State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have put forward new proposals for legalizing adult cannabis use in Pennsylvania.
Senators Dan Laughlin (R-Erie County) and Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia County) introduced SB120 on Friday, July 10. Representatives Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny County) and Abby Major (R-Armstrong and Westmoreland counties) introduced HB20 four days later on Monday, July 14.
Both bills would include incentives for small businesses owned by women, minorities, and veterans to open dispensaries across the state.
And both bills nix plans to stock marijuana in state-run stores – a largely unpopular idea voted down by adult use opponents and advocates alike in mid-May by a 7-3 vote from the Senate Law & Justice Committee.
Efforts to reach Laughlin and Kinkead were not immediately successful. Street and Major did address the issue with WVIA.
Street: 'Strong bicameral support'
Street, who's been pushing alongside Laughlin for years to pass a recreational program, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that he believes the program's bicameral support gives it a serious chance of passing in Pennsylvania.
"The strong bicameral support for this bill not only reflects a shared commitment across both legislative chambers, but also greatly enhances the likelihood that it will successfully move through the full legislative process and be enacted into law. This level of cooperation demonstrates the broad recognition of the bill’s importance and its potential impact on our communities," Street said.
Major: Adult use is 'inevitable'
Major, the only House Republican to back the bill, said an adult use program is “inevitable” during a Tuesday phone interview.
She argued that 24 states and Washington D.C already have an adult use program in place. All of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states, except for West Virginia, can sell cannabis products legally.
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio have all legalized adult marijuana use in the last four years.
“They're raking in a lot of money from Pennsylvanians driving across the border,” Major said.
Shapiro sees green in budget proposal
If approved as Shapiro proposed in February, his budget would establish an adult-use cannabis program and create several marijuana initiatives:
- $10 million for a restorative justice program from adult-use cannabis proceeds. That’s double his request from last year’s proposal.
- $25 million to the state Department of Agriculture to “help new small and small diverse businesses” enter the industry.
- $15 million to the state Department of Agriculture for operations
- $2.25 million to Pennsylvania State Police for enforcement and expungement
- $1.5 million to the state Department of Revenue for administration.
Shapiro’s proposed budget was for $51.5 billion and the newest budget passed by House Democrats is for $50.6 billion, although that’s still a $2.7 billion increase from last year’s budget.
Street argued that the passage of a recreational program is not only "the right thing to do ... [but] offers a practical solution to address our current revenue deficit."
"By generating new streams of income, it can help offset funding gaps for essential services like SEPTA (public transit), Medicaid, and SNAP benefits. This bill creates a responsible pathway to raise the revenue needed to support the programs our communities rely on," he said.
Major added she sees the program as one of the last ways to prevent a future tax increase.
“People can't afford it (a tax increase). So, if this is the answer to preventing us from having to raise taxes, then I don't see why anybody would be a ‘no’ [vote].
Major: ‘Cannabis is already legal' in Pa.
Regardless of whether a recreational bill passes, Major argued “cannabis is already legal” in Pennsylvania.
In addition to Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Program, which was signed into law in 2016, Pennsylvanians can purchase certain cannabis products from smoke shops.
CBD is the part of cannabis that’s legal in Pennsylvania. It can be used to treat conditions like anxiety, insomnia and in some cases, seizures. CBD comes from the hemp plant, which has less than 0.3% THC, the chemical that causes mind-altering effects. Hemp on its own, which has low THC, cannot get you high.
While the medical program is regulated, much remains unknown about what’s being sold at smoke shops throughout the state.
“Here in Pennsylvania, you can go to a vape shop and buy intoxicating hemp products with THC in them, and it's totally unregulated. And that's something that also needs to be addressed, which we address in our bill,” Major said.
The House bill would require any possibly intoxicating cannabis products to be sold only at licensed dispensaries, which would have to meet the same guidelines and testing procedures as THC products, according to Major.
Donald Mencer, a Wilkes University professor who teaches chemistry and biochemistry, said in an April interview “nobody is really testing” smoke shop products.
“There's really no regulatory body that is in charge of making sure that there's monitoring for the quantity of the molecules, whether it's CBD or THC, or contaminants that might be present in the products, like heavy metals or other things that would be detrimental to people's health,” Mencer said.
Optimism that 'shared values' will prevail
Could Pennsylvania pass a marijuana bill this time? Major believes it’s possible as long as politicians in Harrisburg work together. She said Kinkead, Street, Laughlin and herself have been working across party lines and both sides of the legislature to find a compromise.
Street said both bills reflect "shared values" across party lines. Like Major, he sees the new version of a recreational program as a way to both protect children from unregulated marijuana and to tackle the state's financial deficit.
"Bipartisan support for both bills reflects the shared values we hold as Pennsylvanians in prioritizing a safer, more accountable cannabis market. Under the current legacy market, children can too easily access marijuana through unregulated channels. A clear example from my own district is the prevalence of 'stop-and-go' establishments, where there is virtually no oversight regarding liquor consumption, marketing practices, or product safety," he said.
"This bill proposes the creation of a well-regulated cannabis market with enforceable standards. These include clear labeling for potency and dosage, accurate product descriptions, and mandatory ID verification at licensed dispensaries — measures that are absent in the current informal market," Street said.
Dispensaries vs. state stores
Both bills also propose putting recreational marijuana sales under the purview of dispensaries. These stores would need to follow government regulations, but would not be operated by the state itself.
The legislature’s prior recreational cannabis bill, HB 1200, died in the Senate Law & Justice Committee in May because it would have created a state-store program for sales.
Laughlin, who chairs the committee and is one of the sponsors for the new cannabis program, voted against HB1200. He argued in May that allowing the state to monopolize sales would keep small private-sector sellers out of the market.
“A government retailer … will also undermine the hundreds of millions [of dollars] in financial investments made by current medical marijuana operators, who would quickly lose any market share and infrastructure invested into medical dispensaries,” Laughlin said in May.
Polls show broad support
Lawmakers are looking to advance their bills at a time when recreational marijuana is widely popular with Pennsylvania voters.
Similar polling from Pew Research reports a net 88% of U.S. adults say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use; 57% of respondents said marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, according to research published in March 2024, while 32% say that marijuana should be legal for medical use only.
Just 11% of Americans say that the drug should not be legal at all, the research found.
