As state Sens. Dan Laughlin and Sharif Street introduced the commonwealth's first bipartisan bill to legalize recreational marijuana Wednesday, Laughlin, the Erie County Republican, admitted that his position on the issue had changed "180 degrees" since taking office in 2017.
"The final straw was a conversation that I had with one of my kids," said Laughlin, of Millcreek Township, R-49th Dist., the first Republican in the General Assembly to cosponsor a marijuana legalization bill. "He told me that he could have a bag of weed delivered to the house in under an hour and that's better service than Amazon. And I realized that anyone in Pennsylvania that wants to smoke marijuana is probably already doing it. So we might as well take this and regulate it. That, I think, is the most responsible thing that we can do."