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President Biden’s announcement on marijuana comes a little more than a month before an election in which one of Pennsylvania’s Senate candidates has long advocated for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana – and the other has been criticizing his opponent on drug policies but has also proclaimed people shouldn’t be arrested for smoking marijuana.
Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman on Thursday called the announcement “a BFD and a massive step towards justice.” Fetterman said he talked to President Biden about decriminalizing marijuana during the President’s visit to Pittsburgh on Labor Day. It’s unclear whether the conversation contributed to the substance or timing of the President’s announcement, or whether it was already in the works.
A source familiar said the White House did give Fetterman a heads up today that the announcement was coming.
Fetterman, who conducted a listening tour throughout the state on marijuana legalization as lieutenant governor, said resources used to make marijuana arrests should be going toward combating serious crime and that the President’s decision will make people safer.
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“People’s lives should not be derailed because of minor, nonviolent marijuana-related offenses. That’s common sense,” Fetterman said in a release.
Last month, Fetterman and Gov. Tom Wolf launched a Pa. Marijuana Pardon Project that offered people with minor marijuana-related convictions a path to be pardoned in a one-month window. More than 2,500 people had applied, according to the governor’s office, by Sept. 28.
Fetterman’s opponent Mehmet Oz has been attacking Fetterman recently on crime and drug issues. The Republican, though, also recently made marijuana part of his pitch to voters, referencing it in a pamphlet handed out at a “safer street” conversation in Philadelphia recently that was part of an appeal to Black voters in Philadelphia.
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“We shouldn’t be arresting folks for smoking marijuana, but violent criminals and dangerous gangs should be prosecuted,” the booklet said.
Asked if Oz had a comment on Biden’s announcement Thursday, an Oz spokesperson did not indicate whether Oz had a feeling for or against the move. In a one-line statement, she talked instead about Fetterman, saying he “wants to go even further than Biden” and claiming Fetterman would decriminalize “hard drugs.”
