Paul Armentano: It’s time for lawmakers to regulate the marijuana marketplace
Facts, not fears, should guide Pennsylvania lawmakers’ decision to regulate the adult-use marijuana market in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Dan Bartkowiak’s op-ed (“Pennsylvania must not lose to the marijuana industry,” June 11) relies almost entirely on the latter.
Pennsylvania already has real-world experience successfully regulating the retail sale and use of medical cannabis. Currently, nearly 450,000 Pennsylvanians are registered with the state to purchase cannabis products from more than 180 licensed retailers statewide. The sky has not fallen, nor will it fall when adult-use similarly becomes legal.
Let’s be clear. Legalization doesn’t create or normalize the marijuana market. The market is already here.
But under a policy of criminal prohibition, this market flourishes underground — and those involved in it remain largely unaccountable. They don’t pay taxes, they don’t check IDs, and they don’t test the purity of their products. Disputes that arise in the illicit marketplace are not adjudicated in courts of law.
By contrast, under regulation, cannabis products are available from licensed manufacturers at retail stores.
Cannabis is cultivated, and products are manufactured, in accordance with good manufacturing practices. Products are lab tested and labeled accordingly. And sales are taxed, with revenues being reinvested in the community. Since 2014, retail sales of adult-use cannabis products have generated almost $25 billion in tax revenue — much of which is reinvested back into local communities.
Most importantly, millions of Americans — many of them young adults — are no longer being arrested for possessing a substance that is objectively safer than either tobacco or alcohol.
According to data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the annual number of marijuana-related arrests in the United States fell from 750,000 in 2012 to 217,000 in 2023, the last year for which data is available.
In short, these state-level policy changes have resulted in countless Americans being spared criminal records — and the lost opportunities that accompany them — in the past decade. By contrast, in Pennsylvania, some 90,000 people have been arrested since 2018 for violating marijuana laws.
Also importantly, cannabis use by teens has not risen in parallel with legalization.
According to federal data, the percentage of high schoolers who use marijuana has fallen to a 30-year low – a trend that the director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse described as “unprecedented.” Compliance check data from California, Colorado, Nevada, and other legal marijuana states show that licensed marijuana retailers do not sell products to underage patrons.
Furthermore, contrary to some critics’ claims, legalization states have not experienced any spike in either psychosis or mental illnesses.
According to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, rates of psychosis-related health care claims are no higher in jurisdictions where cannabis is legal than in those where it’s not.
Legalization is also successfully disrupting the illicit marketplace. According to survey data, 52 percent of consumers residing in legal states say that they primarily sourced their cannabis products from brick-and-mortar establishments. By contrast, only six percent of respondents say that they primarily purchased cannabis from a “dealer.”
Many consumers in non-legal states also report that they frequently travel to neighboring legal states to purchase cannabis products rather than buying from illicit dealers in their own state.
More than a decade into states’ legalization experiment, public support for making marijuana legal nationwide has never been higher. To date, 24 states have legalized the adult-use market.
None of these states have ever repealed their legalization laws. That’s because these policies are working largely as voters and politicians intended — and because they’re preferable to cannabis criminalization.
After a century of failed policies and “canna-bigotry,” the verdict is in. Sixty-seven percent of Pennsylvanians — including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans — want regulated marijuana access. Lawmakers ought to act accordingly.
Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of NORML — the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Legalize federally now. What’s legal to possess and consume in over half of the populated areas of The United States should not make you a criminal in states still being governed by woefully ignorant prohibitionist politicians. Cannabis consumers in all states deserve and demand equal rights and protections under our laws that are currently afforded to the drinkers of far more dangerous and deadly, yet perfectly legal, widely accepted, endlessly advertised and even glorified as an All-American pastime, alcohol. Plain and simple! Legalize Nationwide Federally Now!
Cannabis should be absolutely just as legal and easy to obtain anywhere as alcohol currently is. No exceptions. It’s so easy: As legal and easy to obtain/use as alcohol currently is. Why hold relatively benign, often healing cannabis to any sort of irrational, stricter double standard than perfectly legal alcohol?
Prohibition and Reefer Madness are only pushed and believed by a very small, lunatic-fringe minority of irrational looney-tune Holier Than Thou types that are on a never ending little personal moral-crusade and witch-hunt against relatively benign cannabis and it’s consumers. The rest of us sane, rational, normal Americans just laugh our butts off at and mock utterly desperate lying prohibitionists and their ridiculous Reefer-Madness-Rhetoric as the comedy show they truly are!
What we certainly don’t need are anymore people who feel justified in appointing themselves to be self-deputized morality police.
We are very capable of choosing for ourselves if we want to consume cannabis, a far less dangerous choice over alcohol, and we definitely don’t need anyone dictating how we should live our own lives.
We can’t just lock up everyone who does things prohibitionists don’t personally approve of.
The “War on Cannabis” has been a complete and utter failure. It is the largest component of the broader yet equally unsuccessful “War on Drugs” that has cost our country over two trillion dollars.
Instead of The United States wasting Billions upon Billions more of our yearly tax dollars fighting a never ending “War on Cannabis”, lets generate Billions of dollars, and improve the deficit instead. Especially now, due to Covid-19. It’s a no brainer.
The Prohibition of Cannabis has also ruined the lives of many of our loved ones. In numbers greater than any other nation, our loved ones are being sent to jail and are being given permanent criminal records. Especially, if they happen to be of the “wrong” skin color or they happen to be from the “wrong” neighborhood. Which ruin their chances of employment for the rest of their lives, and for what reason?
Cannabis is much safer to consume than alcohol. Yet do we lock people up for choosing to drink?
Let’s end this hypocrisy now!
The government should never attempt to legislate morality by creating victim-less cannabis “crimes” because it simply does not work and costs the taxpayers a fortune.
Cannabis Legalization Nationwide is an inevitable reality that’s approaching much sooner than prohibitionists think and there is nothing they can do to stop it!
Legalize Nationwide Federally Now! Support Each and Every Cannabis Legalization Initiative!
“Cannabis is 114 times safer than drinking alcohol”
“Cannabis may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say”
“Cannabis may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say New study: We should stop fighting Cannabis legalization and focus on alcohol and tobacco instead By Christopher Ingraham February 23
Compared with other recreational drugs — including alcohol — Cannabis may be even safer than previously thought. And researchers may be systematically underestimating risks associated with alcohol use.
Those are the top-line findings of recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature. Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with the use of a variety of commonly used substances. They found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin and cocaine.”
-Washington Post
“The report discovered that Cannabis is 114 times less deadly than alcohol. Researchers were able to determine this by comparing the lethal doses with the amount of typical use. Through this approach, Cannabis had the lowest mortality risk to users out of all the drugs they studied. In fact—because the numbers were crossed with typical daily use—Cannabis is the only drug that tested as “low risk.”
-Complex
Paul Armentano, the author of this article, is the Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and clearly shows his bias. This article is a masterclass in manipulative rhetoric, relying on cherry-picked data, logical fallacies (hasty generalization, false dichotomy, ad populum, post hoc), and emotional appeals to push marijuana legalization. It ignores counterevidence, oversimplifies complex issues, and dismisses legitimate concerns with loaded language… like “canna-bigotry.” Unfortunately this author does not seem to be ashamed for pushing these dangerous and propagandized ideas. The article’s claims about safety, economic benefits, and market disruption are either exaggerated or unsupported, and it fails to prove that legalization is the only or best solution. Pennsylvania lawmakers should approach this issue with rigorous skepticism. Here are several issues:
1. Appeal to False Success (Medical Cannabis as a Precedent)
The article claims Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program proves that adult-use legalization will be harmless, stating, “The sky has not fallen, nor will it fall when adult-use similarly becomes legal.” This is a hasty generalization and a false analogy. The medical cannabis program operates under strict oversight, with limited access for specific medical conditions, and serves a smaller, controlled population (450,000 registered users). Adult-use legalization, by contrast, opens the market to a vastly larger, unregulated consumer base with fewer restrictions. Equating the two ignores the differences in scale, intent, and oversight. No evidence is provided to show that the medical program’s “success” translates to recreational use, which could amplify risks like increased accessibility to minors or overuse.
2. Strawman Argument (Underground Market Fearmongering)
The article sets up a strawman by portraying prohibition as inherently chaotic, claiming the underground market is “largely unaccountable,” doesn’t pay taxes, check IDs, or test product purity. This oversimplifies a complex issue. While illicit markets lack regulation, the article ignores that legal markets don’t eliminate illegal activity. Data from states like California shows that black markets persist post-legalization, with illegal sales often undercutting legal prices due to lower taxes and fewer regulations. The claim that disputes in illicit markets aren’t “adjudicated in courts” is misleading—legal markets also face disputes (e.g., over product quality or labor issues) that burden the legal system. The article’s binary framing—legalization good, prohibition bad—is a false dichotomy that ignores hybrid approaches like decriminalization without full commercialization.
3. Cherry-Picking Data (Tax Revenue and Community Reinvestment)
The article touts $25 billion in tax revenue from legal cannabis sales since 2014, implying this benefits communities. This is cherry-picking and lacks context. It doesn’t specify how this revenue is distributed or whether it offsets costs like increased healthcare spending, law enforcement needs, or social programs addressing addiction or impaired driving. For example, studies from Colorado show that cannabis-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations increased post-legalization, offsetting some tax revenue gains. The vague claim that revenue is “reinvested back into local communities” is an appeal to emotion, lacking evidence of tangible benefits or equitable distribution.
4. Misleading Safety Claims (Cannabis vs. Tobacco/Alcohol)
The assertion that cannabis is “objectively safer than either tobacco or alcohol” is a sweeping generalization unsupported by comprehensive evidence. While cannabis may have lower mortality rates than tobacco or alcohol, it’s not without risks. Research links cannabis use to cognitive impairment, increased anxiety, and potential dependency, particularly in young users. The article ignores dose-dependent effects and the rising potency of modern cannabis products (e.g., THC concentrates), which amplify risks compared to older, less potent forms. Comparing cannabis to alcohol and tobacco is a red herring, diverting attention from cannabis-specific harms and framing it as a lesser evil without proving its safety.
5. Selective Use of Arrest Statistics
The article cites a drop in marijuana-related arrests (from 750,000 in 2012 to 217,000 in 2023) to argue that legalization spares people criminal records. This is selective reporting. The decline in arrests could reflect changing law enforcement priorities, decriminalization efforts, or reduced policing in some areas, not just legalization. Moreover, the article’s claim that 90,000 Pennsylvanians were arrested since 2018 for marijuana violations lacks context—how many were for possession versus trafficking? Were these arrests solely for marijuana, or were other crimes involved? Without this, the statistic is alarmist and manipulative, designed to inflame rather than inform.
6. Misrepresentation of Teen Use Trends
The claim that teen cannabis use has fallen to a 30-year low, citing federal data, is misleading. The article implies legalization caused this decline, but correlation doesn’t equal causation. The Monitoring the Future survey shows teen marijuana use was already declining before widespread legalization, likely due to broader social trends like increased awareness of substance risks or shifts to other substances (e.g., vaping). The claim that retailers don’t sell to minors is also overstated—compliance checks vary by state, and lax enforcement or illegal sales still occur. The article’s reliance on this point is a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, assuming legalization drove the trend without evidence.
7. Dismissal of Mental Health Concerns
The article’s assertion that legalization states show no spike in psychosis or mental illness, citing a single JAMA study, is cherry-picking. Other studies, like those from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, link high-potency cannabis to increased risks of psychosis, especially in young users or those with genetic predispositions. The article ignores conflicting evidence and fails to address the lag time in mental health outcomes, which may not appear immediately post-legalization. This selective citation is a suppressed evidence fallacy, presenting only favorable data to mislead readers.
8. Overstated Disruption of Illicit Markets
The claim that 52% of consumers in legal states buy from licensed retailers, while only 6% use dealers, is presented as evidence that legalization crushes illicit markets. This is misleading. The survey data (source unspecified) likely reflects self-reported behavior, which is prone to bias, especially in states where admitting to illegal purchases carries stigma. In reality, illicit markets thrive in legal states due to high taxes and regulatory costs driving consumers to cheaper black-market sources. The article’s failure to acknowledge this is a half-truth, painting an overly rosy picture of legalization’s impact.
9. Appeal to Popularity (Public Support)
The article cites 67% public support for legalization as evidence that lawmakers should act. This is an ad populum fallacy—popularity doesn’t prove a policy’s merit. Public opinion can be swayed by misinformation, trends, or emotional appeals, not just facts. The article also ignores potential divides in support (e.g., urban vs. rural voters) and doesn’t address whether Pennsylvanians support full commercialization versus decriminalization. This tactic manipulates readers by implying majority rule trumps critical analysis.
10. Historical Revisionism and Loaded Language
The phrase “a century of failed policies and ‘canna-bigotry’” is a loaded term meant to vilify opponents as prejudiced. This is an ad hominem attack, dismissing prohibitionist arguments without engaging their substance. The claim that prohibition has “failed” ignores that it suppressed widespread use for decades, potentially curbing associated harms. The article’s narrative of inevitable progress (“none of these states have ever repealed their legalization laws”) is a bandwagon fallacy, implying that because other states haven’t reversed course, Pennsylvania must follow.
11. Lack of Counterarguments
The article employs a one-sided presentation, ignoring valid concerns about legalization, such as increased DUI cases, workplace safety issues, or the environmental impact of cannabis cultivation. By pretending these don’t exist, the author commits a suppressed evidence fallacy, undermining the case’s credibility. A balanced argument would address and refute these concerns, not pretend they’re nonexistent.
12. Unsubstantiated Claims About Regulation
The article assumes regulation ensures safety, claiming products are “cultivated… in accordance with good manufacturing practices” and are “lab tested and labeled accordingly.” This is overly optimistic. Regulatory enforcement varies widely by state, and incidents of contaminated products or mislabeling have occurred in legal markets. The article provides no evidence that Pennsylvania’s regulatory framework would prevent such issues, making this an unwarranted assumption.
Paul Armentano always uses facts, logic, reasoning backed up by verifiable of proof sources to dispel the lies, fear mongering and and desperate scare-tactics being so desperately deployed very small, lunatic-fringe minority of irrational, illogical anti-cannabis prohibitionists like yourself. The vast majority of Americans nationwide regardless of political affiliation happen to very strongly agree with Paul Armentano and also strongly support the full federal legalization of cannabis nationwide. He is a hero to many.
Why do you feel justified in endlessly wasting billions upon billions of our yearly federal tax dollars continuing to arrest, criminalize, incarcerate, and hand out life long permanent criminal records to otherwise hard-working, tax-paying, adult citizens for choosing to consume cannabis although it is far safer than perfectly legal, widely accepted alcohol?
Contrary to what prohibitionists are so desperately trying to get the public to believe wholeheartedly and without question, legalizing cannabis IS NOT adding anything new into our society that wasn’t always there and widely available already.
Therefore cannabis legalization does not lead to some massive influx of new cannabis consumers. The very same people who have been consuming cannabis during it’s prohibition are for the most part the very same ones who will be consuming cannabis when it’s legal.
The prohibition of cannabis has never prevented cannabis’s widespread availability nor anyone from consuming cannabis that truly desires to do so.
Cannabis has been ingrained within our society since the days of our founding fathers and part of human culture since biblical times, for thousands of years.
So, since cannabis has always been with us and humans already have thousands upon thousands of years worth of experience with cannabis, what great calamities and “Doomsday Scenarios” do prohibitionists really think will happen now due to current legalization efforts that have never ever happened before in all human history?
Legalize Nationwide Federally Now!
Fear of Cannabis Legalization Nationwide is unfounded. Not based on any science or fact whatsoever. So please prohibitionists, we beg you to give your scare tactics, “Conspiracy Theories” and “Doomsday Scenarios” over the inevitable Legalization of Cannabis Nationwide a rest. Nobody is buying them anymore these days. Okay?
Furthermore, if all prohibitionists get when they look into that nice, big and shiny crystal ball of theirs, while wondering about the future of cannabis legalization, is horror, doom, and despair, well then I suggest they return that thing as quickly as possible and reclaim the money they shelled out for it, since it’s obviously defective.
The prohibition of cannabis has not decreased the supply nor the demand for cannabis at all. Not one single iota, and it never will. Just a huge and complete waste of our tax dollars to continue criminalizing citizens for choosing a natural, non-toxic, relatively benign plant proven to be much safer than alcohol.
If prohibitionists are going to take it upon themselves to worry about “saving us all” from ourselves, then they need to start with the drug that causes more death and destruction than every other drug in the world COMBINED, which is alcohol!
Why do prohibitionists feel the continued need to vilify and demonize cannabis when they could more wisely focus their efforts on a real, proven killer, alcohol, which again causes more destruction, violence, and death than all other drugs, COMBINED?
Prohibitionists really should get their priorities straight and/or practice a little live and let live. They’ll live longer, happier, and healthier, with a lot less stress if they refrain from being bent on trying to control others through Draconian Cannabis Laws.
Fear of Cannabis Legalization Nationwide is unfounded. Not based on any science or fact whatsoever. So please prohibitionists, we beg you to give your scare tactics, “Conspiracy Theories” and “Doomsday Scenarios” over the inevitable Legalization of Cannabis Nationwide a rest. Nobody is buying them anymore these days. Okay?
Furthermore, if all prohibitionists get when they look into that nice, big and shiny crystal ball of theirs, while wondering about the future of cannabis legalization, is horror, doom, and despair, well then I suggest they return that thing as quickly as possible and reclaim the money they shelled out for it, since it’s obviously defective.
The prohibition of cannabis has not decreased the supply nor the demand for cannabis at all. Not one single iota, and it never will. Just a huge and complete waste of our tax dollars to continue criminalizing citizens for choosing a natural, non-toxic, relatively benign plant proven to be much safer than alcohol.
If prohibitionists are going to take it upon themselves to worry about “saving us all” from ourselves, then they need to start with the drug that causes more death and destruction than every other drug in the world COMBINED, which is alcohol!
Why do prohibitionists feel the continued need to vilify and demonize cannabis when they could more wisely focus their efforts on a real, proven killer, alcohol, which again causes more destruction, violence, and death than all other drugs, COMBINED?
Prohibitionists really should get their priorities straight and/or practice a little live and let live. They’ll live longer, happier, and healthier, with a lot less stress if they refrain from being bent on trying to control others through Draconian Cannabis Laws.
There is absolutely no doubt now that the majority of Americans want to completely legalize cannabis nationwide. Our numbers grow on a daily basis.
The prohibitionist view on cannabis is the viewpoint of a minority and rapidly shrinking percentage of Americans. It is based upon decades of lies and propaganda.
Each and every tired old lie they have propagated has been thoroughly proven false by both science and society.
Their tired old rhetoric no longer holds any validity. The vast majority of Americans have seen through the sham of cannabis prohibition in this day and age. The number of prohibitionists left shrinks on a daily basis.
With their credibility shattered, and their not so hidden agendas visible to a much wiser public, what’s left for a cannabis prohibitionist to do?
Maybe, just come to terms with the fact that Cannabis Legalization Nationwide is an inevitable reality that’s approaching much sooner than prohibitionists think, and there is nothing they can do to stop it!
Legalize Nationwide!…and Support All Cannabis Legalization Efforts!