfall will be that which is received by the marijuana industry,” said retired Judge Cheryl Allen, a Republican who was the first Black woman elected to Pennsylvania Superior Court and is now of counsel to the Pennsylvania Family Institute, a conservative advocacy group in Harrisburg.

A recurring theme for panelists was the risk to children of edible forms of cannabis that look like candy.

Just three days after New Mexico started legal sales of recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older on April 1, 14 children at an elementary school near Albuquerque were taken to a hospital for examination after officials found out that they had eaten cannabis-infused candy, said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president at Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an Alexandria, Va., group that opposes legalization.

“I want you to question the thought that we can regulate this drug effectively to protect our kids,” Niforatos told lawmakers.

Elyse Contreras, a public health expert who manages a program that monitors cannabis use by youth for the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, offered evidence from her state that adult-use legalization had not led to an increase in use by teens since the state’s first recreational cannabis stores opened in 2014.

The percentage of middle-school children using pot in the last 30 days has remained stable at around 5% since 2011, Contreras said. For students in high school, that figure was about 21%, stable since 2005, and about the same as the national average, she said.

Even as legalization discussions in Pennsylvania appear to be gaining strength, many Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives, remain deeply opposed to the change. But Pennsylvania soon could be nearly surrounded by states where cannabis is legal, although it remains illegal at the federal level.

It’s already legal, though stores haven’t opened yet, in New Jersey and New York. Maryland is expected to vote on legalization in November. Delaware came close to full cannabis legalization last month when the House of Representatives came two votes shy of passing a legalization bill with the required three-fifths supermajority, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.