PA State Leaders Go On ‘Weed Tour’ But How Will Legal Marijuana Impact Residents and Families?

Last month, the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced it wanted to start a “conversation” about legalizing marijuana in the Keystone State through a series of townhall-style meetings.

The Sharon Herald reported that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, “himself an advocate of legalizing recreational use of the drug,” will hold “listening” sessions in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in the coming months.

The Pennsylvania Pastors Network (PPN) and American Pastors Network (APN) are expressing concerns that legalizing marijuana is not the right move for the state, dangerous to residents and families, and certainly not biblical.

“As pastors’ networks, we are extremely concerned about legal marijuana coming to Pennsylvania,” said APN and PPN President Sam Rohrer. “Marijuana can be a ‘gateway drug’ and leads to harder and more dangerous substances. Beyond that, youth in our state are already faced with a variety of temptations that can affect them long into their lives. Why state leadership would push for the legalization of a drug that can harm our residents and our families is not only perplexing but also irresponsible.”

The Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI) is calling the listening sessions a “weed tour” that serves as a public relations ploy aimed at giving the Wolf administration cover to support recreational marijuana and says that the lieutenant governor is trying—poorly—to hide his desire to legalize weed. Also, just as with expanded gambling, some state officials are motivated by money in supporting marijuana legalization, PFI reports. (Read PPN’s insight on a proposed casino in Morgantown HERE.)

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

3 replies
  1. Sandra Paveglio
    Sandra Paveglio says:

    There is a lot of good information at this website: https://learnaboutsam.org/
    “Smart Approaches to Marijuana”: The costs of marijuana legalization to society. You can download the pdf file—lots of info and research. Much of it has found marijuana to be vastly harmful to society and individuals. My question, after reading some of it: “If we are dealing with such a devastating opiod problem, why do we want to legalize another harmful drug??”
    The answer is simple, the Governor sees another revenue source. Who cares about PA’s citizens and children, he wants money!

    Reply
    • Carolyn
      Carolyn says:

      Sandra, you are so right. I read some of the SAM report Smart Approaches to Marijuana too.. It is well written. Colorado is having trouble with an expanding black market and people STILL growing it illegally, and increase death rates. When you play with something dangerous, people will be harmed . Also SAM did a working paper on calculating the cost fo Illinois legalizing marijuana, and the state would have a net loss of over $100 million. due to a host of increased costs. here’s a quote from that website:
      (April 19 2019 at – https://learnaboutsam.org
      Today, the day before the unofficial “marijuana holiday,” Healthy and Productive Illinois (HPIL) – a project of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action (SAM Action) – released a comprehensive working paper on the projected costs of legalization in Illinois, finding that legalization would cost the state $670.5 million, far outweighing estimated tax revenue projections of approximately $566 million. The report will be released today at 9:30 am in Room N505 of the Thompson State Building in Chicago…..

      Reply
  2. Carolyn
    Carolyn says:

    It is so irresponsible and wrong to be supporting recreational marijuana. It says a lot of negative of a public officials character to support something as harmful as that. It definitely matters who you vote for. Those in charge basically make the laws/rules. I sure hope the legislature will not support this too.

    Reply

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