Pennsylvania lawmakers suggest that with few differences between the House and Senate proposals, growing tension as more marketplaces come online in neighboring states and bipartisan agreement on the need to avoid a state-run regulatory model, marijuana legalization legislation could be on the way soon.
During a press conference on Monday, Rep. Aaron Kaufer (R), Rep. Emily Kinkead (D), and Sen. Sharif Street (D) updated the status of the push for adult-use marijuana legalization in the Keystone State.
Kaufer suggested the two chambers’ reform bills were aligned enough to move forward “today,” or even before this week’s budget deadline. “Our goal is to get this done as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that legalization “is part of the governor’s budget proposal.”
“I think all of you standing here have been working diligently today to put together something that can pass in both the House and the Senate,” the Republican said.
Street introduced a marijuana legalization bill with Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-N.Y.) last year, while Kaufer and Kinkead announced their intentions to introduce marijuana legislation earlier this month. The bill text has not been released, but Kaufer said the two chambers’ proposals “are not that different.”
As for where lawmakers agreed, participants made clear there was a bipartisan understanding that Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighbors, repeatedly pointing to the fact that roughly 90 percent of the state borders another state that has already legalized or is in the process of legalizing marijuana for adult use.
That includes neighboring Ohio, which is set to begin selling marijuana for adult use soon after regulators opened up applications for existing medical marijuana dispensaries to begin serving recreational consumers and began issuing provisional licenses last week.
“We’re surrounded by states that have already legalized marijuana for adult use, and they’re taking advantage of the fact that we haven’t,” Kinkead said. “Pennsylvania has money to spend on adult use. [cannabis]and they want to take advantage of it when we should.”
“We should be using Pennsylvania’s money to help Pennsylvanians, and we should be learning from all other states on how to do this most effectively and how to get the most out of it,” she said.
Street agreed, noting that “the people of Canada, Ohio, New Jersey and New York are benefiting from our failure to move forward and pass cannabis reform.”
“Our citizens travel all over the state. [border] “And now they’re buying marijuana,” he said. “And those who don’t, who buy it on the illegal market, don’t know what they’re buying. It could be laced with something. It could be laced with anything.”
“People who use cannabis for purposes that are not serious and harmful are now being harmed because they are accessing it through the unregulated, untested illicit market,” the senator said.
“Now is the time to move these bills forward. It’s time for the House and the Senate to work together. We have a bill right now that’s not that different in both chambers,” Street said. “Let’s pass this bill, put it on the governor’s desk, and give Pennsylvanians the opportunity to get economic benefits, reduce criminal justice, and do things that they could be doing right here in Pennsylvania without having to go to another state.”
Another area of general agreement, lawmakers said, is that legal marijuana markets should not be run by the states, as others have proposed, including Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Health Committee, who has previously introduced marijuana legalization bills.
“There’s no support,” Street said. [among Democrats]He argued that the Liquor Control Board, which would be responsible for state-controlled marijuana sales under the virtual model, “doesn’t get alcohol right,” pointing to criticism of problematic marketing of alcohol sales, primarily in Black communities.
Lawmakers also touted a new report that projects adult-use marijuana sales could reach up to $2.8 billion in Pennsylvania’s first year of legalization, generate up to $720 million in tax revenue and create more than 45,000 jobs.
Participants suggested their vision for reform was aligned with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) budget request, but there was pushback against some of the governor’s proposals, such as his call for a 20% tax on marijuana products.
Street and Laughlin also recently appeared at an X Spaces event, where they said the votes are there to pass marijuana legalization as soon as this year, but stressed that the governor needs to work bipartisanally to get the job done and argued that implementing the federal government’s proposed cannabis rescheduling rules sooner rather than later would be beneficial.
Meanwhile, Street was among advocates and lawmakers who attended a cannabis rally at the Pennsylvania State Capitol this month, which stressed the need to include social equity provisions in any legalization move.
Meanwhile, Governor Laughlin also said at an event last month that the state is “close” to legalizing marijuana, but the job won’t be done until House and Senate leaders have spoken with the governor and “resolved” it.
Robert Green, the district attorney for Warren County, Pennsylvania, and a registered medical marijuana patient in the state, also spoke at the rally. In January, Green filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn a ban on medical marijuana patients from purchasing and possessing firearms.
Two Pennsylvania House committees held a joint hearing in April to discuss marijuana legalization, with several lawmakers asking about the possibility of allowing the state’s top liquor regulator to operate cannabis stores.
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Also in April, members of the House Health Committee held discussions centered on considering social justice and equity in the reforms.
This comes just days after Rep. Amen Brown (D-Ill.) introduced a bill to legalize marijuana “based on safety and social equality.”
“I’m here to get this done,” Brown said at a recent rally, noting that he and others he knows have “personal experience” with current marijuana policy.
At the last meeting in March, members focused on Prohibition’s impact on criminal justice and the potential benefits of reform.
At another hearing in February, several stakeholders testified, including cannabis cultivation, sales and testing operations and clinical registrants, and commissioners considered the industry’s perspective.
At the subcommittee’s last cannabis meeting in December, members heard testimony and asked questions about various elements of cannabis oversight, including promoting social equity and business opportunity, lab testing and public versus private operation of the state-legal cannabis industry.
At the commission’s first meeting late last year, Frankel said state-run stores were “certainly an option” being considered in Pennsylvania, similar to one New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu recommended for the state last year, though the state commission later rejected that plan.
The marijuana bill Brown introduced in the House in April is identical to a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill introduced in the Senate last year.
Texas activists submit nearly 50,000 signatures to put marijuana decriminalization on Dallas ballot
Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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