Politics
Pennsylvania Governor Pushes Lawmakers To Legalize Marijuana On 4/20
The governor of Pennsylvania is using the unofficial cannabis holiday 4/20 to press lawmakers once again to send him a bill to legalize marijuana.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers held a hearing focused on the impact of cannabis convictions and the need for legalization.
“Pennsylvanians who want to buy recreational marijuana are already driving across the border to one of our neighboring states who’ve legalized it,” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said in a social media post on Monday. “That’s hundreds of millions in revenue going out of state instead of being spent here in Pennsylvania.”
“It’s time for us to finally catch up—and for the legislature to send a bill to my desk and get this done,” he said.
The push comes days after the House of Representatives passed budget legislation proposed by Shapiro that relies on revenue that would be generated from recreational marijuana sales, which has yet to be legalized in the state.
The governor earlier this year included cannabis legalization and the resulting expected revenue in his budget request. The $53.2 billion budget legislation, which doesn’t itself include provisions to actually legalize marijuana even as it contemplates allocating money that would result from it, now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Meanwhile on Monday, the House Majority Policy Committee held a hearing on cannabis “clean slate” issues focused on how conviction records have collateral consequences on people’s lives.
Members heard from representatives of the Last Prisoner Project, Law Enforcement Action Partnership and Community Legal Services.
Rep. Andre Carroll (D) said passing cannabis reform would be “truly transformational” and “have a direct impact” on people across the state.
“States that seemingly have nothing else in common, like Mississippi and North Dakota, they have already decriminalized cannabis,” he said. “Yet, Pennsylvania remains one of only 19 states in the country where possession of cannabis is criminal offense, and that carries potential jail time here in our commonwealth.”
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives last year passed a bill to legalize marijuana and put sales in state-owned dispensaries, but the Republican Senate majority has criticized that plan while also not advancing a cannabis legalization model of its own.
Rep. Darisha Parker (D) said at Monday’s event that “we did our part here in the House, but the Senate is still falling on the job.”
Pennsylvania House Democrats also promoted an online petition on Monday that allows people to easily contact their state senators in support of marijuana legalization legislation.
Earlier this month, the House Health Committee approved a bill to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities
The legislative developments come as a new poll shows that seven out of ten Pennsylvania likely voters support legalizing adult-use marijuana—including majority backing for the reform across party lines.
When asked whether they “support or oppose the regulation and taxation of legal cannabis for use by adults 21 and older in Pennsylvania,” 69 percent of respondents said yes. Support was strongest from Democrats, at 72 percent, but also includes 67 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents.
Meanwhile, Shapiro continuing to pressure on lawmakers to send him a bill to legalize marijuana in the state, saying that doing so would generate new revenue that could be invested in key programs.
“While some in Harrisburg claim we can’t afford to make bigger investments in our kids, public safety, and our economy, know this: If we legalized and regulated adult-use cannabis, we’d bring in $1.3 BILLION in revenue for our Commonwealth over the first five years,” the governor said in another recent social media post.
“Those are dollars that can be invested back into our people and our communities,” he said. “Stop with the excuses. Let’s get this done.”
The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) reported in February that legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania would generate nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue by 2028, an estimate that is a significantly larger cash windfall compared to projections from Shapiro’s own office.
With a proposed 20 percent wholesale cannabis excise tax, 6 percent state sales tax for retail and licensing fees, IFO said the governor’s legalization plan would generate $140 million in tax revenue in the first year of implementation from 2027-2028 and increase to $432 million by 2030-2031.
That’s a much higher revenue estimate than what the governor’s office put forward in the latest executive budget. According to his office’s analysis, legalization would generate about $36.9 million in tax dollars in its first year from a 20 percent wholesale tax on marijuana—rising gradually to $223.8 million by 2030-2031.
In February, a coalition of drug policy and civil liberties organizations urged Shapiro to play a leadership role in convening legislative leaders to get the job done on cannabis legalization this session.
Last month, the Senate Law and Justice Committee amended and approved a bill to create a Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products and that could eventually regulate adult-use cannabis if it is legalized in the state.
