Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana products may soon get more state oversight, after the House passed a bill Monday sponsored by Pittsburgh Democrat Dan Frankel
Frankel, who chairs the House health committee, wants the state to create “strict reporting requirements” for companies that sell cannabis products used for medical purposes. His bill would have the state Department of Health oversee the process, so medical marijuana companies can’t use labs that approve shoddy products, in a process he called “lab shopping.”
“Patients in Pennsylvania shouldn’t have to wonder if their medicine is safe,” he said on the House floor Monday. “If it’s made in Pennsylvania, sold in Pennsylvania, it should meet Pennsylvania’s standard for safety, period.”
Frankel said states including Massachusetts, Connecticut, California and Colorado have seen “dangerous levels of contaminants” due to lax testing standards.
“The very labs meant to ensure safety can be the problem,” said Frankel, adding that some tests of vaporized products missed reporting on pesticides in California, and others didn’t catch artificially-inflated THC levels. Such claims have generated lawsuits elsewhere.
The bill received strong bipartisan support in the House, passing by a vote of 194-to-8. All eight no votes were from Republicans. The measure now moves on to the Republican-controlled Senate.
Poor lab testing or “lab shopping” can result in cannabis product recalls. And as Frankel told WESA in an interview last year, if the integrity of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana products was called into question, it would undermine lawmakers’ efforts to pass recreational marijuana legislation.
“There’s no control about what people are buying,” Frankel told WESA. “We know there’s a really robust kind-of-legal legal environment for synthetic THC products that are being sold in vape stores and gas stations. [But] we have no idea at the end of the day what’s in those products, how potent they are. And I think consumers can’t really be certain about what they’re buying.”
Frankel’s Republican co-chair on the Health committee called on her GOP colleagues to support the legislation.
“Patients should be able to trust that the product they are consuming is safe from mold, heavy metals, and pesticides, and that the THC and other contents are accurately labeled,” said
State Rep. Kathy Rapp of Warren. Hearings on marijuana last year featured considerable testimony on the importance of testing, whether for medical or recreational weed, she added.
Rep. Tim Twardzik (R-Schuylkill) also championed Frankel’s bill, in particular for a provision that would enhance state oversight of medical marijuana practitioners.
“In 2022 alone, three practitioners each issued over 11,000 patient certifications for medical marijuana,” Twardzik said on the House floor, citing reporting from Spotlight PA. “Under current law, this is perfectly legal as the Department of Health has very little statutory authority to place conditions on practitioners.”
“I am concerned that it’s very difficult for one practitioner to oversee that many medical marijuana patients in a single year,” Twardzik added.
As of 2024, the department has approved less than 2,000 practitioners to issue cards that patients must show when they go to a dispensary to buy marijuana, according to a report from Spotlight PA. The proposed change would allow state officials to limit the number of cards a practitioner issues and to sanction doctors based on past discipline.
While the state’s medical marijuana program was approved nearly nine years ago, legislators have yet to agree on a recreational marijuana framework.
In his budget pitch to lawmakers this year, Gov. Josh Shapiro said that based on the experiences of dozens of other states who have fully legalized marijuana, Pennsylvania could generate $1.3 billion in tax revenue. Conservative groups have called those estimates “overinflated.”
The Senate has generally been more cautious about marijuana-related legislation. Last session, a Senate bill that would enhance testing was authored by Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) and supported by Pittsburgh Sen. Wayne Fontana, but it died in committee. But there may be room for bipartisan consensus on a bill to enhance testing: House Republican leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) opposes recreational marijuana legislation but voted in favor of Frankel’s bill — a signal that it may see support from wary Republicans in the Senate.
Dan Frankel (D-Squirrel Hill), who chairs the House health committee, wants the state to create “strict reporting requirements” for companies that sell cannabis products used for medical purposes. His bill would have the state Department of Health oversee the process, so medical marijuana companies can’t use labs that approve shoddy products, in a process he called “lab shopping.” Read More
