The Pennsylvania House advanced a bill legalizing recreational marijuana. What happens next?
Pennsylvania took a step toward legalizing recreational marijuana.
On Wednesday, Democrats in the state House voted unanimously to advance a bill legalizing recreational marijuana for Pennsylvanians 21 or older over unified opposition from Republicans.
Pennsylvania medical marijuana bill
According to a Democratic sponsor of the bill, it has the potential to bring in $600 million in state revenue.
For some Republicans, the method of bringing that money in is not negotiable. It's similar to the state store model, and they don't want to do that.
"The toothpaste is already out of the tube," Democratic state Rep. Dan Frankel said.
Frankel said a state store model was viewed as the best option, and there is proven success with the model in places like Quebec, Canada.
He said the longer the state waits, the longer illegal or quasi-legal markets cash in, adding there is no public health supervision of those markets.
"You go right next door, you'll see a sign on the street with a big marijuana leaf saying no medical card needed here. We need to regulate that. That's a public health hazard," Rep. Frankel said on Thursday.
Wednesday's bill passed along party lines, and Republicans hold control of the state Senate. The bill will first go to the Law and Justice Committee.
Republican state Sen. Devlin Robinson is on the committee. He said the process will slow down, as a complaint from the state House was that the bill was rushed through. Republicans feel they didn't get a good chance to read the full bill before voting.
"With something so important and so large coming to the state, we need a little bit more time," Robinson said.
While he is not as open to legalization, he says other Republicans, including the committee's chair, are open to legalization.
If there is any advancement of the bill, it will be with significant changes, some of which include creating an alternative to the current one, which creates separate state stores to sell marijuana from the current wine and liquor state stores.
"We are going to have to build stores across the entire Commonwealth. So, that takes a lot of money," Sen. Robinson.
Rep. Frankel said he expects changes but hopes conversations can continue between the state House and state Senate to ultimately come up with an agreement.
"What is your idea? Send us something," Rep. Frankel said.
Governor Josh Shapiro has been a proponent of legalizing marijuana and pushed to get the General Assembly to pass legislation as part of his budget proposal.
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