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By Kate Huangpu | Spotlight PA
No one in the Pennsylvania Capitol is prepared to say if this is the year the state will legalize marijuana.
But that hasn’t stopped supporters from beginning to lay out their visions, with some lawmakers pitching selling the drug in state-owned stores and others proposing letting independent sellers seek state licenses.
Along with disagreements over how a new recreational cannabis market should be regulated and organized, lawmakers differ over how to include restorative justice policies intended to make up for years of drug prosecution that is now seen as too harsh.
State Reps. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) and Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia) want Pennsylvania to create state-owned cannabis stores that operate like existing Fine Wine and & Good Spirits locations. They’ve released a memo seeking support from fellow lawmakers, but haven’t introduced a bill yet.
Frankel chairs the state House Health Committee and is a key voice on cannabis legalization. He previously told Spotlight PA he came to support the state-owned model after a series of hearings convinced him state stores would stabilize the new market and protect the public from “unintended consequences of for-profit commercialization.”
Pennsylvania’s state stores for alcohol would make it easier to create a similar model for marijuana, Krajewski said in a recent interview, noting that the commonwealth already has “expertise around building out stores and staffing.”
“There are still entrepreneurial opportunities around the supply side and around on-site consumption in some small retail, but let’s also balance that and balance the volatility of this industry with a stable public store model.”
Other states have considered government-run marijuana dispensaries but rejected the idea because of legal concerns. Karen O’Keefe, director of state policy at the Marijuana Policy Project, which supports legalizing cannabis, said such a model would technically require state employees to break federal law.
Cannabis is still classified as a Schedule I drug by federal regulators, who say that it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
“If the state says, as your job, you must sell cannabis and federal law says you cannot sell cannabis, then there’s a strong chance that that law would be preempted if someone challenged it in a court,” Goldstein said.
Other lawmakers, including a Republican who holds a key position in the state Senate, favor other models.
State Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie), one of the GOP’s staunchest advocates for recreational marijuana, now chairs the chamber’s Law & Justice Committee. Chamber leaders typically send this committee cannabis bills.
Last session, Laughlin and state Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia) sponsored a bill that would have created a board to oversee the industry and approve sellers. It also would have allowed companies that are already licensed to sell medical cannabis —many of which are large and well-established — to start making recreational sales.
The marijuana industry prefers that approach, which has received support from large multistate companies like Trulieve and Cresco Labs. They argue this is the most efficient way to implement adult-use cannabis in the state.
Other states legalized adult-use cannabis through a similar system. When neighboring Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, it allowed existing licensed medical dispensaries to expand into recreational sales and licensed additional companies.
However, consumer advocates have expressed concern that Laughlin and Street’s bill would allow corporations to dominate the new recreational market.
Laughlin said he intends to introduce a legalization bill again this session but would not say if it would be the same version.
Another major sticking point is the criminal justice and social equity policies that will be included in the legislation.
Krajewski told Spotlight PA that he and Frankel’s bill will include the expungement of records and a resentencing program for cannabis-related crimes.
He added that under his bill, the revenue from the state-owned stores will go to programs for “expungement assistance, legal assistance, affordable housing, [and] workforce development” for communities impacted by cannabis criminalization.
The Legislative Black Caucus called social equity provisions an essential part of any legalization bill.
At a news conference last July, state Rep. Napoleon Nelson (D., Montgomery) said the caucus, which he chairs, “will not accept the advancement of an adult-use program that still holds incarcerated individuals that have previously been convicted for cannabis activity.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro called for legalizing recreational cannabis as part of his 2024 budget pitch, specifying that he wanted people convicted of nonviolent possession of the drug to have their records expunged.
“It has to be regulated, it has to be taxed responsibly, it has to have criminal justice provisions to wipe out convictions for those who possess small amounts of marijuana,” the Democrat told reporters last Monday. “And I’d like to see a good chunk of the ownership to be local ownership in Pennsylvania.”
Laughlin and Street’s previous bill would have expunged the records of people convicted for possessing under 30 grams of marijuana
The bill also would have given “social and economic equity” applicants more assistance to enter the industry by creating a specialized loan fund and waiving some of the application fees for cannabis business licenses.
While lawmakers hammer out the details, cannabis advocates say Pennsylvania is missing out on millions of dollars in revenue.
Chris Goldstein, a Pennsylvania-based advocate for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that cannabis would provide a “safer” source of revenue than skill games — another policy goal in the state legislature. He noted the state’s medical marijuana revenue has grown year over year, reaching over $1.6 billion in 2024.
Still, Goldstein doubts a legalization bill will happen, saying it’s “not impossible” but also not likely.
“Republicans and Democrats both want to pass something,” Goldstein said. “What we lack is a serious political will to do this.”
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