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A new poll shows that Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization\u2014and that the largest share put the blame on Republican lawmakers for the fact that the state has not yet enacted the reform.<\/p>\n
The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling this month, found that three out of four voters favor legalizing recreational cannabis. When asked whether \u201cadults over 21 should have places to purchase non-medical cannabis products that are legal, and strictly regulated,\u201d 55 percent said they strongly agree and 20 percent somewhat agree.<\/p>\n
Only 16 percent strongly disagree and 7 percent somewhat disagree, with another 3 percent saying they are unsure.<\/p>\n
When asked in a separate question whether Pennsylvania should keep the illicit market status quo, or if the state should legalize, regulate and tax non-medical use of cannabis by adults, 68 percent favored reform while just 14 percent said the laws should remain the same.<\/p>\n
The poll also informed voters that:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past 4 years the Pennsylvania Senate has had a bipartisan bill that would legalize and regulate the sale of adult use cannabis products.\u202f A similar bipartisan measure has been introduced in the House.\u202fIn that same time period, the last two Governors have endorsed the passage of adult use cannabis legislation, yet it has yet to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho do you believe is the biggest obstacle when it comes to passing adult use cannabis legislation: the Governor, Democrats in the State Legislature, or Republicans in the State Legislature?\u201d it asked.<\/p>\n
Forty percent of respondents blamed GOP lawmakers, 12 percent blamed Democrats and 9 percent said the governor was to blame for the lack of progress.<\/p>\n
The poll results come as a Republican senator is blaming the state\u2019s Democratic governor for the defeat<\/a> this month of his bill to create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state\u2019s medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products<\/a> and that could also one day oversee recreational cannabis if it is legalized.<\/p>\n Most GOP senators in the Republican-controlled chamber voted for the legislation from Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), and all but two Democrats opposed it\u2014with even some lawmakers who signed onto the measure as cosponsors ultimately voting against it.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) \u201cobviously weighed in on the Democratic side of the aisle and asked for a \u2018no\u2019 vote over there, successfully,\u201d Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) said after the vote. \u201cI knew it was a risk putting it up for a vote, because there were some discussions going back and forth\u2026 I had a little bit of a heads-up, but we chose to roll forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s office confirmed in a statement that he opposes the bill as drafted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Shapiro Administration remains supportive of comprehensive cannabis regulation, which would enable a competitive, revenue-generating adult-use market, protect patient access to the current Medical Marijuana Program and rein in hemp-based intoxicant products that are currently unregulated,\u201d Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for the governor, said. \u201cSenate Bill 49 does not substantively advance those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n The now-defeated 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 Moments after the bill\u2019s defeat on the Senate floor, the chamber adopted a motion to reconsider\u2014but it\u2019s not yet clear when or if the legislation will get another vote.<\/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\u2019s 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 To the end, the new Pennsylvania poll also asked about the availability of intoxicating cannabinoid products, with 84 percent either strongly or somewhat agreeing that the state should enact a law to prevent their sales to minors and 85 percent favoring sales only at \u201cstrictly regulated, age-restricted storefronts.\u201d<\/p>\n The new survey involved interviews with 589 Pennsylvania voters on June 16 and 17.<\/p>\n Laughlin, who is also sponsoring bipartisan legislation to legalize adult-use marijuana<\/a> previewed the now-defeated regulatory measure last year, saying 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 wrote that 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>, came shortly after the House of Representatives passed a bill to allow 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 Shapiro 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 Meanwhile, Shapiro 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 Read the full Pennsylvania marijuana poll<\/a> results below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The post Pennsylvania Voters Strongly Support Legalizing Marijuana\u2014And They Blame Republicans For Blocking Progress, New Poll Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new poll shows that Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization\u2014and that the largest share put the blame on Republican lawmakers for the fact that the state has not yet enacted the reform. The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling this month, found that three out of four voters favorContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":86193,"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\/86192"}],"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=86192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86194,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86192\/revisions\/86194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania Voters Strongly Support Legalizing Marijuana\u2014And They Blame Republicans For Blocking Progress, New Poll Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"