Brown and White Vol. 134 no. 21

              The Brown and White Vol. 134 No. 21
Friday, April 27, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Bethlehem seeks to decriminalize marijuana
A city council ordinance proposes more lenient penalties
Lehigh hosts Democratic congressional debate
By JORDAN WOLMAN
Assistant News Editor
The Bethlehem city council is
seeking to lessen the penalties for
marijuana possession.
An ordinance proposed by coun-cilwoman
Olga Negron is intend-ed
to provide fairer, more propor-tionate
consequences compared to
other drug violations.
“Marijuana does not belong in
the same level that cocaine and
harder drugs are included in,”
Negron said. “I believe we should
be legalizing it and taxing it. It
will change the opioid problem
that we have and lessen the kill-ing
and the drug dealing and the
gangs.”
Marijuana’s federal status as
a Class I drug, despite its grow-ing
presence in American society,
was also a motivation behind the
proposal.
“There’s a sea of change going
on nationally, and eventual-ly
we’ll see decriminalization
nationwide,” councilman Adam
Waldron said. “I think the city is
wasting some resources enforcing
the current law on marijuana.”
The proposed ordinance fol-lows
similar decriminaliza-tion
efforts that succeeded in
other Pennsylvania cities like
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and
Harrisburg.
Still, the process of turning the
proposal into law could be com-plicated.
Waldron said the biggest point
of contention is that Bethlehem
— because part of the city lies
in Northampton County and the
other in Lehigh County — has
two district attorneys with differ-ent
opinions on the matter.
Waldron said the DA of
Northampton County decided to
leave the issue to the munici-palities,
meanwhile the Lehigh
County DA has said the proposal
would be unconstitutional under
Pennsylvania law.
“The Lehigh County DA has
written a formal memo threaten-ing
the police chief for obstruction
of justice for not following state
law,” Waldron said. “In theory,
there is unanimous support for
the ordinance (on the city coun-cil).”
Councilman Michael Colon, the
chairman of Bethlehem’s public
safety committee, said if the ordi-nance
is passed, it would create
a situation the city has not yet
seen.
“This contradiction between the
two DAs is rather unusual,” Colon
See MARIJUANA Page 3
Courtesy of Creative Commons
Bethlehem city councilwoman Olga Negron has proposed an ordinance that would reduce the consequences of marijuana possesion. The
Lehigh County DA opposes the ordinance, while the neighboring Northampton County DA has decided to leave the issue to municipalities.
ident of Resurrected Community
Development Corporation; Roger
Ruggles, a member of the Easton
city council since 2008 and a vet-eran
of the U.S. Air Force; and
Rick Daugherty, former chairman
of the Lehigh County Democratic
Committee and district adminis-trator
for Rep. Paul McHale.
Each of the candidates discussed
four major issues our nation is fac-ing
right now.
Immigration policy
Wild said the United States
should make life easier for asy-lum
and refugee seekers and is
heavily opposed to the travel
ban implemented by the Trump
Administration, as well as the
concept of building a wall along
the border between the U.S. and
Mexico.
“It’s very telling that no member
of Congress from a border state
supports the process of building a
wall,” Wild said.
Daugherty said one of the big-gest
immigration issues can be
traced to American foreign policy
in Central and South American
countries. He believes the U.S.
the U.S. Special Forces in Panama;
Greg Edwards, the founder and
senior pastor of Resurrected Life
Community Church and the pres-of
the city of Allentown; John
Morganelli, the district attorney
for Northampton County since
1992; David Clark, a veteran of
By JAKE EPSTEIN
Associate News Editor
Republican representative
Charlie Dent announced he would
retire from his seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives on Sept.
7, 2017.
Dent has recently decided to
not serve the remainder of his
term and will leave Congress next
month, according to Politico.
Dent represents Pennsylvania’s
15th Congressional District, encom-passing
Lehigh, Berks, Dauphin,
Lebanon and Northampton coun-ties.
After the Jan. 22 redistrict-ing,
these areas will now be consid-ered
part of the 7th Congressional
District.
On Thursday, the six Democratic
candidates running for Dent’s seat
gathered in Neville Hall to debate
contemporary issues facing the
nation.
The debate was hosted by Lehigh
Valley for All, a local progressive
group, the Lehigh Debate Society
and Breena Holland, an associate
professor in Lehigh’s political sci-ence
department.
Candidates included Susan
Wild, the first female solicitor See DEBATE Page 2
Courtesy of lehighvalleylive.com
From top left: David Clark, Rick Daugherty, Greg Edwards, John Morganelli, Roger
Ruggles, and Susan Wild all participate in the Democratic congressional debate on April
19 in Neville Hall. The candidates disscused several issues including immigration, climate
change, mass shootings and labor.