Tag: pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania Democratic senator has announced his intent to file a new bill to legalize marijuana in the state, calling on colleagues to join him on the measure days after a Senate committee killed a separate House-passed proposal to enact cannabis legalization with state-run stores.

In a cosponsorship memo circulated last week, Sen. Marty Flynn (D) said his bill would establish a “responsible framework for cultivation, distribution, and retail sales to adults aged 21 and over,” indicating that the legislation will follow a more conventional regulatory model for cannabis.

“This legislation represents a commonsense opportunity to modernize our cannabis laws by delivering lasting economic benefits to communities across the Commonwealth while balancing individual liberty with public safety,” he said of the bill, which will be called the Keystone Cannabis Act.

Notably, Flynn put out an earlier cosponsorship memo in 2022 that detailed a bill he said he’d be introducing that would have sought to legalize marijuana through a state-run model, similar to the legislation that narrowly advanced through the House only to be rejected in a Senate committee last week.

The new memo signals his forthcoming legislation will steer clear of the controversial proposal, placing regulatory responsibility in the hands of the state Departments of Health, Agriculture and Community and Economic Development, as well as the attorney general and state police.

It would also create a Commonwealth Community Reinvestment and Infrastructure Fund, using marijuana tax revenue—which Flynn estimates will be upwards of $500 million annually—to support the revitalization of rural areas, infrastructure initiatives and local grants for “law enforcement, public health, and educational programs focused on substance use prevention and mental health.”

There would also be equity components embedded in the measure, including provisions that would prioritize cannabis business licensing for those from communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition and creating a pathway for expunging past marijuana records.

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The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has given initial approval to a bill that would legalize marijuana with a novel model of state-run stores.

This has been an especially fast-moving legislative process for the measure from Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Dan Frankel (D). It was introduced on Sunday, advanced through the House Health Committee Frankel chairs on Monday and has now been approved on second reading in the full chamber on Tuesday in a vote of 102-101.

All Democrats in the body voted in favor of the legislation, and all Republicans were opposed. A third reading vote, expected soon, would send the measure to the Senate.

While there’s a competing bipartisan legalization measure that’s expected to be unveiled soon, this one already has 27 House Democrats signed on as cosponsors—more than one-fourth of the party’s caucus in the chamber.

The expedited consideration of the bill has already elicited criticism from the GOP side of the aisle, with Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R), a member of the Health Committee, saying during Monday’s Health Committee hearing that “it’s no secret that I stand in opposition to broadly legalized adult-use marijuana—but frankly, I’m appalled by the manner in which it’s being rammed through the committee and the legislature.”

Frankel responded to the critique, saying “this has been a transparent process” that has “taken into consideration input from every potential stakeholder.”

“My door has been open to all those stakeholders on an ongoing basis for the past two year—the six hearings we had and an opportunity for the minority party to have to have a meeting to talk about this,” the chair said.

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Pennsylvania Democrats have officially released a much-anticipated bill to legalize marijuana with a novel state-run regulatory model. And it’s already slated for an imminent House committee vote.

The new legislation is being sponsored by Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Dan Frankel (D), who chairs the House Health Committee that will be taking up the proposal on Monday.

“The time is now for Pennsylvania,” Krajewski said in a press release. “We have listened carefully to public health experts, criminal justice reformers, small business advocates and community leaders. Our bill reflects what we’ve learned—that we can and must legalize cannabis in a way that is safe, equitable and beneficial to all Pennsylvanians.”

Under the bill, adults 21 and older would be able to legally possess and buy cannabis from stores licensed and operated by the Liquor Control Board (LCB), which currently controls alcohol sales in the state.

While there’s a competing bipartisan legalization measure that’s expected to be unveiled soon, this one already has 27 House Democrats signed on as cosponsors—more than one-fourth of the party’s caucus in the chamber.

“By legalizing and regulating cannabis thoughtfully, we can avoid pitfalls that have marred roll outs in other states,” Frankel said. “Our plan will create clear rules that protect consumers, educate the public, and ensure that Pennsylvania small businesses and taxpayers—not out-of-state corporations—benefit from the profits.”

LCB would directly control the cannabis retail side of the industry under the measure, but it would also be responsible for licensing marijuana cultivation, processing, transportation and on-site consumption businesses that could be privately owned.

The legislation would specify that cannabis shops could not sell more than 42.5 grams of marijuana, which would be the possession limit, to an adult within a 24-hour period. Cannabis flower could not contain more than 25 percent THC, and edibles would be limited to five milligrams of THC per serving, with a maximum 25 milligrams total.

Adults who obtain a home cultivation permit from LCB would be able to grow up to two mature and two immature plants in a secure location at their residence for personal use.

Marijuana products sold at licensed shops would be subject to a 12 percent excise tax. Revenue from those taxes would be deposited in a Cannabis Revenue Fund, managed by the Department of Revenue (DOR).

That fund would be used to cover administrative costs within the various departments that have a hand in regulating the cannabis program, including the facilitation of expungements for people with prior marijuana convictions for activity that would be made legal under the law.

The remaining revenue would be distributed for a community reinvestment fund (50 percent), substance misuse treatment programs (10 percent), cannabis business development (5 percent), minority business development (2.5 percent) and grants to county courts that process expungements (2 percent).The rest would go into the state general fund.

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts would be tasked with overseeing cannabis expungements, providing courts with a list of eligible cases that must be automatically sealed within two years.

A Social and Economic Equity Advisory Committee would be established under the bill to “promote inclusion and participation in the regulated cannabis industry, including through an indirect cannabis business, by persons that may qualify to be a social and economic equity applicant.”

The committee would be responsible for a new Social and Economic Equity Loan and Grant Program that would “provide financial assistance to certified social and economic equity applicants, certified social and economic equity licensees and indirect cannabis businesses that meet the qualifications of a social and economic equity applicant.”

Eligible social and economic equity applicants are defined as those with a “household annual income below 200 percent of the Area Median Income in their county of residence,” and they’d also have to either have a minimum of 65 percent ownership by justice-impacted individuals or those who’ve spent five of the last 10 years in a designated historically impacted community.

The bill also contains rules around policies related to cannabis advertising, packaging and labeling—as well as requirements for businesses around ownership and a mandate to have a labor peace agreement in place for workers.

The largest challenge for the legislation going forward will likely come down to the proposal to have the state control cannabis sales—a regulatory model that exists in no other legal market in the U.S. While there’s evidently strong support within the Democratic caucus given the cosponsorship list, it’s expected to face steep resistance from Republicans, who control the Senate, and at least some Democrats.

For what it’s worth, 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.

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Just one day after Pennsylvania Democrats filed a much-anticipated bill to legalize marijuana with a novel model of state-run stores, a House committee has already approved the measure—with floor consideration now expected imminently in the face of criticism about how fast the proposal is advancing.

The legislation is being sponsored by Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Dan Frankel (D), who chairs the House Health Committee that took up the proposal on Monday, where it passed in a party-line vote of 14-12 with all Republican members in opposition.

The measure now moves to the House floor, where an initial vote is expected as soon as Tuesday.

“Right now, Pennsylvanians who use cannabis are either crossing state lines to purchase from other legal markets or buying from the illicit market,” Krajewski said at the hearing. “The reality is criminalization of cannabis does not work. It does not deter usage, it does not promote safety and it is not in the best interest of our commonwealth.”

“With legalization, we have the opportunity to rein in a market that is completely deregulated in terms of potency, content or labeling,” he said. “We can promote public health while bringing hundreds of millions of public dollars that can be directed to the communities hit hardest by past criminalization.”

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