HARRISBURG — Democrats in the Pennsylvania House have advanced a bill that would permit the sale of recreational cannabis to adults at state-run stores, an untested model that could face legal challenges.
Supporters say selling cannabis through stores similar to Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits shops, rather than at private dispensaries, would allow the state to collect more revenue to fund social equity projects, tax credits, or other public programs.
They also say this model would prevent existing multistate operators from monopolizing the legal cannabis market and excluding small businesses, and would better protect public health through tight regulation.
Cannabis industry players are concerned about the practicality of such a system, which does not exist in any other state. They say the state already has a solid regulatory framework around medical cannabis, and using a state-store model would result in unnecessary complications.
Critics also say such a system could potentially lead to criminal liability, since state employees at these stores would be breaking federal law by selling cannabis.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia) and Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny), was approved 14-12 by the chamber’s Health Committee on Monday.
No Republicans voted for it, with some GOP members objecting to the limited amount of time they had to review a nearly 200-page bill. The legislation’s language was introduced on Sunday.
State Rep. Kathy Rapp (R., Warren), minority chair of the committee, praised Frankel, the panel’s leader, for holding several hearings on cannabis legalization last session. But she expressed disappointment that Democrats would rush through a bill on such an important topic.
A GOP-led effort to table the bill until a hearing could be held on its merits failed along party lines.
It’s important for lawmakers to weigh cannabis legalization as the June 30 budget deadline approaches, Krajewski told Spotlight PA before the vote, as hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue could go toward mass transit and other funding needs.
“It should be a priority for budget negotiations,” Krajewski said.
The full state House is expected to vote on the legislation on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Democrats.
If it passes there, it will be sent to the Republican-controlled state Senate for consideration. State Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia), who supports legalizing recreational cannabis through medical dispensaries, doesn’t think there are enough votes in the upper chamber to get the state store model to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Still, he called the vote an “important, positive step in the right direction.”
“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.”
Frankel said he hopes the GOP-controlled state Senate “will engage with us and have a discussion.” He told Spotlight PA the bill embodies the values of his committee and addresses his major concerns surrounding public health, social equity, criminal justice, and revenue for the state.
“That's the framework, and we laid it out there the way we think it ought to be best addressed,” he said.
State Senate Republicans in key positions either do not support legalizing cannabis or have expressed serious reservations. However, one former GOP lawmaker previously told Spotlight PA that he doesn’t think the opposition is “hardcore.” In his opinion, the “lynchpin” of where they will fall on the issue “is going to be economics.”
While there’s more support for legalization among Democrats, there are also competing visions.
Like Street, state Rep. Emily Kinkead (D., Allegheny) supports legalizing adult-use cannabis within the state’s existing framework. She’s seeking support for a bill that would regulate medical and recreational cannabis sellers under an independent board that would be appointed by the legislature and governor.
Kinkead said medical operators would not be able to open new locations but could expand into recreational sales at existing locations. Most of the new licenses to sell or grow cannabis, she said, would go to social equity applicants — those who were most impacted by the war on drugs.
The revenue from sales and licensing would go toward grants for community development and agricultural innovation, funding for public defenders and law enforcement, and to the General Fund.
Kinkead says her goal is to “have a conversation about all the ways we can do this.” She worries that if lawmakers embrace state stores, they would be “opening up a can of worms that nobody else has ever experienced before.”
“Every state that has legalized to this point has done it through private industry, so we wouldn’t be getting into a completely new model and running into completely new pitfalls,” Kinkead told Spotlight PA. “We can learn from other states about what worked and what didn’t to ensure that we’re doing this the right way.”
Unlike the state store bill, Kinkead’s legislation has a Republican co-sponsor — state Rep. Abby Major of Armstrong County.
Meredith Buettner, executive director of Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, a trade organization representing medical cannabis permit holders, said she was “disappointed to not see robust inclusion of the existing market in the bill.” Her group and other pro-cannabis interests spent $1.6 million in 2024 to lobby lawmakers.
Still, she sees the bill’s passage as a step in the right direction.
“We'll see as the process moves forward,” Buettner told Spotlight PA. “I think the Senate has been pretty clear that they're not interested in doing a state store bill.”
In addition to establishing state stores, Frankel and Krajewski’s bill would create an unspecified number of licenses for entrepreneurs to grow and cultivate cannabis and to allow for small-scale on-site consumption at locations like coffee shops and lounges.
At least half of those licenses, Krajewski said, would go to “social and economic equity” applicants, including individuals who have a cannabis arrest or conviction, their family members, and people who live in communities harmed by cannabis criminalization.
The bill would also create a grant and loan program for these applicants and licensees.
Cherron Perry-Thomas is the director of social impact for the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities, a nonprofit that helps Black communities gain access to the cannabis industry. She said the bill does not “center folks who have been impacted” or local entrepreneurs who could benefit from the emerging industry.
