A key Pennsylvania lawmaker says he’s optimistic that marijuana legalization legislation could be approved as early as this summer, calling the policy change “inevitable” as the commonwealth is “bleeding out revenue” to other states.
Rep. Dan Frankel (D), who chairs the House Health Committee, spoke about the state of play around cannabis reform efforts in an interview with KDKA Radio that aired on Tuesday, stressing that Pennsylvania is now “literally surrounded by states that have legal adult-use cannabis,” including Ohio, New York and Maryland.
To address that policy disconnect, support criminal justice reform and raise revenue, the legislator said he will be “putting out a proposal” to enact legalization “in the next few weeks.”
“There’s so many reasons to do this, and I’m really hopeful,” Frankel said, adding that he feels it’s feasible that the legislature could advance a legalization bill as part of the budget reconciliation process that must wrap up by the end of June.
“We have a budget that has to get passed by June 30. This would be a significant revenue component. And, you know, I think that could be part of that discussion,” he said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who again included a legalization proposal as part of his latest budget request, has similarly indicated that the reform could advance on that timeline. But there are still open questions about what, if any, cannabis legislation could garner the necessary consensus for enactment.
Frankel noted that an adult-use marijuana bill has already been filed in the Senate by Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), though he said it’s “not a version that I would support necessarily.”
“But at least there seems to be some bipartisan support for doing something here, and I think there’s recognition—whether you don’t like the idea of having legal weed in our communities, the fact is that it’s here,” he said. “It’s not legal. It’s not regulated. We don’t know that the products here are safe. They’re not tested. We see in our communities, these safe stores that sell synthetic THC products that are completely unregulated, so there’s a safety component here as well.”
“I think there is a recognition that we are literally surrounded by every state around us that has legal weed, so we’re bleeding out revenue from the state to other states that are benefiting from their legalization of adult-use cannabis—and we’re losing revenue as well as sustaining an illicit market that provides products that are not tested and are not necessarily safe,” Frankel continued. “So there’s a really compelling reason here.”
“It’s inevitable in Pennsylvania that we’re going to legalize this. The question is when, and I think the time is really right now,” he said.
“It’s a source of significant revenue—and just so many reasons it’s so compelling that I think ultimately we’ll get there, and I’m very hopeful that that’ll happen in this session of the legislature. So we’re going to send a bill over to the Senate, probably before June, and hopefully it’ll start a discussion and the negotiation so that we can get to a good place that everybody can support it.”
The lawmaker—who has previously proposed a state-run marijuana regulatory framework—said a chief concern he wants to address is “making sure that we have a criminal justice portion” to ensure that people who’ve been criminalized over cannabis can have those records expunged.
“You want to have an opportunity for the communities who have been targeted and victimized by the criminal justice system to benefit from this,” he said.
Additionally, he said “we want to make sure that there’s a public health component to this, and we want to make sure also that there is significant revenue that’s generated for the Commonwealth and for those affected communities.”
Frankel and Rep. Rick Krajewski (D) first announced in December that they planned to file adult-use legalization legislation, emphasizing that there’s a “moral obligation” to repair harms of criminalization while also raising revenue as neighboring state markets mature.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Pennsylvania House approved a separate bill sponsored by Frankel that’s meant to strengthen safety standards and oversight of the state’s medical marijuana program as lawmakers work to advance adult-use legalization.
While Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program was enacted nearly a decade ago, lawmakers say the new measure, which now heads to the Senate, is necessary to improve testing compliance, product audits and lab inspections, among other aspects of the industry.
Separately, in a video interview released on Monday, the governor emphasized that the state is “losing out” to others that have already enacted adult-use legalization, while maintaining a policy that’s enriched the illicit market.
“I think it’s an issue of freedom and liberty. I mean, if folks want to smoke, they should be able to do so in a safe and legal way,” he said. “We should shut down the black market—and, by the way, every state around us is doing it. Pennsylvanians are driving to those other states and paying taxes in those other states.”
Pennsylvania’s Republican attorney general recently said he wants to be a “voice for potential public safety risks” of enacting the governor’s proposal—though he said his office would be ready to enforce the new law if lawmakers did vote to pass it.
The state’s agriculture secretary separately told lawmakers that he’s fully confident that his department is in a “really good” position to oversee an adult-use marijuana program if lawmakers act.
Meanwhile, last month, top Pennsylvania police and health officials told lawmakers they are prepared to implement marijuana legalization if the legislature moves forward with the reform—and that they stand ready to work together as the details of legislation to achieve it are crafted.
Separately, amid the growing calls for marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania, a GOP state senator said prohibition has been a “disaster,” and a regulated sales model for cannabis—similar to how alcohol and tobacco are handled—could serve as an effective alternative.
Voters are ready to see that policy change, according to a poll released last month.
The survey, commissioned by the advocacy group ResponsiblePA, found that nearly 7 in 10 voters in the state support the reform—including a majority of Republicans. And 63 percent want to see the legislature enact the reform this year, rather than delaying it.
A Republican Pennsylvania senator also recently defended the push to legalize and regulate marijuana, calling it “the most conservative stance” on the issue.
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While Shapiro once again included a proposal to enact cannabis legalization in his latest budget request, there’s been mixed feedback from legislators—some of whom want to see the governor more proactively come to the table to discuss possible pathways for reform and others skeptical about the possibility of advancing the issue this session.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin (R), for example, said last month that he doesn’t “see any path whatsoever” to enacting legalization in line with the governor’s plan.
At the same time, the state secretary for the Department of Revenue has predicted that Shapiro’s proposal could be passed during the current budget cycle, indicating that he feels reform could start to be implemented within months.
House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D), meanwhile, said following the governor’s budget speech that “there is real diversity of opinions among our members,” likely referencing split perspectives on regulatory models, with some lawmakers pushing for a state-run cannabis program.
He also said recently that he feels the time is ripe to advance marijuana reform this session, saying “it strikes me as abdicating our responsibility to protect our communities and our children, and at the same time, we are losing revenue that is going to go into our neighboring states.”
Key lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the governor’s ability to see through the cannabis reform he’s proposing, however.
“The governor needs to lead on something. If he wants something done, he needs to lead on it,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R) said. “He can’t throw an idea out there—which he did last year—and say, ‘Let the legislature figure it out. I’ll sign it. Then I’ll go do press conferences all over the state.’”
The House minority leader was also asked about the prospect of enacting various of the governor’s budget proposals, including marijuana. And he said while he’s “not going to speak for the governor,” there’s “one person that has the ability to bring those deals together—and that is the governor.”
He referenced recent remarks from Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) who said there are logistical challenges to advancing legalization that he’s unsure lawmakers will be able to overcome.
The feedback from GOP lawmakers is reminiscent of earlier criticism from the caucus about the governor, who they’ve claimed has made the call for reform without meaningfully engaging with the legislature about how to get it done.
The Republican chair of a key Senate committee recently said he’s expecting to take up legislation this year that would make Pennsylvania the 25th in the U.S. to legalize adult-use marijuana. He also thinks that more of his GOP colleagues could get on board with the reform soon than have in the past.
While many legalization advocates and observers think Pennsylvania is among the most likely states to pass a recreational marijuana law this session, the devil is in the details. One lawmaker has floated a relatively simple bill to decriminalize personal possession, while two others plan to introduce more sweeping legislation that would legalize through a state-run system of stores.
Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) last spring introduced a bill meant to remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms. While it didn’t move forward, the lawmaker said in the recent interview that he believes political support for legalization more broadly has been building.
The senator said an event last May that the state is “getting close” to legalizing marijuana, but the job will only get done if House and Senate leaders sit down with the governor and “work it out.”
A separate decriminalization measure, meanwhile, from Pennsylvania Rep. Danilo Burgos (D), would make simple possession of cannabis a summary offense punishable by a $100 fine without the threat of jail time. Currently, low-level possession is considered a misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine or both.
Additionally, in September, bipartisan Reps. Aaron Kaufer (R) and Kinkead formally introduced a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill, alongside 15 other cosponsors.
In July, the governor said his administration and lawmakers would “come back and continue to fight” for marijuana legalization and other policy priorities that were omitted from budget legislation he signed into law that month.
As for medical marijuana, the governor in October signed a bill to correct an omission in a law that unintentionally excluded dispensaries from state-level tax relief for the medical marijuana industry.
About three months after the legislature approved the underlying budget bill that Shapiro signed containing tax reform provisions as a partial workaround to a federal ban on tax deductions for cannabis businesses, the Pennsylvania legislature passed corrective legislation.
Separately, at a Black Cannabis Week event hosted recently by the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) in October, Street and Reps. Chris Rabb (D), Amen Brown (D), Darisha Parker (D) and Napoleon Nelson (D) joined activists to discuss their legislative priorities and motivations behind advancing legalization in the Keystone State.
Other lawmakers have also emphasized the urgency of legalizing as soon as possible given regional dynamics, while signaling that legislators are close to aligning House and Senate proposals.
As for cannabis and gun ownership, Laughlin had been looking at the issue for more than a year before introducing last year’s bill, writing last February to the state’s acting police commissioner to “strongly encourage” he review a federal ruling that the U.S. government’s ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana is unconstitutional.
Since then, further federal court cases have questioned the constitutionality of the federal firearm ban. A federal judge in El Paso, for example, recently ruled that the ongoing ban on gun ownership by habitual marijuana users was unconstitutional in the case of a defendant who earlier pleaded guilty to the criminal charge. The court allowed the man to withdraw the plea and ordered that the indictment against him be dismissed.
Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.
A key Pennsylvania lawmaker says he’s optimistic that marijuana legalization legislation could be approved as early as this summer, calling the policy change “inevitable” as the commonwealth is “bleeding out revenue” to other states. Rep. Dan Frankel (D), who chairs the House Health Committee, spoke about the state of play around cannabis reform efforts in Read More
