I propose that Reading legalize marijuana.
Doing so would be an economic-development bonanza.
This is not fantasy. It’s happening for real in Washington D.C., the center of the free world, 150 miles away from Reading.
That city’s leaders legalized possessing and using cannabis after 70 percent of voters approved a referendum in November. Arrests are down and the sky hasn’t fallen.
By now, we’ve all heard the news from Colorado.
“Colorado’s experiment with marijuana legalization is a success — and not just economically,” writes Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
[Yes, yes, he’s somebody paid to promote the benefits of marijuana, but his facts are verifiable, and he did get his letter in the New York Times.]
Why shouldn’t Reading, showing boldness rare in Berks County, grab some of that excitement?
Police would not stop or arrest anyone for having pot or even smoking it in places where tobacco use is permitted. Police would continue to arrest people for burglary, robbery, shoplifting, public urination, assault, child abuse and neglect, murder, harassment, disorderly conduct, and having synthetic marijuana, which sounds like awful stuff.
Reading would get priceless publicity. Being famous for the only place in Pennsylvania where you can legally smoke a doobie on your front porch would be better than notoriety as the poorest or fattest city in the country, or for having a corrupt mayor and council president. Though the move would not play in Peoria, nor perhaps Albany Township, it would resonate with many city residents. Have a referendum and find out!
Reading, moving away from celebrating outlet centers, pretzels and baseball, could find itself in front of the wave of history, riding to a new national brand as a place of tolerance and recreation.
My idea would mesh with other Reading-booster initiatives, such as promoting Reading as an arts center and hosting music at Penn Square. Art and music thrive with cannabis. I can see people walking from West Reading’s annual festivals across the bridge to Reading. Such adventures appeal to stoned people. And cannabis tourists visiting Reading would walk to West Reading to visit the Paisley Moon head shop, until Reading opens its own tourist-friendly head shops on Penn Street.
Glassblowers at the GoggleWorks could expand into glass pipes and bongs and attract paraphernalia fans from all over. And people get the munchies when they are high. Stoned residents and visitors would flock to restaurants and food vendors.
The city is working on a schedule of outdoor events involving music and food. That’s just the kind of atmosphere where it’s fun to get high. Many pot smokers would enjoy being able to relax by the Schuylkill River and not worry about getting hassled over their recreational drug of choice. Pot smokers are used to being discreet, so there’s no reason to think things would get out of hand.
Forbes, a business magazine, notes how the newly legal cannabis industry has spawned all sorts of economic development in Colorado and Washington state.
“Small businesses are connecting travelers with marijuana shopping expeditions, visits to growers, lodging in pot-friendly hotels, and opportunities to consume the product. Other entrepreneurs are creating cannabis cooking classes, spa treatments and pot-smoking airport layovers.”
Reading residents could grow their own weed, as they do in D.C., leading to much less organized crime and its trigger-happy operators and even more business opportunities. City entrepreneurs could open stores for growers. In Colorado, regulators issued 16,000 licenses in 2014 to new employees working legally in the marijuana industry, Armentano writes in the Times.
According to the Washington Post:
“After the D.C. law went into effect, Silver Spring, Md., resident Jacob Asbell founded Hydro-City, which sells and rents the equipment needed to grow marijuana indoors. Hydro-City’s grow kits include lamps, bulbs, tents, fans, timers, fertilizers and filters. Asbell and his co-workers started to install growing systems in D.C. homes in June.
“ ‘We come to your place, we set everything up for you, we teach you how to use it, we include everything you need to grow, and then just add seeds and water,’ Asbell said.”
Eventually, Reading could become known for regional contests to determine the best strains.
I bet Reading Police Chief Bill Heim would honor a referendum.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams would need to agree to the experiment. I’m sure he’d want to avoid the election backlash if he opposed the idea.
State police would also have to agree to look the other way. I think they and most other crime fighters would prefer to use their resources to chase dangerous criminals.
Legalizing pot in Reading would certainly goad the many full-time staffers at the Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau to spice up the top of their embarrassing website, whose mispunctuated top paragraph now touts [yawn!] the Pagoda [a natural wonder?] and Roadside America [double yawn!]. In fact, such a historic event could be a game-changer for the dozens of officials who make their living by struggling to create economic development at:
- The Greater Reading Economic Partnership
- ReDesign Reading
- City Hall’s Community Development Department
- The Reading Redevelopment Authority
- Our City Reading
- The Berks County Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- The Downtown Improvement District
- Berks County Community Foundation
- [Did I miss any organization?]
The results of many of their efforts have been dismal.
Instead of “Take a Ride in Reading,” the slogan could be “Catch a buzz in Reading.”
To be really bold – or if the possession-experiment goes OK -- the city could allow people to sell pot, finding a quick revenue stream in taxes and an onslaught of visitors.
In April, retail cannabis sales in Colorado raised nearly $11 million in tax revenue and fees, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.
“Under prohibition, this money is diverted to black-market entrepreneurs, not to licensed businesses,” Armentano points out in the Times.
However, to me at this point, allowing sales seems politically unworkable.
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