Every Pennsylvania Democratic senator is joining together in support of a procedural move that aims to increase pressure on Republicans to allow a vote on legalizing marijuana in the state.
Led by Sen. Sharif Street (D), the lawmakers filed what is known as a discharge resolution that seeks to bring a bipartisan cannabis legalization bill out of committee, where it is stuck, and onto the floor for a vote.
The bill in question is sponsored by Street along with Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), who chairs the Senate Law & Justice Committee but hasn’t called the legislation up for consideration in the panel.
The GOP chairman has instead focused on moving a separate bill to create a new Cannabis Control Board to regulate medical marijuana and hemp. That measure failed on the Senate floor earlier this month amid partisan fighting about the best way forward for cannabis in the state.
“The people of Pennsylvania deserve a vote on adult-use cannabis,” Street said when introducing the discharge resolution on Monday. “Not next year, not after another study, not after another election. They deserve a vote now.”
All 23 members of the Senate Democratic caucus are signed onto the resolution, he noted, though he pointed out that cannabis legalization itself “is no longer a Democratic issue or Republican issue, it is a Pennsylvania issue.”
“Cannabis reform has bipartisan support and deserves a bipartisan vote,” he said.
“Every one of our neighboring states has moved ahead. Pennsylvanians are crossing state lines every day to purchase legal cannabis in those states, and unfortunately, having to transport it illegally, supporting businesses and generating tax revenue in other places. Our residents spend the money, our neighboring states collect the revenue… Legalization would generate recurring revenue that could help us invest in our public schools, strengthen mass transit, support public community development, improve public safety and reduce structural deficits that challenge the commonwealth year after year. This is not a one-time windfall. It is an ongoing source of revenue that can help us meet our ongoing obligations.”
“We believe this issue has been debated long enough,” Street said. “It is time for the Senate to do its job and allow the people’s elected representatives to vote.”
Watch Street’s comments, starting around 39:08 into the video below:
Discharge resolutions are placed on the Senate calendar but are not automatically brought up for consideration; that is within the discretion of majority leadership. If a resolution is brought up and supported by a majority vote, however, the legislation in question would then be brought out of committee.
Republicans currently hold a 27-23 majority in the chamber.
“I understand that this discharge resolution does not compel the committee to report the bill,” Street said on Monday. “I understand that it may not force a vote, but it does force a conversation.”
“It asks a simple question: if a bipartisan bill has the support of every member of the Senate Democratic caucus, was introduced with a Republican prime sponsor, has the support of the governor, has the support of a majority of Pennsylvanians, and now has demonstrated bipartisan momentum in this chamber, why shouldn’t it at least receive an up or down vote?”
“The Senate should not fear debate, we should not fear democracy and we should certainly not fear allowing our colleagues to vote on an issue that has been before this body for a decade,” he said. “The time has come.”
The marijuana legalization bill that Street wants to advance, SB 120, would allow adults aged 21 and older to possess up to 30 grams of cannabis flower, 1,000 milligrams of THC in edible products and 5 grams of concentrate.
It would also create a process to expunge prior marijuana-related criminal records.
If enacted, there would be an 8 percent excise tax on cannabis sales, alongside the state’s regular sales tax of 6 percent.
The legislative maneuvering around the bill comes as new poll shows that Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization—and that the largest share put the blame on Republican lawmakers for the fact that the state has not yet enacted the reform.
The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling this month, found that three out of four voters favor legalizing recreational cannabis. When asked whether “adults over 21 should have places to purchase non-medical cannabis products that are legal, and strictly regulated,” 55 percent said they strongly agree and 20 percent somewhat agree.
Only 16 percent strongly disagree and 7 percent somewhat disagree, with another 3 percent saying they are unsure.
The poll also found that 40 respondents blamed GOP lawmakers for the lack of progress on cannabis, 12 percent blamed Democrats and 9 percent said the governor was to blame.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has repeatedly called on lawmakers to send him a marijuana legalization bill and for the last several years has included the reform in his budget requests to the legislature.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity, who is running against Shapiro, recently pledged to veto a marijuana legalization bill if lawmakers ever sent one to her desk—though she added that she doesn’t think the reform stands a chance of making it that far in the state.
“I don’t support legalizing recreational marijuana,” she said. “Recreational marijuana will not end up in the budget. They’re never going to pass it…not as long as Senate Republicans are in control of the Senate.”
Her running mate for lieutenant governor, Jason Richey, claimed that legalizing marijuana would be “catastrophic” for the state, arguing it would increase the size of the illegal market, undermine job creation and harm public health.
In April, the Democrstic-controlled Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed budget legislation proposed by Shapiro that relies on revenue that would be generated from recreational marijuana sales, which has yet to be legalized in the state.
The governor earlier this year, as he has in past years, included cannabis legalization and the resulting expected revenue in his budget request.
The House last year passed a bill to legalize marijuana and put sales in state-owned dispensaries, but the Republican Senate majority has criticized that plan while also not advancing a cannabis legalization model of its own.
The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) reported in February that legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania would generate nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue by 2028, an estimate that is a significantly larger cash windfall compared to projections from Shapiro’s own office.
A spokesperson in the governor’s office said the Trump administration’s federal marijuana rescheduling move is an “important step” that “adds support” to his push to legalize cannabis. A GOP senator also said that federal reform will make it easier to legalize marijuana in the state.
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Meanwhile, Laughlin is blaming the governor for the defeat this month of his bill to create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products and that could also one day oversee recreational cannabis if it is legalized.
Most GOP senators in the Republican-controlled chamber voted for the legislation from Laughlin, and all but two Democrats opposed it—with even some lawmakers who signed onto the measure as cosponsors ultimately voting against it.
The governor “obviously weighed in on the Democratic side of the aisle and asked for a ‘no’ vote over there, successfully,” Laughlin said after the vote. “I knew it was a risk putting it up for a vote, because there were some discussions going back and forth… I had a little bit of a heads-up, but we chose to roll forward.”
The governor’s office confirmed in a statement that he opposes the bill as drafted.
“The Shapiro Administration remains supportive of comprehensive cannabis regulation, which would enable a competitive, revenue-generating adult-use market, protect patient access to the current Medical Marijuana Program and rein in hemp-based intoxicant products that are currently unregulated,” Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for the governor, said. “Senate Bill 49 does not substantively advance those goals.”
The now-defeated measure would transfer regulatory authority for the state’s existing medical cannabis program from the Department of Health to a new seven-member CCB. The body would oversee cannabis permits, enforcement, seed-to-sale tracking, advertising, labeling, testing and other aspects of the legal industry.
Moments after the bill’s defeat on the Senate floor, the chamber adopted a motion to reconsider—but it’s not yet clear when or if the legislation will get another vote.
Laughlin’s legislation would also significantly restrict most hemp THC products, aligning the state with a new federal policy that is set to take effect later this year recriminalizing preparations with total THC content of more than 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis or more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container.
The action on the cannabis regulatory bill, SB 49, came shortly after the House of Representatives passed a bill to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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