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The Pennsylvania Senate has rejected a bill to create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB)<\/a> to oversee the state\u2019s medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products\u2014though lawmakers made an immediate motion to revive the proposal. The body contemplated under the legislation could also one day oversee recreational cannabis if it is legalized in the state.<\/p>\n The measure from Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), which would also recriminalize many hemp THC products, was defeated in a 27-23 vote on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter, however, a motion to reconsider the proposal was approved in a vote of 29-21. It\u2019s not yet clear when the body will take the bill back up.<\/p>\n \u201cThis legislation is about protecting Pennsylvania families, consumers, patients and, most importantly, our children,\u201d Laughlin said ahead of the initial vote. \u201cToday, intoxicating hemp products are sold throughout every corner of Pennsylvania, in every Senate district, with zero oversight. These dangerous and psychoactive products can be found in convenience stores, smoke shops, gas stations and online marketplaces with no testing standards, no labeling, or safeguards to prevent access by children.\u201d<\/p>\n The senator argued that creation of a new CCB is \u201cnecessary\u201d because management of the medical cannabis program by the Department of Health \u201chas too often been marked by inconsistency and delay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe department has allowed Pennsylvania\u2019s medical marijuana program to drift further and further from its original purpose,\u201d he said, citing \u201clax oversight and ever-expanding interpretation of qualifying conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe program has increasingly operated as a de facto tax-free adult use market without the transparency, accountability or statutory framework,\u201d Laughlin said. \u201cBusinesses and patients have experienced slow approvals, conflicting guidance, years-long delay in remediation reviews, uncertainty regarding workplace policies and regulatory decisions that have ultimately been overturned by the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese inconsistencies undermine confidence in the system and distract from what should be our primary mission: serving and protecting our patients. A dedicated Cannabis Control Board will provide focused expertise, consistent enforcement and transparent decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Sharif Street (D), who has partnered with Laughlin on separate legislation to legalize recreational marijuana,\u00a0said \u201cwe should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy colleague has outlined many really good things that are addressed in this bill. Are there other things that are not sure? Are there other things that we could be doing in the space of cannabis? Absolutely,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean that today this legislation isn\u2019t worthy of a positive vote\u2026 Should we pass it today, it would go to the House and there will be opportunity for additional work to be done in the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Jay Costa (D), the minority floor leader, however, urged colleagues to oppose the legislation.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s inaction leaves communities vulnerable and sends the wrong message. Parents, educators, and law enforcement need real tools to confront this escalating public health issue. I won’t quit working to protect Pennsylvania families.<\/p>\n Full Release: https:\/\/t.co\/aFrFmJROtP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/fw0zKekmhL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Senator Dan Laughlin (@senatorlaughlin) June 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The Law & Justice Committee, which is chaired by the bill\u2019s sponsor, had taken up and amended the measure several times this session before it came to the floor. The body\u2019s Appropriations and Rules & Executive Nominations Committees also signed off on the legislation this week ahead of its consideration by the full chamber.<\/p>\n In its current form, the measure, would transfer regulatory authority for the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program from the Department of Health to a new seven-member CCB.<\/p>\n The governor would appoint three members\u2014one with law enforcement experience, another with expertise in dealing with addiction and a third with experience in \u201ccannabis matters.\u201d The Senate president pro tempore, Senate minority leader, House speaker and House minority leader would also each get to make one appointment.<\/p>\n The body would oversee cannabis permits, enforcement, seed-to-sale tracking, advertising, labeling, testing and other aspects of the legal industry.<\/p>\n The legislation would also significantly restrict most hemp THC products<\/a>, aligning the state with a new federal policy that is set to take effect later this year recriminalizing preparations with total THC content of more than 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis or more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container.<\/p>\n The bill would also create new types of medical cannabis permits for warehousing\/distribution and third-party transporters, and would require regulars to issue an additional permit to an independent grower\/processor.<\/p>\n It would additionally add a new requirement for dispensaries to have a physician, pharmacist, physician assistant or certified nurse practitioner available at all times during hours of operation.<\/p>\n A new Cannabis Regulation Fund would be established, supported by fees from the program. Forty percent of revenue would fund CCB\u2019s operations, 15 percent would help patients pay for medical marijuana, 10 percent would support drug misuse prevention and treatment, 10 percent would go to local police departments and the remainder would go into the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n Laughlin, who is also sponsoring bipartisan legislation to legalize adult-use marijuana<\/a> previewed the regulatory measure last year, writing that Pennsylvania should take initial steps to make sure the state is \u201cready to act when legalization becomes law\u201d<\/a> by establishing a CCB now.<\/p>\n In a cosponsorship memo, Laughlin said his bill would \u201ctransfer regulatory control of the Medical Marijuana Program to the CCB, ensuring continuity, efficiency, and improved oversight of medical cannabis businesses and patient access.\u201d It would further \u201cestablish uniform safety standards to protect consumers from untested and potentially harmful products.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill text itself would not enact recreational marijuana legalization on its own. But the description indicates that the sponsor feels the current regulatory regime under the Pennsylvania Department of Health should be replaced with a more targeted agency that would ostensibly be suited to oversee an adult-use market if lawmakers move to end prohibition.<\/p>\n \u201cBy consolidating oversight under a single regulatory board, we can eliminate inconsistencies, enhance transparency, and provide the structure needed to responsibly manage this industry,\u201d the memo says.<\/p>\n The action on the cannabis regulatory bill, SB 49<\/a>, comes shortly after the House of Representatives passed a bill to\u00a0allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals<\/a>\u00a0and other healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n \u2014 It also comes as lawmakers in Pennsylvania continue to consider broader recreational marijuana legalization<\/a>\u2014a reform that a state senator recently said will be easier to achieve now that the Trump administration has rescheduled cannabis at the federal level.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill last year to end prohibition, but the Republican-controlled Senate has not followed suit.<\/p>\n Republican gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity, who is running against Shapiro, recently\u00a0pledged to veto a marijuana legalization bill<\/a>\u00a0if lawmakers ever sent one to her desk\u2014though she added that she doesn\u2019t think the reform stands a chance of making it that far in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t support legalizing recreational marijuana,\u201d she said. \u201cRecreational marijuana will not end up in the budget. They\u2019re never going to pass it\u2026not as long as Senate Republicans are in control of the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n Her running mate for lieutenant governor, Jason Richey, claimed that\u00a0legalizing marijuana would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for the state<\/a>, arguing it would increase the size of the illegal market, undermine job creation and harm public health.<\/p>\n A spokesperson in the governor\u2019s office said the Trump administration\u2019s federal marijuana rescheduling move is an\u00a0\u201cimportant step\u201d that \u201cadds support\u201d to his push to legalize cannabis in the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0governor also used this year\u2019s unofficial cannabis holiday 4\/20<\/a>\u00a0as an opportunity to press lawmakers once again to send him a bill to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvanians who want to buy recreational marijuana are already driving across the border to one of our neighboring states who\u2019ve legalized it,\u201d Shapiro said in a social media post that day. \u201cThat\u2019s hundreds of millions in revenue going out of state instead of being spent here in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed budget legislation proposed by Shapiro that\u00a0relies on revenue that would be generated from recreational marijuana sales<\/a>, which has yet to be legalized in the state.<\/p>\n The governor earlier this year, as he has in past years,\u00a0included cannabis legalization and the resulting expected revenue in his budget request<\/a>. The $53.2 billion budget legislation, which doesn\u2019t itself include provisions to actually legalize marijuana even as it contemplates allocating money that would result from it, now heads to the Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n The House of Representatives last year passed a\u00a0bill to legalize marijuana and put sales in state-owned dispensaries<\/a>, but the Republican Senate majority has criticized that plan while also\u00a0not advancing a cannabis legalization model of its own<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately this session, lawmakers have advanced a bill to\u00a0allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals<\/a>\u00a0and other healthcare facilities<\/p>\n The legislative developments come as a recent\u00a0poll shows that seven out of ten Pennsylvania likely voters support legalizing adult-use marijuana<\/a>\u2014including majority backing for the reform across party lines.<\/p>\n When asked whether they \u201csupport or oppose the regulation and taxation of legal cannabis for use by adults 21 and older in Pennsylvania,\u201d 69 percent of respondents said yes. Support was strongest from Democrats, at 72 percent, but also includes 67 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0Shapiro is continuing to pressure on lawmakers to send him a bill to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state, saying that doing so would generate new revenue that could be invested in key programs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile some in Harrisburg claim we can\u2019t afford to make bigger investments in our kids, public safety, and our economy, know this: If we legalized and regulated adult-use cannabis, we\u2019d bring in $1.3 BILLION in revenue for our Commonwealth over the first five years,\u201d the governor said in another recent social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are dollars that can be invested back into our people and our communities,\u201d he said. \u201cStop with the excuses. Let\u2019s get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) reported in February that\u00a0legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania would generate nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue<\/a>\u00a0by 2028, an estimate that is a significantly larger cash windfall compared to projections from Shapiro\u2019s own office.<\/p>\n With a proposed 20 percent wholesale cannabis excise tax, 6 percent state sales tax for retail and licensing fees, IFO said the governor\u2019s legalization plan would generate $140 million in tax revenue in the first year of implementation from 2027-2028 and increase to $432 million by 2030-2031.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a much higher revenue estimate than\u00a0what the governor\u2019s office put forward in the latest executive budget. According to his office\u2019s analysis, legalization would generate about $36.9 million in tax dollars in its first year from a 20 percent wholesale tax on marijuana\u2014rising gradually to $223.8 million by 2030-2031.<\/p>\n In February, a coalition of drug policy and civil liberties organizations urged Shapiro to play a leadership role in\u00a0convening legislative leaders to get the job done on cannabis legalization this session<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Pennsylvania Senate Rejects Bill To Regulate Marijuana And Restrict Hemp THC Products, But It May Be Revived<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Senate has rejected a bill to create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state\u2019s medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products\u2014though lawmakers made an immediate motion to revive the proposal. The body contemplated under the legislation could also one day oversee recreational cannabis if itContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":86115,"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\/86114"}],"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=86114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86116,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86114\/revisions\/86116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania Senate Rejects Bill To Regulate Marijuana And Restrict Hemp THC Products, But It May Be Revived<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"