Top GOP Pennsylvania Senator Voices Support For Marijuana Decriminalization, Activist Who Spoke With Her Says

A top GOP Pennsylvania senator who has long expressed concerns about marijuana legalization told advocates on Tuesday that she’s against arresting people over cannabis, noting that the policy change could protect her son and disclosing that if it weren’t for marijuana, she might not have met her husband, according to an activist who spoke with her.

As Pennsylvania’s legislature reconvenes amid rising pressure to enact legalization, advocates view the comments from Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R) as a positive sign that the dam on cannabis reform measures might be weakening in the commonwealth.

Ward is “in the position of being the bottleneck of any bills that are going through as far as marijuana reform legislation goes,” Chris Goldstein, a longtime advocate who serves as a regional organizer for NORML and discussed the issue with Ward, told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.

“She has been one of our loudest opponents in many ways, and she has told many activists and fellow legislators that she simply will not let things go through—and has followed through with that promise for many years,” he said. And while there are multiple bipartisan modest and comprehensive cannabis reform measures on the table in Pennsylvania this session, “they don’t move” in large part due to Ward’s role in commanding the agenda, Goldstein said..

But something seems to have shifted. Weeks after former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee, voiced support for federal- and state-level cannabis reforms, the Pennsylvania Senate leader expressed that she’s more amenable to ending low-level marijuana arrests.

Goldstein paraphrased Ward as telling the group of advocates that “I should get behind that” and “that would mean my son wouldn’t get arrested.”

Sen. Ward told ua several times she supports ending cannabis arrests; that her son wouldn’t be arrested …srsly welcome and totally unexpected

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) October 1, 2024

“Everybody just sort of kind of cracked a grin. And she goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, I could get behind that,’” he said. “Then she stops at the door, she comes all the way back and she goes, ‘Let me tell you guys a funny story.’ And she puts her arm up on the tall counter there and she goes, ‘My husband and I would never have gotten married if it weren’t for marijuana,’ insinuating that they had smoked a bunch together and then decided to get married.”

The senator said it was a “mistake,” but “that’s the truth—we would have never gotten married if it weren’t for marijuana.”

“Then she stops at the door and she goes, ‘No, really. When it comes to stopping marijuana arrests, I can get behind that. Have a great day,’” Goldstein recalled. The activist also recently compiled data showing that more than 12,000 people were arrested for cannabis possession in the Keystone state last year.

Marijuana Moment reached out to Ward’s office for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

Goldstein—who received a pardon from President Joe Biden for a federal cannabis possession offense and met with Vice President Kamala Harris at a roundtable event at the White House to discuss marijuana clemency—said he feels the Pennsylvania senator’s comments represent another example of the growing bipartisan consensus around reform, indicating that lawmakers may finally have a pathway to send a cannabis bill to the desk of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).

Advocates also held an event at the statehouse in Harrisburg on Tuesday to lobby for legalization.

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Meanwhile, last month Reps. Aaron Kaufer (R) and Emily Kinkead (D) formally introduced a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill, alongside 15 other cosponsors.

In July, the governor of Pennsylvania said the administration and lawmakers would “come back and continue to fight” for marijuana legalization and other policy priorities that were omitted from budget legislation he signed into law that month.

A poll released last week found that strong majorities of Pennsylvania voters in five key tossup districts are in favor of legalizing marijuana in the state—and they want to see lawmakers enact the reform imminently.

At a press briefing in July, the chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus seemed to temper expectations about the potential timeline of passing legalization legislation, pointing out that the rest of the session will likely be too politically charged heading into the November election to get the job done this year.

Other lawmakers have emphasized the urgency of legalizing as soon as possible given regional dynamics, while signaling that legislators are close to aligning House and Senate proposals.

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Meanwhile, a report commissioned by activists projected that Pennsylvania would see up to $2.8 billion in adult-use marijuana sales in the first year of implementing legalization, generate as much as $720 million in tax revenue and create upwards of 45,000 jobs.

Sens. Sharif Street (D) and Dan Laughlin (R) also participated in an X Spaces event in June where they said the votes are there to pass a marijuana legalization bill as soon as this year, though they stressed that the governor needs to work across the aisle to get the job done—and argued that it would be helpful if the federal government implemented its proposed cannabis rescheduling rule sooner rather than later.

Street was also among advocates and lawmakers who participated in a cannabis rally at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in June, where there was a significant emphasis on the need to incorporate social equity provisions as they move to advance legalization.

Laughlin, for his part, also said an event in May that the state is “getting close” to legalizing marijuana, but the job will only get done if House and Senate leaders sit down with the governor and “work it out.”

Warren County, Pennsylvania District Attorney Robert Greene, a registered medical cannabis patient in the state, filed a lawsuit in federal court in January seeking to overturn a ban preventing medical marijuana patients from buying and possessing firearms.

Two Pennsylvania House panels held a joint hearing to discuss marijuana legalization in April, with multiple lawmakers asking the state’s top liquor regulator about the prospect of having that agency run cannabis shops.

Also in April, members of the House Health Committee had a conversation centered on social justice and equity considerations for reform.

At a prior meeting in March, members focused on criminal justice implications of prohibition and the potential benefits of reform.

At another hearing in February, members looked at the industry perspective, with multiple stakeholders from cannabis growing, dispensing and testing businesses, as well as clinical registrants, testifying.

At the subcommittee’s previous cannabis meeting in December, members heard testimony and asked questions about various elements of marijuana oversight, including promoting social equity and business opportunities, laboratory testing and public versus private operation of a state-legal cannabis industry.

And during the panel’s first meeting late last year, Frankel said that state-run stores are “certainly an option” he’s considering for Pennsylvania, similar to what New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) recommended for that state last year, though a state commission later shied away from that plan.

Last year, Shapiro signed a bill to allow all licensed medical marijuana grower-processors in the state to sell their cannabis products directly to patients.

Separately, Pennsylvania’s prior governor separately signed a bill into law in July 2022 that included provisions to protect banks and insurers in the state that work with licensed medical marijuana businesses.

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Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.