It’s been 10 years since then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed the Medical Marijuana Act into law, so how much longer will efforts take to legalize recreational, adult-use cannabis?
And what needs to happen before Pennsylvania joins the 24 states and Washington, D.C., where marijuana has been legalized?
First, let’s backtrack and review how we got to this point.
The first piece of legislation to legalize recreational marijuana came in 2013 from then-state Sen. Daylin Leach, a Democrat who was attempting to make Pennsylvania only the third state in the nation at that time where marijuana was legal. He’d introduce similar legislation again, including in 2017.
In 2019, state Rep. Jake Wheatley Jr. proposed amending the Medical Marijuana Act to allow for recreational use.
Then, in February 2021, state Sen. Dan Laughlin of Erie County became the first sitting Republican in Pennsylvania to come out in favor of legalization, saying it was inevitable given how support for the issue was trending across the state and nation. Laughlin and Sen. Sharif Street, a Philadelphia Democrat, introduced the first bipartisan bill at that time.
The Laughlin-Street bill, however, is still sitting in committee, meaning there isn’t enough support on the committee alone to get the legislation in front of the entire Pennsylvania Senate for a vote.
There has been movement in the lower chamber — kind of.
Last year, Pennsylvania House Democrats used their very narrow majority to pass a legalization bill that would use a state-store model, similar to how the state distributes liquor and wine, for cannabis sales.
But Laughlin killed the bill upon its arrival in the Senate.
So how does Laughlin foresee the bill he and Street have cosponsored becoming law?
Not through the Republican-controlled Senate, but the Democrat-led House, he says.
“The true path for this, and I’ve said this publicly before, so it’s not new information,” he said, “what I would like to see happen is for the House to pass the same language that Senator Street and I have in our bill — just run a companion bill. And if they can pass that, then I can go back to my committee members and my caucus and say, look, the House already passed the bill. You wouldn’t be wasting your vote, in other words.”
Currently, Laughlin cannot move his bill out of Senate Law and Justice Committee, which he chairs. It lacks support. There are political reasons, not procedural ones, for why he wants the House to pass a companion bill first. Hence, his reference to “wasting your vote.”
“There’s people that are willing to vote for this if they know it’s going to make it to the governor’s desk,” he said, referring to some Republicans both on the committee and in the Senate in general. “They don’t want to put up a vote that might harm them, politically harm them, if it’s for nothing.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro has endorsed marijuana legalization, but has not said what he wants to see in the legislation.
But before it gets to Shapiro, it still needs to pass in the Senate. So, if the House votes on a companion bill and enough Republicans on the committee vote in favor of the Laughlin-Street bill, it still needs to pass muster in the Senate Appropriations Committee, Laughlin said.
Then it would have to win the backing of Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, who recently told the USA Today Network Pennsylvania this:
“I continue to believe this is an issue which the federal government needs to provide consistent policy on, rather than states engaging in piecemeal approaches that do not comport with current federal law,” Pittman said in a March 30 statement. “Last May, Pennsylvania House Democrats took a massive step backward in this debate by sending us such an unserious recreational marijuana legalization proposal.”
It’s obviously not an endorsement from Pittman, but it isn’t exactly complete opposition either.
Laughlin and Street, however, is trying a different tack. They’ve cosponsored S.B. 49, which would establish a Cannabis Control Board and move oversight of the medical marijuana program out of the Pennsylvania Health Department. The board would also be charged with overseeing hemp-derived products and other now-unregulated products such as Kratom.
“If we have Senate Bill 49, the Cannabis Control Board (bill), already passed and being set up, that gives some of them a little more comfort,” Laughlin said about fellow GOP lawmakers who remain apprehensive about legalization. “And then if the House introduces our language (on marijuana legalization) they’ll know that if we actually do this the House would be able to put up the votes for it to get it to the governor’s desk. That’s the path.”
Of course, with every state House seat and half the state Senate seats on the ballot this coming November, voters will play a significant role in determining the fate of adult-use marijuana legalization.
Matthew Rink is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigative journalist.