Two Pennsylvania lawmakers have announced plans to file a new bill to legalize marijuana in the commonwealth to fulfill a “moral obligation” to repair harms of criminalization while also raising revenue.
With the state’s Democratic caucus emboldened after retaining the House in last month’s elections—and Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D) saying there’s a “will” in the chamber to “move forward” with cannabis reform—Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Rep. Dan Frankel (D) are now circulating a cosponsorship memo to build support for the forthcoming legislation.
“As a state that continues to criminalize recreational cannabis, Pennsylvania is now an outlier—24 states have legalized the practice, including 5 of the 6 states that border Pennsylvania,” the legislators, who led a series of hearings on cannabis reform over the past year, said.
“But legal or not, Pennsylvanians are consuming marijuana, whether by visiting our bordering states, buying unregulated hemp loophole products at gas stations and vape shops, or purchasing in the illicit market,” they said.
Notably, the memo doesn’t mention the prospect of a state-run cannabis market, which Frankel, who chairs the Health Committee, had previously floated as a possibility. Last year he said that the model is “certainly an option.”
“We have a
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