Pennsylvania legislator says that he is confident marijuana legislation will be passed as soon as this summer. The policy shift, he said, was “inevitable”, as Pennsylvania has been “bleeding revenue” out to other states.
Rep. Dan Frankel spoke with KDKA on Tuesday about cannabis reform. Frankel is the chair of the House Health Committee.
In order to “address that policy discrepancy, support criminal-justice reform and raise revenues,” the legislator announced he “will be putting out a proposition” for legalization in the “next few weeks.”
Frankel stated that there are many reasons for the legalization of marijuana. He added that it is possible that the legislative body could pass a bill to that effect as part of a budget reconciliation that has to be completed by June 30.
The budget has to be approved by 30 June. This is a major revenue component. He said, “I believe that this could be part the conversation.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) latest budget request included another legalization proposal. He has also stated that reform could be implemented within this timeframe. There are questions as to which cannabis laws could gain the needed consensus.
Frankel said that Sen. Dan Laughlin, a Republican senator from the state of Texas, has filed a bill in support of adult use marijuana. However he added that it was “not a particular version I would necessarily endorse.”
“But at least there seems to be some bipartisan support for doing something here, and I think there’s recognition—whether you don’t like the idea of having legal weed in our communities, the fact is that it’s here,” he said. “It is not legal. This is not regulated. It’s not regulated. The products are not tested. These safe stores in our local communities sell THC synthetic products which are unregulated. So there is a safety element here.
“I think there is a recognition that we are literally surrounded by every state around us that has legal weed, so we’re bleeding out revenue from the state to other states that are benefiting from their legalization of adult-use cannabis—and we’re losing revenue as well as sustaining an illicit market that provides products that are not tested and are not necessarily safe,” Frankel continued. There’s an incredibly compelling reason for this.”
It’s inevitable that Pennsylvania will legalize marijuana. It’s a question of when. I think that the moment is now.
“It’s a source of significant revenue—and just so many reasons it’s so compelling that I think ultimately we’ll get there, and I’m very hopeful that that’ll happen in this session of the legislature. The bill will be sent to the Senate probably before the end of June. We hope that it will begin a conversation and negotiations so that everyone is able to support the final product.
The lawmaker—who has previously proposed a state-run marijuana regulatory framework—said a chief concern he wants to address is “making sure that we have a criminal justice portion” to ensure that people who’ve been criminalized over cannabis can have those records expunged.
“You would like the community members who were targeted by the criminal system and have suffered as a result to get benefited from it,” said he.
He also said, “we’d like to see a significant amount of revenue generated by the Commonwealth for both those communities and themselves.”
Frankel and Rep. Rick Krajewski (D) first announced in December that they planned to file adult-use legalization legislation, emphasizing that there’s a “moral obligation” to repair harms of criminalization while also raising revenue as neighboring state markets mature.
On Monday, Pennsylvania House passed a bill that was sponsored by Frankel and aimed to improve safety standards for the medical marijuana program in the state, as legislators work towards adult use legalization.
Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program has been in place for nearly 10 years. However, legislators say that the new bill, now headed to the Senate to be voted on, will improve compliance with testing, audits of products, and laboratory inspections amongst other industry aspects.
In a separate video released Monday, Governor Pataki said that his state was “losing” out to other states that had already legalized adult use, and that he maintained a policy which enriched the illegal market.
I think this is a matter of liberty and freedom. He said that if people want to smoke they should have the option to do it in a way that is safe and legal. “We should shut down the black market—and, by the way, every state around us is doing it. Pennsylvanians drive to other states, and pay taxes there.
Pennsylvania’s Republican attorney general recently said he wants to be a “voice for potential public safety risks” of enacting the governor’s proposal—though he said his office would be ready to enforce the new law if lawmakers did vote to pass it.
The state’s agriculture secretary separately told lawmakers that he’s fully confident that his department is in a “really good” position to oversee an adult-use marijuana program if lawmakers act.
Meanwhile, last month, top Pennsylvania police and health officials told lawmakers they are prepared to implement marijuana legalization if the legislature moves forward with the reform—and that they stand ready to work together as the details of legislation to achieve it are crafted.
Separately, amid the growing calls for marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania, a GOP state senator said prohibition has been a “disaster,” and a regulated sales model for cannabis—similar to how alcohol and tobacco are handled—could serve as an effective alternative.
Voters are ready to see that policy change, according to a poll released last month.
The survey, commissioned by the advocacy group ResponsiblePA, found that nearly 7 in 10 voters in the state support the reform—including a majority of Republicans. And 63 per cent want the state legislature to enact this reform rather than delay it.
A Republican Pennsylvania senator also recently defended the push to legalize and regulate marijuana, calling it “the most conservative stance” on the issue.
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While Shapiro once again included a proposal to enact cannabis legalization in his latest budget request, there’s been mixed feedback from legislators—some of whom want to see the governor more proactively come to the table to discuss possible pathways for reform and others skeptical about the possibility of advancing the issue this session.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin (R), for example, said last month that he doesn’t “see any path whatsoever” to enacting legalization in line with the governor’s plan.
The state secretary of the Department of Revenue also predicted that Shapiro’s proposal would be approved during this budget cycle. He indicated that the reform could begin within months.
House Majority leader Matt Bradford (D) said, meanwhile, following the Governor’s Budget Speech that there is “real diversity of opinion among our members.” This was likely in reference to split opinions on regulatory models. Some lawmakers are pushing for a cannabis state program.
He also said recently that he feels the time is ripe to advance marijuana reform this session, saying “it strikes me as abdicating our responsibility to protect our communities and our children, and at the same time, we are losing revenue that is going to go into our neighboring states.”
Key lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the governor’s ability to see through the cannabis reform he’s proposing, however.
The governor must take the lead in something. Kim Ward, Senate Pro Tempore (R), said that if he wanted something to be done, then he needed to take the lead. “He can’t throw an idea out there—which he did last year—and say, ‘Let the legislature figure it out. It’s mine to sign. “Then I will go to all the states and do press conferences.”
House Minority Leader was asked about marijuana and other budgetary proposals by the Governor. And he said while he’s “not going to speak for the governor,” there’s “one person that has the ability to bring those deals together—and that is the governor.”
He referenced recent remarks from Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) who said there are logistical challenges to advancing legalization that he’s unsure lawmakers will be able to overcome.
The feedback from GOP lawmakers is reminiscent of earlier criticism from the caucus about the governor, who they’ve claimed has made the call for reform without meaningfully engaging with the legislature about how to get it done.
He said that he expects to introduce legislation in this year to make Pennsylvania one of 25 states to have legalized adult-use cannabis. He also thinks that more of his GOP colleagues could get on board with the reform soon than have in the past.
The devil lies in the detail. While legalization activists and observers consider Pennsylvania to be one of the more likely states this year to pass an recreational marijuana law, there are still many details that need attention. One lawmaker has floated a relatively simple bill to decriminalize personal possession, while two others plan to introduce more sweeping legislation that would legalize through a state-run system of stores.
Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) last spring introduced a bill meant to remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms. Although the bill never moved forward, the legislator said recently that political support has grown for marijuana legalization.
The senator said an event last May that the state is “getting close” to legalizing marijuana, but the job will only get done if House and Senate leaders sit down with the governor and “work it out.”
A separate decriminalization measure, meanwhile, from Pennsylvania Rep. Danilo Burgos (D), would make simple possession of cannabis a summary offense punishable by a $100 fine without the threat of jail time. Low-level possession of cannabis is currently a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 day in prison, or a maximum fine of $500.
Additionally, in September, bipartisan Reps. Aaron Kaufer (R) and Kinkead formally introduced a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill, alongside 15 other cosponsors.
In July, the governor said his administration and lawmakers would “come back and continue to fight” for marijuana legalization and other policy priorities that were omitted from budget legislation he signed into law that month.
As for medical marijuana, the governor in October signed a bill to correct an omission in a law that unintentionally excluded dispensaries from state-level tax relief for the medical marijuana industry.
About three months after the legislature approved the underlying budget bill that Shapiro signed containing tax reform provisions as a partial workaround to a federal ban on tax deductions for cannabis businesses, the Pennsylvania legislature passed corrective legislation.
Separately, at a Black Cannabis Week event hosted recently by the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) in October, Street and Reps. Chris Rabb (D), Amen Brown (D), Darisha Parker (D) and Napoleon Nelson (D) joined activists to discuss their legislative priorities and motivations behind advancing legalization in the Keystone State.
Other lawmakers have also emphasized the urgency of legalizing as soon as possible given regional dynamics, while signaling that legislators are close to aligning House and Senate proposals.
As for cannabis and gun ownership, Laughlin had been looking at the issue for more than a year before introducing last year’s bill, writing last February to the state’s acting police commissioner to “strongly encourage” he review a federal ruling that the U.S. government’s ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana is unconstitutional.
In the years since, other federal court cases have challenged the constitutionality the federal gun ban. A federal judge in El Paso, for example, recently ruled that the ongoing ban on gun ownership by habitual marijuana users was unconstitutional in the case of a defendant who earlier pleaded guilty to the criminal charge. The man was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. He also had the charges filed against him dismissed.
New York Grants Program Opens To Those Who Have Been Criminalized.
Brian Shamblen provided the photo.
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