A Pennsylvania House of Representatives subcommittee met Thursday to examine how potential marijuana legislation could advance equity and social justice amid the disproportionate impact of the war on drugs on minority communities.
“A clear priority that you heard from our subcommittee yesterday is equity and restorative justice, particularly for communities most disadvantaged by the criminal justice system,” said Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), chairman of the House Health Committee’s Health Care Subcommittee.
On Friday morning, House Democrats, who hold a one-vote majority and therefore control the bills that make it to the floor, held their first full meeting to begin discussions on the possible shape of a bill to legalize marijuana.
“My hope and expectation is that we will have a bill that builds on the hearings that we had in the health committee — in our subcommittee — over the next few months,” Frankel told the Capital-Star. “There may be one or two members who may take issue with it, but I think there is a clear, overwhelming consensus among the Democratic caucus.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro has expressed support for legalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania and even included potential marijuana tax revenue in his latest budget. In the Senate draft legalization bill was proposed by Republican Senator Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) with a handful of Democratic co-sponsors. identical bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday by Democratic Rep. Amen Brown (D-Philadelphia) along with all Democratic co-sponsors.
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Among those testifying Thursday was Tahir Johnson, a 40-year-old from New Jersey who was one of the first to receive a license to open a recreational marijuana dispensary in his state. Before legalization, Johnson was arrested on marijuana-related charges three times.
“Seeing something that hurt me and my family — so many people I know — and now building a business out of it was amazing,” Johnson told the Capital-Star. “Just to do something like that in my community, to know that people are proud of it, to know that I’m an example of being one of the first people to get a license and do this, it’s amazing.”
Johnson qualified for what’s called “social equity status” when he applied to open a dispensary in New Jersey. This status is offered to minority business owners or people who have previously been charged with marijuana-related offenses, giving their applications priority consideration.
The goal of social equity status is to ensure that people and communities most affected by the war on drugs have ample opportunity to enter the novel business sector at the very beginning. African Americans like Johnson are much more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana-related offenses, numerous studies have shown.
But as Johnson and others have testified, equity programs like the one in New Jersey haven’t always had the intended effect. Johnson said he’s had to overcome many hurdles to get funding, and the regulatory process for dispensaries is cumbersome. His license was approved two years ago, and his dispensary still hasn’t opened.
Laury Lucien, a marijuana business owner in Massachusetts and a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston, told the commission that Pennsylvania should learn from her state’s mistakes.
While Massachusetts has a social equity program similar to New Jersey’s, many of the would-be business owners who qualified for it lacked the financing and business experience of venture capitalists and immense corporations, many of whom already operate dispensaries in states where it’s legal. Additionally, many banks are hesitant to lend to companies selling a product that’s still illegal at the federal level.
Lucien added that in Massachusetts, prospective business owners must demonstrate ownership of the real estate for their outlets throughout the application process, which can take years.
In immense part because of these obstacles, Lucien said, the marijuana business in Massachusetts remains dominated by whites.
She suggested that no non-equity firms should be allowed to open until equity candidates have secured funding. She also recommended introducing regulations to prohibit the sale of social equity licenses to non-equity candidates for a period of time after initial legalization, to prevent them from being bought up by monopoly firms.
Johnson has advocated for a New Jersey policy that would allow prospective venture capitalists to receive conditional licenses before meeting certain financing barriers, making it easier to find investors.
“Often when we engage in these conversations, we feel like we’re engaging in charity, but we’re not,” Lucien told the commission. “It’s restorative justice, to right the wrongs that have been committed in enforcing these marijuana laws that have disproportionately impacted certain communities and certain individuals.”
Lawmakers on the committee expressed skepticism about the feasibility of any legislation aimed at ensuring equity in the cannabis industry, given the difficulties faced in other states.
“We’ve heard from every state, ‘Don’t make the mistakes we made,’ but it seems like every state is making some mistakes,” Rep. Paul Schemel (R-Franklin) told the committee. “I don’t see a way out of this.”
Schemel and other Republicans on the subcommittee unanimously expressed concerns about the impact of marijuana legalization on public health.
Retired Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen, who is currently legal counsel at the Pennsylvania Family Institute, an affiliate of the national pro-life think tank Family Research Council — Designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of his anti-LGBTQ stance — addressed those concerns at the committee meeting.
“The growth in marijuana use is having a detrimental effect not only on our youth but on our entire society,” Allen told the committee. “So why would we promote such an industry and call it social equality?”
However, legalization supporters, including members of the subcommittee, disagree.
“The fact is we have an environment where there is a vibrant illegal market,” Frankel told the committee. Legalization would not only ensure that all marijuana products are regulated, he added, but it would also end discriminatory enforcement of marijuana-related criminal penalties.
“For many of us, including on this panel, I think on a bipartisan basis, restorative justice, social justice and decriminalization are important aspects of this discussion,” Frankel said.
The Health Care Subcommittee will meet again on April 25.
