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Local officials in Pennsylvania\u2019s second most populous city are calling on state lawmakers and the governor to urgently agree on a plan to legalize marijuana this year.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution noting that despite legalization being enacted in surrounding states and the Trump administration\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201d move to federally reschedule marijuana, \u201cPennsylvania continues to treat cannabis possession as a criminal offense in many circumstances, resulting in ongoing arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration that disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania \u201cis now surrounded by four of its five neighboring states\u2014New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Maryland\u2014that have legalized adult-use recreational cannabis, creating an uneven regional landscape in which Pennsylvania residents routinely cross state lines to purchase legal cannabis,\u201d the resolution says. \u201cThis regional disparity has caused Pennsylvania to fall significantly behind other states, resulting in the loss of substantial tax revenue, job creation, and economic opportunities as consumer spending flows out of the Commonwealth each day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) this month again included marijuana legalization in his budget request to lawmakers<\/a>, as he has done for the past several sessions. But while the House of Representatives last year passed a bill to legalize cannabis with sales in state-run stores, the Republican-controlled Senate has so far not advanced any plan to end prohibition.<\/p>\n \u201cPoll after poll demonstrates overwhelming bipartisan support\u201d for the reform, the Pittsburgh resolution says, calling on state lawmakers to \u201cact with urgency and pass comprehensive adult-use cannabis legalization during the 2026 legislative session.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMeaningful cannabis reform must prioritize decriminalization, social equity, expungement of prior cannabis-related offenses, expanded patient and veteran access, and inclusive economic opportunity for small businesses, workers, and communities historically harmed by prohibition,\u201d the resolution sponsored by Councilmember Barb Warwick (D) says<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as Pennsylvania\u2019s governor promotes his latest call for marijuana legalization in the Keystone State, a coalition of drug policy and civil liberties organizations are urging him to play a leadership role in convening legislative leaders to get the job done this session<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a letter led by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and sent to the governor earlier this month, the coalition noted that legalization has consistently made it into Shapiro\u2019s budget requests, \u201creflecting both sound fiscal policy and the clear will of the people of the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis competitive disadvantage grows more pronounced with each year of inaction,\u201d the letter, which was also signed by groups including the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Doctors for Drug Policy Reform, Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), said.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania House Democratic lawmakers have separately\u00a0called on the GOP-controlled Senate to come to the table and pass a bill to legalize marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a press conference this month, three Democratic members of the House who have championed adult-use legalization stressed the need to move on reform, laying blame for inaction on the Senate where even supporters of the policy change have so far been unable to deliver on the issue.<\/p>\n Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Dan Frankel (D), who sponsored a bill to\u00a0legalize with state-run shops that advanced through the House last year<\/a>, said they understand that the novel regulatory approach they envisioned may be \u201ccontroversial\u201d to some members, but that\u2019s all the more reason for the Senate to bring their own ideas to the conversation to finally enact the reform.<\/p>\n House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D) said in December that\u00a0legalizing marijuana is one way to create a \u201cvery important\u201d revenue source for the state<\/a>\u2014and that it\u2019s an achievable reform if only legislators could find \u201cthe will to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bipartisan Pennsylvania lawmakers who\u2019ve been working to enact adult-use legalization over recent sessions without success so far have also recently said that\u00a0President Donald Trump\u2019s federal marijuana rescheduling order could grease the wheels<\/a>\u00a0in 2026.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, another top GOP senator\u2014Sen. Scott Martin (R), chair of the chamber\u2019s Appropriations Committee\u2014said in December that\u00a0he was skeptical about the prospects of enacting legalization in the 2026 session<\/a>, in part because of the federal classification of cannabis that\u2019s now expected to change. Of course, marijuana would still be federally illegal under Schedule III, so it\u2019s unclear if a simple loosening of the law would move the needle enough from his perspective.<\/p>\n \u2014 A top aide to Pennsylvania\u2019s governor said in September that\u00a0lawmakers should stop introducing new competing legalization bills<\/a>\u00a0and instead focus on building consensus on the issue\u2014while emphasizing that any measure that advances needs to contain equity provisions if the governor is going to sign it into law.<\/p>\n Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), for his part, said in August that the House \u201cneeds to\u00a0pass the language in my bill and send it to my committee<\/a>\u201d after which point he \u201ccan negotiate with the Senate and the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n The senator separately said recently that supporters are\u00a0\u201cpicking up votes\u201d to enact the reform this session<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, bipartisan Pennsylvania senators in October introduced a bill that would\u00a0allow terminally ill patients to use of medical marijuana in hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, the leading Republican candidate in the race to become the next governor of Pennsylvania\u00a0dodged a question about her stance on legalizing marijuana<\/a>\u2014saying she doesn\u2019t have a \u201cpolicy position\u201d on the issue and arguing that the sitting governor\u2019s proposal for reform \u201cway, way overstated\u201d potential revenue.<\/p>\n The candidate, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity (R), pointed to neighboring Ohio, which launched its own adult-use cannabis market this year, saying \u201cthey generated about $115 million in revenue.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0And while the populations of both states are relatively comparable, Shapiro\u2019s budget\u00a0projected $536.5 million in cannabis revenue in the first fiscal year<\/a>\u00a0of implementation.<\/p>\n She did, however, say that if Pennsylvania moves forward on enacting the reform, she\u2019ll \u201cmake sure that it\u2019s banked appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania Democratic senator recently said that federal marijuana rescheduling\u00a0would be \u201cvery influential\u201d in advancing legalization in his state<\/a>, giving \u201cpolitical cover\u201d to GOP members on the fence about reform.<\/p>\n Polls have shown bipartisan support for legalization among voters, but the reform has consistently stalled in the legislature, due largely to GOP opposition. But not all Republican members are against the policy change\u2014and one recently said she felt her party should\u00a0seize the \u201copportunity to snatch\u201d the issue from Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Max Jackson.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Pennsylvania Lawmakers Should Legalize Marijuana This Year, Pittsburgh City Council Resolution Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Local officials in Pennsylvania\u2019s second most populous city are calling on state lawmakers and the governor to urgently agree on a plan to legalize marijuana this year. The Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution noting that despite legalization being enacted in surrounding states and the Trump administration\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201dContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":85443,"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\/85442"}],"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\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85444,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85442\/revisions\/85444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania Lawmakers Should Legalize Marijuana This Year, Pittsburgh City Council Resolution Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"