Philadelphia City Council passed seven bills on Thursday in their weekly session, including a change that decriminalizes the purchase of small amounts of marijuana. 

When he was the first Republican district attorney in Washington County, Steve Toprani concealed a Smith and Wesson .45 on his hip.

“I’ve done that for years to protect my family—especially when criminals were after me, and they were,” Toprani said.

His term in the office was a decade ago, when he ran a hard-fought grassroots campaign to unseat a 20-year Democratic incumbent under FBI investigation.

Now, he’s on the campaign trail again. But this time, it’s as a Democrat in the Monongahela Valley’s rolling hills and old factory towns, running on a platform that blends positions from the right, left and center—for unions, against new gun laws and legalizing recreational marijuana.

By a wide bipartisan margin, the House Judiciary Committee advanced today legislation cutting back on punishments for marijuana possession.

The bill, Rep. Barry Jozwiak’s (R-Berks) HB 928, limits the first two penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana to summary offenses with no jail time and a maximum $300 fine.

A week after the top of the tickets clashed for the one and only time, lieutenant governor candidates Jeff Bartos and John Fetterman ventured to Pittsburgh for what turned out to be a cordial debate on the commonwealth’s issues, from marijuana to gun control.

For 30 minutes, the two, who differ in political background and wardrobe, only shared a willingness to defend their running mates in a debate moderated by WPXI’s Katherine Amenta.

At a rally for marijuana reform in Pittsburgh Friday, Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny) announced that he will introduce legislation that would effectively legalize recreational use of cannabis in Pennsylvania within the week. 

“If we trust our citizens to choose who will represent them in Harrisburg then we should trust them to decide whether or not to engage in recreational uses of cannabis,” Wheatley said.

While medical marijuana is legal, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have already decriminalized it, Wheatley feels that’s not enough to undo the damage of the tough drug policies of the ‘80s.