Some state lawmakers are seeing green, believing recreational marijuana sales in Pennsylvania could raise $420 million in yearly tax revenue.
With Pennsylvania surrounded by states that offer adult-use weed, a bipartisan group of legislators say it’s time to fully legalize and cash in. But advocates first want to ensure people arrested for marijuana possession see some recourse in the rollout.
“Smoking marijuana should not be a crime,” said Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Luzerne. “We need to reprioritize law enforcement resources and redefine a narrative that is not working in today’s society.”
Kaufer and Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Allegheny, said they’ll introduce a legalization bill that would catapult the state into the recreational use market and address advocates’ equity concerns. They spoke Monday at the state Capitol.
Joining them was Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition Executive Director Meredith Buettner and Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell. Their shared message: criminalizing recreational marijuana use but allowing medical use makes no sense.
“[It] delegitimizes our legal system,” O’Donnell said.
Plus, all of Pennsylvania’s neighbors – except West Virginia – allow selling marijuana to any adult over 21 years old. Though technically illegal, bringing a joint from New Jersey back to Pennsylvania doesn’t take much effort.
Still, lawmakers like Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, say it’s unlikely Pennsylvania will legalize weed in this year’s budget, due Sunday. Supporters still need to win over the Republican-controlled Senate.
As the bill’s prime sponsor, Kaufer said he worked across the aisle with Kinkead to identify five pillars for legalization, including legal reform, job creation and leveraging the state’s agriculture industry.
“We're looking at trying to grow jobs and have our economy rebound,” Kaufer said after a press conference Monday. “So it's a huge opportunity, not only for Pennsylvania as a whole, but for Northeastern Pennsylvania as well.”
Abandoned mine land in NEPA could prove useful for the legal weed industry in the region, he added.
“You have other areas across the state that are already overbuilt and cannot sustain a new industry like this coming in,” he said.
Local laws
Karen O’Keefe keeps tabs on state cannabis laws at the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. She called Pennsylvania “one of the worst states” for tokers.
“[Pa. hasn’t] even changed the penalty for simple possession to a fine,” O’Keefe said. “It's still a jailable offense, although some cities have changed their city penalties.”
Philadelphia decriminalized weed possession 10 years ago. Since then, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, State College, York, Allentown, Lancaster and a few others have, too.
And more than 70% of Americans support legalization, O’Keefe said, pointing to a recent Gallup poll. In Pennsylvania, that number is closer to 60%, she said.
O’Donnell said state law costs taxpayers in other ways. It ties up prosecutors for “what’s basically a parking ticket” in parts of the state, he said.
“The DA's Association themselves are kind of split on this,” O’Donnell said. “But as far as the way local counties operate, mainly everyone works the same way. They'll either charge [possession] as a misdemeanor to start, and they'll just plea it down to a summary offense, or they'll just do the summary offense from the beginning.”
Medical mentors?
The state green-lit medical marijuana sales six years ago, providing infrastructure for a more robust weed market. Last year marijuana dispensary sales topped $1.5 billion in Pa.
By 2022, Pennsylvania had issued more than one million medical cards. Lawmakers say opening the market to everyone 21 and older would be a boon to the industry.
Legal weed legislation needs to consider people negatively affected by drug laws, says Kristal Bush, founder of nonprofit advocacy group Free My Weedman. And as an early step, lawmakers could even precede adult-use cannabis laws by fixing past wrongs, she added.
Last week, Maryland pardoned more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, but stopped short of expungement.
In his February budget pitch, Gov. Josh Shapiro called for expungement in the bill itself.
Kinkead proposed courts would throw out nonviolent marijuana offenses six months after the bill is signed. Street and Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, introduced a nearly identical bill in the Senate. But Bush is also pushing for better assistance programs to include what she calls “legacy sellers” – people who sold illegally – in the new legal market.
Kaufer and Kinkead's bill calls for a “charter agreement” between people convicted of prior marijuana offenses and already-existing medical marijuana dispensaries. The agreement would offer mentorship and training to enter the state’s legal weed industry.
None of the 181 medical dispensaries operating in Pennsylvania are Black-owned or run by Pennsylvanians, Bush said.
“[The charter agreement] may mean well, but there’s going to be a power imbalance,” Bush said.
The legislative session ends Nov. 30. Policymakers must pass the cannabis bill by then or start over next year.
