Top Pennsylvania GOP Senator Says State Needs ‘National Direction’ Before It Can Legalize Marijuana

As Pennsylvania Democrats step up the push to legalize marijuana, the state’s top Republican senator says he doesn’t think the state will enact the policy change this year—and he believes that it should not move ahead at all without further changes at the federal level.

“I don’t see it coming before this session ends,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) said when asked about the prospects of cannabis legalization at a press conference on Monday.

“People tend to forget that recreational marijuana, for better or worse, is a scheduled narcotic at the federal level,” he said. “And I think we would all be well served to have some more national direction on how to deal with this issue.”

Pittman criticized leaders of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for passing a bill last year that would have legalized marijuana and put sales in state-controlled dispensaries, saying it displays a “lack of seriousness on this issue” on the part of the other chamber’s majority party.

“They sent us a recreational marijuana legalization proposal that would have marijuana in the state stores. Now, come on,” the top GOP senator said. “I mean, we’re not going to put weed in state stores, number one, because they can’t functionally do it because they couldn’t comply with federal law.”

Pittman also said he doubts the state’s ability to manage a recreational marijuana program, pointing to a recent report from the Pennsylvania auditor general that was critical of the current medical cannabis system.

“The Department of Health has not exactly done a bang-up job on medical marijuana, so I don’t have a whole ton of confidence in our ability, even if we were to legalize recreational marijuana, to do it well,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania are continuing to call for broader marijuana legalization.

The speaker of the Democratic-controlled House said last week that the state could legalize recreational marijuana next year if her party wins a handful of seats in the November elections and takes a Senate majority.

A Democratic senator recently filed a discharge resolution seeking to bring a bipartisan cannabis bill out of committee.

A Republican senator said she will soon file legislation to keep hemp THC products legal in the state while adding age limits as well as new requirements for registration, testing and labeling.

A separate bill that has already been introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate would create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and significantly restrict most hemp THC products. That legislation was defeated on the Senate floor in June, though it is pending reconsideration.

Separately, a Pennsylvania Senate committee approved a bill this week to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, while the full House passed similar legislation earlier this year.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

The legislative maneuvering around cannabis comes as a recent poll shows that Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization—and that the largest share put the blame on Republican lawmakers for the fact that the state has not yet enacted the reform.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has repeatedly called on lawmakers to send him a marijuana legalization bill and for the last several years has included the reform in his budget requests to the legislature.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity, who is running against Shapiro, recently pledged to veto a marijuana legalization bill if lawmakers ever sent one to her desk—though she added that she doesn’t think the reform stands a chance of making it that far in the state.

Her running mate for lieutenant governor, Jason Richey, claimed that legalizing marijuana would be “catastrophic” for the state, arguing it would increase the size of the illegal market, undermine job creation and harm public health.

The governor earlier this year, as he has in past years, included cannabis legalization and the resulting expected revenue in his budget request.

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.

A spokesperson in the governor’s office said the Trump administration’s federal marijuana rescheduling move is an “important step” that “adds support” to his push to legalize cannabis. A senator also said that federal reform will make it easier to legalize marijuana in the state.

The post Top Pennsylvania GOP Senator Says State Needs ‘National Direction’ Before It Can Legalize Marijuana appeared first on Marijuana Moment.