Heavyweight boxing hall of famer Mike Tyson visited lawmakers in the state Capitol Wednesday morning to urge them to lift Pennsylvania\u2019s ban on recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n
Tyson told reporters after meetings with lawmakers that legalizing weed is an issue of safety.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThere\u2019s a lot of bad cannabis going on, a lot of people getting sick, and I\u2019m just asking (for it to be) registered like alcohol,\u201d Tyson said. \u201cIf alcohol gets you sick, you know who to go to, to sue, and get answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI want the same thing to be for cannabis,\u201d he continued. \u201cI want to be responsible for it, and have some place to go to have somebody be accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyson owns a multi-million dollar cannabis company, Tyson 2.0. He has used his celebrity to lobby for cannabis rescheduling with some of the world\u2019s most powerful politicians, including President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The former heavyweight boxing champion downplayed his potential conflict of interest in owning a company that could profit from his lobbying efforts. His company already sells its products through medical marijuana dispensaries throughout Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Tyson noted that many of Pennsylvania\u2019s neighboring states have already legalized recreational marijuana and begun taxing its sales. Maryland, New York, Ohio, Delaware, New Jersey have all adopted such policies.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania lawmakers have debated the issue for years but have so far failed to reach a deal on legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana sales. Multiple such bills have been introduced \u2014 some have even passed the Democrat-led House \u2014 but have never been sent to the governor for his signature.<\/p>\n
Tyson spoke to his own experience of using recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt changed my whole life around,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t use cocaine anymore. I don\u2019t drink anymore. I don\u2019t use any other kind of drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyson 2.0 Chief Operating Officer Ryan Burke accompanied Tyson to his legislative meetings. Burke said they met with Sen. President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, who he described as \u201c\u200avery open, but also very cautious\u201d about recreational legalization.<\/p>\n
Though some Senate Republicans, like Dan Laughlin of Erie, have expressed support for recreational marijuana, there are holdouts in the GOP caucus who firmly oppose it over concerns for public safety and health. That includes Appropriations Chair Scott Martin, R-Lancaster.<\/p>\n
After Martin said in July that he would not move any recreational marijuana legislation<\/a> through his committee, Tyson called out the lawmaker<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cSaying \u2018no\u2019 leaves the door open for cartels and illicit players to fill the gap with zero safety or age protections,\u201d Tyson wrote. \u201cLet\u2019s prioritize health and public safety and give Pennsylvanians the freedom to make their own choices.\u201d<\/p>\n Shapiro, a Democrat, pitched a cannabis tax as part of his budget proposal earlier this year. Burke said he and Tyson had a meeting scheduled with Shapiro on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heavyweight boxing hall of famer Mike Tyson visited lawmakers in the state Capitol Wednesday morning to urge them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-249794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}