Philadelphia mayor: Sell legal rec cannabis via state-run liquor stores

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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney endorsed legalizing recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania, saying it should be sold through state liquor stores instead of private retailers.

Such a move would severely limit the business opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to enter the retail side of the market. It also would put the state in charge of sales.

“We have the perfect system to set up the legal recreational use of cannabis through a controlled state store system, allowing the state to capture all the income that is going to the underground,” Kenney said on WHYY’s “Radio Times.”

He added that allowing rec marijuana to be sold through the state stores would ensure customers were properly identified and that revenue from sales could be allotted for public education.

Pennsylvania is still working out the details of its medical marijuana program, which was approved in last November’s election and is expected to go online in 2018. The state is currently reviewing the more than 500 applications it received for business licenses and is expected to be done with that process in June.