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Politicians often trail the public when it comes to leadership on important issues, but in the case of marijuana reform the gap is nearly as wide as North America. With last month’s Gallup poll showing a clear majority of Americans — 58 percent — favoring legalization, it’s past time for political leadership to step up and address this issue head-on.

In my campaign for governor, I have pledged to reform Pennsylvania‘s outdated, ineffective and unjust marijuana laws.

Since political leadership has so often been the essential missing ingredient to make changes that are long overdue, the country’s leading marijuana reform organization, NORML, has endorsed me for governor — the first time ever the group has supported a candidate in a Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.

My three-step plan calls for, first, immediately allowing medical marijuana; next, decriminalizing possession of small quantities by 2015; and finally, regulation and taxation by 2017.

I also would initiate a process to expunge the records of past marijuana convictions, review the case files of prisoners incarcerated on the basis of marijuana charges, and dedicate a portion of revenues raised through taxation of legal marijuana sales to fund addiction treatment services and drug education programs.

Most important, the devastating damage done daily to Pennsylvania families by our obsolete criminal marijuana laws would cease. Patients suffering from cancer, chemotherapy side-effects, AIDS-related anorexia, epilepsy and other neurological disorders who are today barred from effective marijuana-based therapies would have ready access here in Pennsylvania to treatment under their physicians’ care.

Recently, I spoke with a grandmother from Hershey whose 2-year-old grandchild has Dravet syndrome, a devastating form of epilepsy that sometimes responds only to marijuana. The family may be forced to move to Colorado so they can get the help for their sick child that is cruelly denied them here in the state where their family has lived for eight generations.

And then there is the horrific waste of law enforcement and criminal justice resources: $350 million spent annually in Pennsylvania on marijuana arrests and prosecutions, mostly of recreational users with small quantities. This is unconscionable at a time Pennsylvania is closing schools, laying off teachers and raising school taxes.

Reform would also mean giving lives derailed by a past arrest or conviction for possession a fresh start. As the recent ACLU study showed, blacks are more than five times as likely to be arrested in Pennsylvania for possession, although their rate of usage is the same as whites’. Reform would end the unfairness of our marijuana laws.

Make no mistake — the time to change our marijuana laws is now. The Gallup poll numbers underscore that public support for marijuana reform is accelerating. In elections this month, Portland, Maine, and three Michigan cities voted for legalization in their communities.

For us in Pennsylvania, the May 2014 Democrat primary will be a chance for voters to show they want the marijuana laws changed. As governor, I will provide the leadership that will ensure we make these changes.

John Hanger, a former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, is a Democrat running for governor.