In a May 11 tweet, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he supports Pennsylvania legalizing recreational marijuana. Peduto tweeted that he backs the drive being led by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who thinks the General Assembly should pass a bill that would regulate and tax recreational marijuana in the Commonwealth.

"I fully support Auditor General DePasquale’s Plan to legalize/regulate/tax marijuana in Pennsylvania. More importantly, so do a majority of Pennsylvanians," Peduto tweeted while linking a tweet from DePasquale.


A September 2017 poll from Franklin & Marshall College says that 59 percent of Pennsylvanians support fully legalizing marijuana. DePaquale told City Paper in September 2017, “It is time to regulate and tax [marijuana]. It will be better for the people of Pennsylvania. It will generate tax revenue, it will actually help create jobs, and it will save law enforcement time in trying to prosecute people who are not a threat to society.” DePasquale and his office also believe that recreational marijuana could bring in about $325 million in revenue to the state.

I fully support Auditor General DePasquale’s Plan to legalize/regulate/tax marijuana in Pennsylvania. More importantly, so do a majority of Pennsylvanians. https://t.co/YZbUdynixS

— bill peduto (@billpeduto) May 11, 2018

Peduto has long been a supporter of legalizing medical marijuana, which Pennsylvanian patients have had access to since earlier this year. He also signed a bill in December 2015 to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession in Pittsburgh. He joins Pennsylvania politicians like DePasquale, Braddock Mayor and Lt. Gov. candidate John Fetterman, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in calling for the state legalize recreational marijuana.

If Pennsylvania were to legalize recreational marijuana, it would join nine other states and Washington, D.C. in doing so. Pennsylvania would also be the largest state east of the Mississippi to legalize marijuana, and the second largest in the nation behind California.