A bipartisan pair of representatives announced plans to introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania. The bill is largely similar to a bipartisan Senate bill that has been stalled since its introduction almost a year ago.
“Smoking marijuana should not be a crime,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne). “We need to prioritize law enforcement resources and redefine a narrative that is not working in today’s society.”
The over-200 page bill, according to Kaufer (R-Luzerne) and co-sponsor Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny), addresses many concerns raised by both advocates and opponents of marijuana legalization. Those include public safety; consumer protection; social equity and criminal justice reform; job creation; tax revenue growth and eradication of the illicit marijuana market.
At a press conference announcing the bill, Kaufer estimated that legal marijuana sales could generate $420 million in tax revenue by the 2028-29 fiscal year. (Yes, he made the obligatory joke). That number appears to come from a report published by the state’s Independent Fiscal Office in March.
Kaufer further estimated legalization could create around 33,000 jobs — from farming the plant to marketing and selling it.
Any legalization bill would have to have the support of legislative leadership in the House and Senate if it were to pass. Currently, it’s unclear whether those party leaders have an appetite for such a bill. Still, legalization advocates see the current moment as their ripest opportunity yet.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has repeatedly expressed support for legalizing marijuana; the federal justice department has recommended officially reclassifying the substance to indicate it’s less dangerous than current law would suppose; and now, bipartisan bills have been introduced in both chambers of the general assembly.
“Today marks an important milestone,” Meredith Buettner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis coalition, said at a press conference announcing the bill’s introduction. “The momentum has been building and the calls for bipartisan action now have reached a crescendo.”
The Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition is one of the state’s leading lobbying groups focused on legalization, representing a majority of existing medical dispensaries.
Speaking to the press, Kinkead highlighted the bill’s focus on ensuring social equity in the emergent marijuana market. A stated goal of the legislation is to help Pennsylvanians from communities most affected by the war on drugs get a foothold in the emergent cannabis industry.
A 2013 study frequently cited by legalization advocates found Black Americans are roughly four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis use than whites, despite similar use of the substance in both groups.
But despite best efforts, it’s unclear how successful that aim will be. Over the last year, a house subcommittee has heard from numerous experts and business leaders in states that have already legalized cannabis. Advocates, policy makers and business owners have detailed the difficulties states like New York and California have faced in their efforts to ensure equity in their respective legal marijuana marketplaces through legislation
In many cases, would-be minority business owners have struggled to get a foot in the door to find funding for startup businesses dealing in a substance with a disputed legal status, especially as they compete with growing national firms. This has been true in states where lawmakers made conscious efforts to address inequities in their legalization legislation.
Pa. House subcommittee explores adding equity component to potential cannabis legislation
“We should be learning from all the other states about the way to do this best, and the way to best capitalize it,” Kinkead said about legalization.
Kinkead said the bill would include a concept known as “equity status” for Pennsylvanians looking to open a cannabis business who have been disproportionately affected by existing cannabis laws. Applicants for business licenses who qualify for equity status would get both priority status and access to certain financial benefits, like the waiver of certain application fees.
With Kinkead’s bill, equity status would be granted to applicants with previous cannabis-related charges, applicants with low income, and applicants who have lived for at least five of the last 10 years in Pennsylvania neighborhoods with disproportionately high marijuana arrests.
The bill would also allow marijuana businesses that agree to provide financial and technical support, mentorship or training to people who would qualify for equity status, even if that business’s ownership doesn’t
The bill would create an automatic expungement process for Pennsylvanians with non-violent cannabis-related charges. It also contains a unique clause allowing Pennsylvanians serving time for any sort of conviction to apply for resentencing if they have prior marijuana-related charges. That’s because sentencing guidelines often take prior convictions into account.
“If you want to talk about a gateway drug, that, fundamentally, is how marijuana is a gateway drug,” Kinkead said. “It is a gateway to criminalization.”
The bill would also send 5% of all tax revenue collected from taxes on marijuana sales to funding public defenders. As it stands, the state provided its first ever funding for indigent defense just this year — $7.5 million.
Northumberland County District Attorney Michael O’Donnell also expressed his support for legalizing cannabis at the press conference.
“The continued illegalization of marijuana sends the wrong message,” O’Donnell said. “You can not have something so commonly accepted by the public be illegal under the law. The result of this has become that it’s acceptable to break the law.”
Kaufer couldn’t say whether such a bill could pass, or when, but he was optimistic.
“Our goal is to get this done as soon as possible,” Kaufer said when asked about the legislation’s timeline. “We’ve been working diligently to try to get something done that could pass today.”
Still, he acknowledged that there are challenges.
“We’ve got a Democrat-led House, a Republican-led Senate and Democrat governor,” Kaufer said. “Trying to thread that needle and work together to find an area of compromise … that has been the effort to try to get something done.”
