Pennsylvania Republican Readying Cannabis Legalization Bill

A Republican Pennsylvania state senator is circulating a memorandum seeking to add co-sponsors to a cannabis legalization bill, the Times Observer reports. Sen. Mike Regan, who helped write the state’s 2016 medical cannabis law said in a Broad and Liberty op-ed last week that cannabis legalization in the state “is inevitable.”

“As chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee and a former member of law enforcement, rather than sit idly by and allow others to shape the legislation, I am stepping up to be a leader on the issue, as I did on medical marijuana. And I am doing so using a common-sense, bipartisan, bicameral approach that will provide Pennsylvanians access to a safe product, create thousands of jobs, level the playing field with neighboring states, support law enforcement and our communities, and more importantly, defund the deadly drug cartels who have wreaked so much havoc on the commonwealth and our country for so many years.”—Regan, “Legalization of adult-use marijuana is inevitable,” Broad and Liberty, Oct. 5, 2021

Under Regan’s plan, cannabis-derived revenues would be used partially to benefit the Pennsylvania State Police and for infrastructure investment. The bill has not yet been formally introduced in the Senate.

Earlier this year state Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) and Democratic state Sen. Sharif Street, announced a joint plan to legalize cannabis for adults which would create a state-run system for cultivation and sales and expunge records for nonviolent cannabis-related offenses. That announcement made Laughlin one of the first Republicans in the state Legislature to support the reforms.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman—who is running for U.S. Senate—both strongly back cannabis legalization in the state.