HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania House took a major step toward legalizing recreational cannabis Wednesday, passing a bill along party lines that would permit the sale to adults at state-owned stores.
Such a model would be unique to the commonwealth, and could lead to legal trouble and a loss of federal funding, critics say.
It also faces serious opposition in the GOP-controlled state Senate, where the bill is essentially “dead on arrival,” according to a key Republican.
“As someone who has advocated for a responsible approach to legalization, I have repeatedly made it clear that there is zero chance that the state store model will make it through the Senate,” state Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie), who chairs a critical committee, said in a statement.
The bill passed the state House 102 to 101, with all Democrats and no Republicans voting in favor.
Its passage comes less than two months before lawmakers must finalize a state budget, giving leaders a limited amount of time to explore whether they can reach a consensus on a policy that could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in needed new revenue.
Supporters of the state House’s approach, including bill sponsors Reps. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) and Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia), say that it will prevent large, existing cannabis companies from dominating the industry, protecting consumers and public health.
“We have the opportunity to rein in a market that is completely deregulated in terms of potency, content, labeling, or advertising,” Krajewski said on the House floor ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “We can promote public health while also bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars that can be directed to communities hit the hardest by past criminalization.”
Supporters of the House bill also argue their approach will allow the state to collect more revenue than the free-market approaches supported by lawmakers like Laughlin.
But Laughlin isn’t the only opponent. Others include moneyed cannabis interests that say the state already has a robust medical marijuana market that should be expanded, and that the state store model, which hasn’t been attempted in any other state, could lead to criminal liability for the commonwealth because cannabis is still federally illegal.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro supports legalizing recreational marijuana, hasn’t said whether he would oppose the state-store model, but reiterated his support for legalization broadly.
“I thought the House took a really important step by beginning to move the marijuana legalization bill,” Shapiro told reporters Tuesday. “Obviously, it's the beginning. This is going to have to go through some bipartisan compromise.”.
In his most recent budget pitch, Shapiro estimated that the first year of legalization would bring in $500 million in revenue, but left the details of how to legalize the drug up to the state legislature.
Bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the state House and Senate have offered alternative proposals that would instead allow existing medical cannabis sellers to expand into the recreational market.
State Rep. Emily Kinkead (D., Allegheny) introduced one of those bills along with Rep. Abby Major (R., Armstrong). She said that her legislation would avoid the potential pitfalls involved in creating a completely new, untested state-run system of marijuana stores.
“We can learn from other states about what worked and what didn’t to ensure that we’re doing this the right way,” Kinkead told Spotlight PA.
Laughlin and state Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia) have repeatedly introduced a bill that would allow existing medical marijuana sellers to expand their sales to recreational users. They released a memo this session stating they intend to release a similar bill again.
Street echoed Laughlin’s sentiments, saying he doesn’t believe that there are enough votes in his chamber to pass the state-store bill. He added that he views the bill passing as a good first step, but expects to see many changes before the final product reaches the governor’s desk.
“I think that the Senate will make changes,” Street told Spotlight PA. “Ultimately, this could end up being a vehicle that ends the prohibition on cannabis and gets an adult-use bill to the governor's desk.”
The state Senate’s two top lawmakers — President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) and Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) — have remained largely noncommittal to legalization as a general concept. However, one former GOP lawmaker previously told Spotlight PA that he doesn’t think the opposition by leadership is “hardcore” and that the economics of the issue will be the “lynchpin” of whether the measure succeeds.
Following the passage of the bill, Pittman criticized the state store model, saying that it “props up an antiquated system.”
“It’s hard to believe the House spent so much time this week on a serious issue and ultimately sent us an unserious bill,” Pittman said in a statement to Spotlight PA. “With House Democrats’ failure to obtain bi-partisan support for the bill in their chamber, it’s clear advancing marijuana legalization in this manner was a performative exercise."
Stephen Caruso of Spotlight PA contributed reporting to this story.
