Politics
Pennsylvania Senator Says Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Would Give ‘Political Cover’ To GOP Lawmakers To Legalize In The State
A Pennsylvania Democratic senator says that federal marijuana rescheduling would be “very influential” in advancing legalization in his state, giving “political cover” to GOP members on the fence about reform.
In an interview on The Dales Report on Tuesday, Sen. Sharif Street (D) discussed the status of cannabis legalization efforts in the Keystone State, including a bipartisan proposal to end prohibition that he filed alongside Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) last month.
Attempts to enact the reform have consistently fallen short in the legislature, but Street said “it does feel different” this time around.
“It feels different precisely because we have so much cohesion,” the senator said. “I think legislative leaders on both sides, and in both houses, would do well to advance this and give the governor the bill that he wants.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) supports legalizing marijuana and has included the reform in his last few budget proposals to lawmakers.
Street said in the interview that whether it’s grassroots activists or large cannabis corporations, “they’re all really saying the same thing: ‘Look, we’re at a place where it’s time to get this done.'”
He also said one factor that could move the needle in the legislature this session would be federal marijuana rescheduling.
“I think it would be very influential. I think it would be helpful to a number of Republican legislators who would feel there’s some political cover,” the senator said. “Because if the the federal government, which is controlled by Republicans, were to reschedule, that would certainly signal that there’s no need for Republican apprehension in the Commonwealth.”
Whether that comes to fruition is yet to be seen. While the Biden administration proposed moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the rescheduling process remains stalled.
President Donald Trump endorsed the reform on the campaign trail, but he’s been publicly silent on the issue since taking office. That said, the CEO of Scotts Miracle Gro recently disclosed that he’s had “multiple” conversations with Trump about marijuana in his second term where the president committed to seeing through the process.
In Pennsylvania, Street noted that, when he was first pushing for legalization in the Senate in 2019, “I did not have all the support we have” now.
“We had to get Republicans in line. We had to get more Democrats engaged. And we’ve done a lot of that, and so I think we’re in a much stronger position now,” he said.
While advocates and industry stakeholders “weren’t always in the same place” on what they wanted to see out of legalization legislation, “I think they’re largely in agreement that this is a bill that we can advance,” he said, referring to his own measure.
The House did narrowly pass a bill to legalize cannabis with state-run stores, but it was quickly rejected in the Senate in May. Another legalization proposal with a state-run sales was introduced last month, but Street says that regulatory model is a non-starter.
“It’s a talking point. There’s literally no Republican support at all. I would say the majority of Democrats are, at minimum, uncomfortable with it. It’s certainly not a model that I think should be advanced,” he said. “And so when you have, I would say, a significant number of Democrats who think it is not the best way to go, and no Republican support in a state that is almost evenly divided, it just is not a reasonable way to proceed.”
The House-passed legalization bill isn’t necessarily dead for the session as a vehicle to advance reform, however, and Democrats in the chamber recently called on voters to pressure state senators to sign off on the cannabis measure, arguing that it would benefit health and safety and bring in billions of dollars in revenue for the commonwealth.
While other legalization proposals have since been filed in the state—including from bipartisan lawmakers in both chambers—Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) and others have already signaled disinterest in the reform.
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Polls have shown bipartisan support for legalization among voters, but the reform has consistently stalled in the legislature, due largely to GOP opposition. But not all Republican members are against the policy change—and one recently said she felt her party should seize the “opportunity to snatch” the issue from Democrats.
In addition to pushback from Senate Majority Leader Pittman, another Republican, Sen. Scott Martin, who chairs the influential Appropriations Committee, said earlier this month that he didn’t plan to move on any adult-use legalization bills.
Nevertheless, one Republican senator sponsoring a legalization proposal said last week that supporters in the legislature are “picking up votes.”
Laughlin—who introduced a legalization bill with Street—said support is growing because “people would rather [legalize cannabis] than do a tax increase to try and balance a budget.”
Rep. Amen Brown (D) subsequently said he intended to file a House companion version of that measure, circulating a cosponsorship memo to colleagues last month.
Separately, just days after Laughlin and Street filed their measure, Reps. Emily Kinkead (D) and Abby Major (R)—alongside eight other cosponsors—filed legislation in the House to enact the reform. The pair have previously championed other proposals to end prohibition.
Laughlin and 16 other lawmakers also recently filed a separate bill to create a new regulatory body in the state that would begin overseeing medical cannabis while preparing to eventually handle the adult-use market as well.
Separately, a recent poll found that Pennsylvania voters say they favor a model where cannabis is sold by licensed private businesses rather than through a system of state-run stores.
Meanwhile, a Democratic lawmaker recently filed a bill that seeks to require employers to cover the costs of medical cannabis for qualifying patients receiving workers’ compensation.
