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Just ahead of a Pennsylvania committee meeting on cannabis reform this week, House lawmakers have introduced a bill to legalize marijuana that the lead sponsor says is \u201cgrounded in safety and social equity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Amen Brown (D) is sponsoring the legislation, which is an identical companion to a bipartisan Senate cannabis legalization measure<\/a> that was filed last year.<\/p>\n The House legislation was introduced on Tuesday, with five cosponsors signed on, two days before members of the Health Subcommittee on Health Care are scheduled to hold the latest in a series of meetings on legalizing marijuana. At last month\u2019s hearing, members focused on criminal justice implications of prohibition and the potential benefits of reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the panel will look at social equity issues related to legalization. Witnesses include representatives of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), Parabola Center, the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities, a Boston cannabis management official, a retired judge and others.<\/p>\n Brown, the legalization bill sponsor, said in a cosponsorship memo to colleagues last week that his new legislation \u201caddresses safety by setting the minimum marijuana consumption age at 21 years old and provides the appropriate deterrence to keep marijuana out of the hands of anyone under 21.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt provides law enforcement the means to adjudicate driving under the influence and the authority to pursue and eradicate any illicit market,\u201d he said. \u201cFurthermore, our bill bans any marketing directed toward children. The bill will provide workplace requirements regarding marijuana use for all those operating in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawmaker added that the proposal would allow limited home cultivation for medical cannabis patients, while prioritizing social equity licensing and expunging prior marijuana convictions.<\/p>\n \u201cNew Jersey and New York have implemented adult use. It is our duty to taxpayers to seize the initiative and legalize marijuana concurrently with bordering states,\u201d the memo says. \u201cFailure to do so risks permanently ceding hundreds of millions of dollars of new tax revenue as well as thousands of jobs at a time when taxpayers can least afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sens. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sharif Street (D) filed the Senate companion version of the legalization bill last year.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the marijuana legalization bill<\/a> would accomplish:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, the Health subcommittee that\u2019s set to meet on Thursday has held hearings several times recently to discuss cannabis issues. At one of the latest hearings in February, members looked at the industry perspective<\/a>, with multiple stakeholders from cannabis growing, dispensing and testing businesses, as well as clinical registrants, testifying.<\/p>\n At the subcommittee\u2019s previous cannabis meeting in December, members\u00a0heard testimony and asked questions about\u00a0various elements of marijuana oversight<\/a>, including promoting social equity and business opportunities, laboratory testing and public versus private operation of a state-legal cannabis industry.<\/p>\n During the panel\u2019s first meeting late last year, Rep. Dan Frankel (D) said that state-run stores are \u201ccertainly an option\u201d he\u2019s considering for Pennsylvania, similar to what New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) recommended for that state last year<\/a>, though a state commission later\u00a0shied away from that plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Pennsylvania lawmakers have put forward legalization bills in the past, it\u2019s not clear what might serve as the vehicle for reform this year.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro (D)\u00a0once again proposed legalization as part of his budget request<\/a> in February, seeking to establish a system that would be implemented starting this summer. But while he suggested certain parameters such as having the Department of Agriculture regulate the program, there\u2019s not legislative text yet.<\/p>\n Last month, the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released a report that found the state stands to generate $271 million in annual revenue if marijuana is legalized<\/a> and taxed according to the governor\u2019s proposal\u2014but it would have been more if the commonwealth hadn\u2019t been lapped by other neighboring states that have already enacted the reform.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jordan Harris (D) said in a recent interview that it\u2019s \u201chigh time\u201d to\u00a0legalize marijuana and lay the groundwork for businesses in the state to export cannabis to other markets<\/a>\u00a0if federal law changes\u2014and he sees a \u201creal opportunity\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n However, the committee\u2019s minority chairman, Rep. Seth Grove (R), said he\u2019s doubtful that the Democratic-controlled House will be able to craft and deliver legalization legislation that could advance through the GOP majority Senate.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania lawmakers also recently advanced a pair of bills meant to prevent police from charging medical cannabis patients with impaired driving<\/a>\u00a0without proof of intoxication.<\/p>\n A Republican state senator also says he will soon introduce legislation that would\u00a0remove barriers under state law to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms<\/a>.<\/p>\n In December, the governor signed a bill to allow all licensed medical marijuana grower-processors in the state to\u00a0serve as retailers and sell their cannabis products directly to patients<\/a>. Independent dispensaries could also start cultivating their own marijuana.<\/p>\n A poll released in February found that about two-thirds of Pennsylvania voters in the state support enacting marijuana legalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hawaii Senate Approves Marijuana Expungements Pilot Program<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Pennsylvania Lawmakers File Marijuana Legalization Bill Ahead Of Committee Hearing This Week<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Just ahead of a Pennsylvania committee meeting on cannabis reform this week, House lawmakers have introduced a bill to legalize marijuana that the lead sponsor says is \u201cgrounded in safety and social equity.\u201d Rep. Amen Brown (D) is sponsoring the legislation, which is an identical companion to a bipartisan SenateContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":73987,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73988,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73986\/revisions\/73988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania Lawmakers File Marijuana Legalization Bill Ahead Of Committee Hearing This Week<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"