Business as Usual: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman

Transcription: 

So good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to, you know, business as usual, I'm pretty excited about today, we have lieutenant governor john Fetterman, the state of Pennsylvania, and sort of psyched to talk to him. He's been making the rounds lately being pretty famous around the United States. But we're proud to have him here. And he is joining us as he's actually in the car on his way to Harrisburg. So we're excited to take a half hour of his time, listen to what his priorities are, and hopefully have a little bit of fun. So I want to give a shout out to Huntington bank for their support. And I also want to give a shout out to at&t, at&t has been our public policy partner for quite a while. And we always try to leverage this format and partner with at&t, but they have actually helped a lot during this pandemic, and really addressing a lot of the issues around the digital divide, and actually, including tackling food insecurity. so deeply appreciative of both at&t and Huntington bank. So we've muted your mics. We've if you've been on the show, you know, we ask you not to sell your wares. We're here just to listen to our guests and have an opportunity to exchange you know, some thoughts, have a quick chat, and see as much of a deep dive as we can with our guests today, like we do each and every day. Jonathan kersting is with us today. As always, he's vice president of all things media and marketing. And he will keep his eye on the chat. And we're hoping for this, as you can imagine to be lively, and it's pretty important. So I want to say thank you to everyone who's joined us today and has joined us each and every day. And now we're going to jump in. And we have lieutenant governor john. And he tells me to call him john, but lieutenant governor john Fetterman. So, john, how are you?

That's asterick. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

It is great to be here. It's great to see you. First of all, how are you feeling? How are you holding up through all this?

Oh, you know, everything's, everything's great. I don't have any, any issues or, you know, there's so many folks with the resurgence of COVID. And however, I've got no complaints. Good, delighted. Glad that it's kind of coming to an end, you know, the drama and the election and everything. And you're certainly looking forward to Thanksgiving and everything.

So good. I'm glad you're safe. And I'm glad you're doing well. So let's start by providing a general overview of the state of COVID. In Pennsylvania and how the Commonwealth some of your guidance.

Well, the the overall state with COVID is critical right now, I can't think of another word to describe it. It's like we have record high case loads. And the sense I get, and obviously this isn't scientific, but I think I I pretty much know, the way things are on the ground is that I think many Pennsylvanians, if not most are no longer, quote unquote, afraid of the virus or they just assume it's out there, and I'm going to live my life. I think that's a fair representation. I know the governor has always sought to strike the appropriate balance between lives and livelihood. And I know that you know, he's not currently considering any drastic lockdowns or returning to anything that we may have saw back in March or April, but the case loads are concerning. And the arguments that we continually have are dismaying that wearing a mask is somehow a political statement that saying, you know what, we're not going to have all these indoor gatherings we are going to practice basic social distancing, we are not going to argue over basic medical hygiene and appropriate conduct during a pandemic. I don't understand that. And I think one of the great tragedies from this pandemic other than the lives and the treasure that we've lost, is that we forgot that the virus is the enemy and you can't be more you know, pro mask is pro businesses, you can be pro social distancing is as pro business as you possibly can be. And we need each other. Nobody wants to see a business closed or certainly go under. It's simply a matter of, are we going to embrace these basic very simple kind have things and not make them about freedom or fascism or all the hyperbole you see online and just say, you know what, maybe you're not afraid of the virus, but maybe I am. Or maybe I have someone in my life that that wouldn't fare so well with it. I mean, we all have somebody in our lives, that probably shouldn't be the thinking. And so why not just wear that mask, if you're going to get your coffee, or you're going to get your groceries or you want to protect these frontline workers that don't have a choice? They You know, I think of all of these grocery workers, for example, that, you know, the grocery store stayed open, even when we didn't know what this was going to look like, back in April. And, and they none of them were got getting rich, you know, No, man look like then. So like, just basic courtesy and respect and has nothing to do with politics. So.

So what do you think about Philadelphia, Philadelphia went on, on a significant lockdown, right until January 1.

Yeah, I mean, they, they know the conditions and the circumstances on the ground there. And, and I certainly would not take issue with with what they're doing. I mean, this idea that, that I would know better than what they have on the ground, I certainly would never advance that point. But, but what one of the things this pandemic has demonstrated, other than the needs to just come to come together and recognize this common enemy, is that, you know, we have a significant budget deficit here in Pennsylvania as a result of all this. So we, we need to look through new sources of revenue, and one that I hope I get the chance to discuss with your members today is, is legal weed for Pennsylvania, two that

I asked you about, I was gonna say, the budget deficit, and you already lead right into that. So let's just talk about that, given the impact. And

let's let's be, let's be honest here, like, we're looking at multi billions of dollar of deficit, and no one wants to raise taxes, and no one wants to cut services. So we need to find new revenue sources. And legalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania would at a minimum, and no one really genuinely disputes This is that's you're talking $5 billion in free money over a 20 year window, at least, you know, that's, that's a conservative 250 a year, 10 years, two decades. And you know, where you're seeing numbers generated like that in Colorado and other states, even states where we have much more population than they do. And then when you factor in the jobs, I mean, like who doesn't need 10s of thousands of new jobs that appeal to tech centered, younger people, those those that really want to stay in Pennsylvania and have an opportunity to create a brand new industry. And then when you talk about that there's 20,000, on average Pennsylvanians that are arrested and charged for marijuana in Pennsylvania every year that are introduced to the criminal justice system for just consuming a plant, let's be honest here. And the you have the hundreds of thousands over the years that have accrued that have this mark on their record that stops them from participating more, getting a better job getting going to screen, whatever it is, like why, why, like, who's better off with prohibition? And then when you factor in our veterans are constantly telling me that we need cannabis to to feel normal not not to feel great, but just to feel normal again. And when you talk about the racial disparities on the enforcement, I mean, it's a it's a no brainer, I, the only grounds that have a prohibition is can argue on now is vestigial, reefer madness. And now, you know, you can argue who won in 2020 on the valve and the biggest winner was weed states as conservative as South Dakota voted to legalize it. And I think that if you're to the right of anything of South Dakota, you need to just kind of reevaluate, you know, your views and say, yeah, we you know, if South Dakota can go there, maybe Pennsylvania really should be taking a look at that. And I've been saying this now, for as long as I can remember. It's not political, it's bipartisan. It's a solution for a problem that we've had before the pandemic. Now that we're in multibillion dollar deficit. How can you say no to 5 billion in long term money for just simply saying yes, to a plant.

So what do you think that what do you think like in terms of your vision, what's the vision on how this can be done? And in what ways does this support equity and and job creation and save all my questions?

Yeah. Oh my gosh, it's It's all of that. And it's not my vision. It's just a simple reality here in Harrisburg. But for a key, a few key leadership positions on the GOP, if they just say we're going to have this conversation, and then everyone gets to participate in that, and they can figure out what legal weed in Pennsylvania looks like, and it would have to be a collaboration between the two parties, because that's how things work in Harrisburg. And we would also have to acknowledge that it's not that you were turning our backs on reefer madness, we're turning our backs on prohibition, for any number of reasons. And just because a substance is legal, does not mean that you love it, you want to use it, or that we are advocating that teenagers should use it or any of these things. The truth is we have a thriving weed market in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, it's the black market. And unfortunately, we have zero purity standards. We aren't collecting any revenues, but the cartels sharar, we are experiencing violence as a result of its black market status. We are empowering dealers of this substance, who often typically sell actually dangerous drugs and much more addictive drugs, that we don't know what's in the marijuana where it was grown, and all these other things. So it actually would dramatically increase safety, revenue, jobs, Justice for our farmers. And also in Pennsylvania. 40% of our population is going to be basically a drive to the grocery store, from a veritable Candyland of legal weed in New Jersey, because that's another state that just voted to legalize it. So you're going to have these enormous and and just announced yesterday, Virginia is also announced that they are now going to legalize and I'm in New York, it's inevitable. So how many of these border states are we going to give our money, our jobs, our justice, our freedom to instead of saying, You know what? Why are we leaders on this instead of of taking a chance on falling way behind when we don't need to?

I agree with you. I'm watching it when I saw Virginia, I couldn't believe it. I said there. There we go. So let's, um, there's a ton of questions on so I want to get them in. Jonathan's gonna pick some out. I know, there's a ton of them. So thanks for your time. My pleasure. You want to start you're on mute. Okay, Jonathan's on mute. So I will dig into the chat. Here we go.

I'm back in one right here.

We'll keep going. Jonathan.

Thank you, governor for being good lieutenant governor for being part of this conversation today. Lots of great questions here. There's a couple a book, Michael Nilo. And we'll Alan are curious, like, how can you make sure that there's incentives to make sure that that that there is some equality when it comes to starting up legal marijuana operations? Because that's more intensive, making sure that people of color have opportunity to participate in this as well?

Of course, of course, it's a great question. And, and I and I would just I, in fact, I hosted a conference between my two colleagues and friends, the lieutenant governors of Illinois and Michigan, who are both really committed to this, and those are both states that have legalized weed. And Illinois, it has the distinction of doing it legislatively. And that is a fabulous, that's like the gold standard as far as I'm concerned. And and both my colleagues are black, and both of them have a very sensitive kind of awareness of the issues and the question that brings up and, and they are experts on it. So I would, I would hold them out as great resources to to anyone in Pennsylvania that they expressed a more than willingness to, to have that conversation, quite frankly. And it's it's undeniable, the war on drugs and the prohibition of cannabis has dramatically disproportionately impacted people and communities of color. And the legalization should benefit accordingly as well, too. I know that is an issue that is near and dear to advocates for this here in Pennsylvania. But I would always just, you know, remind individuals that the perfect cannabis bill is your bill, not necessarily the one that physicians that would weigh in that may not feel as intensely as you do. So we have to get to the point where leadership in Harrisburg on the Republican side stops even denying that this is not a good thing. And then we could fine tune it with those kind of critical issues as part of the conversation.

So you actually can I just say one thing so and then Jonathan got you actually went around to 67 counties I believe correct me people

every every last one. Right. You know, it's funny. I went around to every one of them. And after we compiled the report, it was the most interactive public policy topic in Pennsylvania's history. And that's, that's a fact. And I estimated that support for marijuana in Pennsylvania is somewhere around 65%. But no, no higher than 70. So mid to upper 60s. And then and then just two weeks ago if that a national study came out, and they said 68% of Americans 68% support legal weed. And, you know, Republicans accused me of lying or inflating the numbers and And literally, I was right on the mark. Yeah, down, you know, down to almost the exact percent. And that's the truth. It's bipartisan, I want everyone to understand. prohibition of weed is a minority viewpoint in Pennsylvania, a very small minority viewpoint. And we cannot have the tyranny of the minority in Pennsylvania denying our Commonwealth the revenue, the jobs, the justice, the the treatment for veterans, for our farmers, you name it, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. So

do you think the legalization of marijuana might eventually lead to further opening a retail wine spirits and

alcohol sales? I do. I think, I think Pennsylvanians have a good understanding of the the benefits of structural limitations on availability, in other words, checking ID and making sure that it doesn't fall in the hands of those young people or people that it shouldn't. And I think that's one of the upsides of legalizing marijuana is is that it goes from some dude on the corner or your dealer to a trusted professional that will make sure that if you know ask any teenager as I do when I was under my 67 County tour, what's harder to get a bottle of jack or a Bag of Weed and not once not one? ever said that it was jack is much you know, I guess I get wheat in 15 minutes.

It goes right to me materials a point. First of all, she wants to thank you and yourself personally for normalizing as medicine for your use. In Pennsylvania, she wants to know upon recreational legalization How will we ensure the same level of care and knowledge of products that she's currently seeing in dispensary right now?

Yeah, aren't the dispensary is amazing. It's like, it's like the Apple Apple Store meets weed, you know, in terms of like, knowledgeable, friendly products and, and it's amazing when people experience it for the first time and, and across Pennsylvania. People were like, wow, it's amazing. Like they thought it was some dirty head shopping. And it's like, oh, it's kind of whatever and they walk in they're like, Oh my gosh, this isn't what I thought at all. And and and that really won the hearts and minds of people and your, your kit, your client is extra Grandma, or someone that you wouldn't think it's not Cheech and Chong. It's not reefer madness. It's like, Oh, my gosh, I can use a plan to improve the quality of my life that I could technically grow next to my tomatoes. And it's not this insidious, schedule one drug that it is, you know, listed. It's outrageous, outrageous. And I can guarantee that recreational would have that same space that you've I've been in legal marijuana shops in other states, and it's no different. There's not it's not crazy, the world didn't spin off its axis in Colorado or Washington or these other states. It's like, Oh, yeah, there's a weed store. Oh, yeah. Now, it's just, it's normal. It's part of the landscape. And and it just doesn't make any sense not to, it really doesn't. In fact, it's actually quite harmful to continue down this path of prohibition. Because again, 20,000 criminal records every year, and veterans that are forced to either choose between the something that they need, or or being labeled a quote unquote, criminal, by using cannabis illegally, it's it just doesn't need to be this way.

So what about at the federal level? What are the prospects of dealing with this at the federal level?

I don't know. It's unknown. I I pushed the Biden campaign to and I said this during the, you know, back in September, I said, if one or one or the other candidate campaign, aggressively legalized marijuana, whether it was the president or Biden, they would have they would have won the election. And I think that's been borne out. You know, it's like, Trump lost by a few hundred thousand votes spread over five or six states. You're telling me you know, in fact, I called it the bazooka of legal weed. Everybody wants this. I don't care. I don't care. If you republican or democratic, it cuts across party lines. It cuts across economics. It's just it just makes sense. And and I would hope that the Vice President, and the President Elect would do everything within his power to take it off schedule one, and work towards legal weed. And and that's where we need to, but we don't have to wait for them in Pennsylvania. And we need to get these members of the GOP legislature who literally have no excuse left, when, when conservative states like Montana and South Dakota and Arizona are like, yeah, we're doing this. Why are we Why are we arguing about this? You know,

Jonathan, there's some more questions. You want to grab them,

actually, on the heels of that macro? And it was a great question here on what's know, given how challenging and limited the availability is to financing for cannabis operators? Does pa have any plans to incentivize traditional state charters, or financial institutions to provide easier access to liquidity?

Yeah, they do. The governor speaks about that often. But again, you're going to have a supernova of innervation. And, and, and alignment once it's taken off schedule one. I mean, that's, that's what's that's critical. Because right now, according to the federal government, cannabis is as dangerous as crack heroin and some of these other highly, you know, like, so that's, that's what creates this weird, like, even in Nantucket, they actually have to do everything on the island. Because you know, what, if you put it on a boat and cross, that's technically violating federal law, because marijuana is a schedule one. I mean, that's how insane that is in Massachusetts. So it's reefer madness. It's all it is. It's vestigial reefer madness, and it needs to end. And it's going to create billions in revenue, it's going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs or more nationally, it's, it just needs to happen. And, and, and Pennsylvania, still could be a leader, it still could be a leader. And, and I would just hope that, you know, given all the challenges that we face, we would say, you know, what, South Dakota went there. Why the hell wouldn't we want to in Pennsylvania?

And so there's, there's a question out there about investors. So there, we have a couple of people who are on the show that are talking about investors, or they might and their investors in the, in the cannabis industry. Are there any models that Pennsylvania is going after in terms of thinking about this?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Illinois, to me is the gold standard of of that in terms of that balances economics, equity, and access across the board. And I would just urge everybody patience in that. First, we have to break the log jam, you know, we have really just a matter of two or three individuals that would that are holding this up. And we need to reach them and say, You know what, why not have a conversation about this? Why not just realize that this is a great public good. doesn't mean you have to love it doesn't mean that you want to, you know, and you know, and then some people will say, well, you want your kids using weed. I'm like, No, I don't. I don't want them smoking. Marlboros. I don't want them drinking jack daniels either. But that it doesn't mean that those substances should then be illegal, it means that we are We live in a free society. And I have that libertarian side where? Why would the government have the right to tell me that I can't safely use and consume a plant in the privacy of my own home? To help medicate me to help relax me to help make me happy? Whatever it is, I mean, like if you're if you're cool with going and buying a bottle of jack, it's illogical that you're you somehow like, Oh, my God, a joint is a bridge too far. It's It's literally absurd.

And a controlled one. I mean, you're talking about not getting it off the streets.

What exactly

Transcribed by https://otter.ai