READING, Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to adopt a resolution calling for “an immediate passage of legislation to decriminalize and legalize adult-use marijuana and expressing support for Governor Josh Shapiro’s initiative on statewide cannabis reform.”<\/p>\n
Councilmember Chris Miller voted “no,” saying he would have wanted to hear opposing viewpoints before making a decision.<\/p>\n
While the action is simply an advocacy resolution, council also introduced a proposed ordinance which could be considered for adoption in two weeks that amends the city code to decriminalize the possession of a small amount of marijuana and affirms support for statewide marijuana reform.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jaime Baez Jr. introduced both the resolution and ordinance, saying the city no longer wants to criminalize its residents or its youth.<\/p>\n
Councilman Jaime Baez, who introduced the ordinance, says the goal is to stop penalizing residents for minor offenses.<\/p>\n
“Speaking of the ordinance, there is some pushback from the district attorney’s office, and my understanding is that there is a threat to withhold funding, which I would say, ‘Would you really withhold funding from the Reading police?'” Baez said. “And would you really want crime to go up? It’s a bad image, I think, on the district attorney, if crime were to go up.”<\/p>\n
Baez said the current law adversely affects residents, especially those who are minorities.<\/p>\n
“Another thing is, we’re (the state) missing out on revenue,” Baez added. “I mean, Colorado, in its first year in 2014, saw $1 billion in revenue. When we look across at our neighboring states, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, even Ohio have already passed this.”<\/p>\n
“And when we look here in Pennsylvania, over 20 municipalities have already passed the decriminalization of marijuana,” Baez continued. “Reading needs to catch up. We need to be moving at 150 miles an hour, making sure that we’re progressing our city and making sure that we are legislating for our residents in a positive way.”<\/p>\n
Councilmember Melissa Ventura said reform is overdue.<\/p>\n
“It’s necessary to create a more fair and just criminal justice system, especially when it’s affecting the majority of residents who are a people of color,” Ventura said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several residents praised the effort during public comment, saying the reform would reduce unnecessary incarceration and save taxpayers money.<\/p>\n
Council President Donna Reed said she supported the resolution and added that she would like to see the state institute a system like a state store to give the state revenue from people who choose to use marijuana.<\/p>\n
“I’m comfortable with this as an advocacy resolution,” Reed said. “I supported it, and I co-sponsored it. I feel differently about the ordinance, and I’ll speak to that in the future.”<\/p>\n
Managing Director Jack Gombach said the administration is grateful to council for putting forward numerous advocacy resolutions, calling on the state to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
“We want to acknowledge that council has really stepped up on that regard and is using its voice in Harrisburg just like the mayor and the administration has as well,” Gombach said. “And we’re looking forward to a thoughtful conversation about how we do this in Reading, and making sure that we are not negatively impacting the lives of our residents and doing what is right.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to adopt a resolution calling for “an immediate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5082,1089,5083,3066,1091,33,5028,128,1095,130,129],"class_list":["post-5603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-cannabis-in-pennsylvania","tag-chris-miller","tag-crime-in-pennsylvania","tag-jack-gombach","tag-jaime-baez","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-melissa-ventura","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}