Pennsylvania House Is Ready To ‘Move Forward’ With Marijuana Legalization In 2025, Top Democrat Says

Following last week’s election in which Democrats retained control of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D) says there’s a “will in the House to move forward” on marijuana legalization in the next session, though he noted that the push could run into opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate.

“That’s a new area that the Senate will likely be having to deal with in the very near future,” he told a reporter from Spotlight PA.

The group Responsible PA, which supports adult-use legalization in Pennsylvania, cheered the Democrats’ clinching of the House last week, when the final race was called showing that Rep. Frank Burns (D) had beat Republican challenger Amy Bradly.

“Responsible PA applauds the election of a supportive adult-use cannabis majority in the Pennsylvania House,” spokesperson Brit Crampsie said in a statement. “As we move past this week’s national election, the nation is now looking at Pennsylvania to be the next large state to legalize adult-use cannabis.”

“As this chamber moved so close to bi-partisian cannabis legalization at the end of the 2024 session, we are hopeful to see the legislature double-down on their efforts in January to get Pennsylvania on track with 90% of our neighbors with an adult-use cannabis market,” the statement continued. “The conversation will also undoubtedly become a major budget item for PA lawmakers heading into 2025.”

Talked with House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) this afternoon. He said that there is “will in the House to move forward” on marijuana legalization next session. “That is a new area that the Senate will be likely having to deal with in the very near future.”

— Stephen Caruso (@StephenJ_Caruso) November 8, 2024

Polling suggests bipartisan support among voters for marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania, including in at least two jurisdictions where races were tight between House candidates of opposite parties.

In House District 44, for example, 67 percent of voters said they support adult-use cannabis legalization, while in House District 18, 68 percent of voters said they were in favor of the reform. And while most voters said a candidate’s position on legalization wouldn’t on its own affect their decision at the polls, about one-third of those in HD 44 (32 percent) and 34 percent of voters in HD 18 said they’d be more likely to back a candidate who supports allowing regulated access to marijuana.

In each of the two districts, the Republican incumbent ended up winning re-election.

When that polling was released last month, Responsible PA said the results underscored that “it’s time for action on cannabis legalization.”

“The polls consistently show voters want full cannabis legalization now. We know support for the issue crosses party lines and regions,” spokesperson Crampsie said at the time. “Voters across the political spectrum favor regulated cannabis for its economic benefits and potential to advance criminal justice reform.”

“The message from voters is clear: it’s time for action on cannabis legalization,” she added. “As lawmakers stare down re-election campaigns and a dwindling budget surplus, it has never been a better time to adopt a popular, fiscally responsible program.”

@ResPACannabis Responds to PA House Retaining 1-Seat Majority, Maintaining Democratic Control #LegalizePA pic.twitter.com/2KMX51ihhJ

— ResponsiblePA (@ResPaCannabis) November 8, 2024

Responsible PA commissioned a separate poll a month earlier that similarly found that a majority of voters in five other key tossup districts supported ending prohibition.

There’s already been at least some movement suggesting another legalization push in the session ahead.

In September, bipartisan Reps. Aaron Kaufer (R) and Emily Kinkead (D) formally introduced a bipartisan marijuana legalization bill, alongside 15 other cosponsors.

And in July, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) 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.

Meanwhile, a top GOP Pennsylvania senator who has long expressed concerns about marijuana legalization told advocates recently that she’s against arresting people over cannabis, noting that the policy change could protect her son and disclosing that if it weren’t for marijuana, she might not have met her husband, according to an activist who spoke with her.

As Pennsylvania’s legislature reconvenes amid rising pressure to enact legalization, advocates view the comments from Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R) as a positive sign that the dam on cannabis reform measures might be weakening in the commonwealth.

As for medical marijuana, the governor last month 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 last month.

Separately, at a Black Cannabis Week event hosted recently by the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities (DACO), Sen. Sharif Street (D) 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.

At a press briefing in July, the chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus seemed to temper expectations about the potential timeline of passing legalization legislation, pointing out that the rest of the session will likely be too politically charged heading into the November election to get the job done this year. Then late last month, Shapiro gave it final approval.

Other lawmakers have emphasized the urgency of legalizing as soon as possible given regional dynamics, while signaling that legislators are close to aligning House and Senate proposals.

New data has also underscored the urgency of enacting cannabis reform, revealing that more than 12,000 people were arrested for cannabis possession in the Keystone state last year.

Meanwhile, a report commissioned by activists projected that Pennsylvania would see up to $2.8 billion in adult-use marijuana sales in the first year of implementing legalization, generate as much as $720 million in tax revenue and create upwards of 45,000 jobs.

Street and Dan Laughlin (R) also participated in an X Spaces event in June where they said the votes are there to pass a marijuana legalization bill as soon as this year, though they stressed that the governor needs to work across the aisle to get the job done—and argued that it would be helpful if the federal government implemented its proposed cannabis rescheduling rule sooner rather than later.

Street was also among advocates and lawmakers who participated in a cannabis rally at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in June, where there was a significant emphasis on the need to incorporate social equity provisions as they move to advance legalization.

Laughlin, for his part, also said an event in 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.”

Warren County, Pennsylvania District Attorney Robert Greene, a registered medical cannabis patient in the state, filed a lawsuit in federal court in January seeking to overturn a ban preventing medical marijuana patients from buying and possessing firearms.

Two Pennsylvania House panels held a joint hearing to discuss marijuana legalization in April, with multiple lawmakers asking the state’s top liquor regulator about the prospect of having that agency run cannabis shops.

Also in April, members of the House Health Committee had a conversation centered on social justice and equity considerations for reform.

At a prior meeting in March, members focused on criminal justice implications of prohibition and the potential benefits of reform.

At another hearing in February, members looked at the industry perspective, with multiple stakeholders from cannabis growing, dispensing and testing businesses, as well as clinical registrants, testifying.

At the subcommittee’s previous cannabis meeting in December, members heard testimony and asked questions about various elements of marijuana oversight, including promoting social equity and business opportunities, laboratory testing and public versus private operation of a state-legal cannabis industry.

And during the panel’s first meeting late last year, Frankel said that state-run stores are “certainly an option” he’s considering for Pennsylvania, similar to what New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) recommended for that state last year, though a state commission later shied away from that plan.

Last year, Shapiro signed a bill to allow all licensed medical marijuana grower-processors in the state to sell their cannabis products directly to patients.

Shapiro also recently signed legislation to provide a state-level partial workaround to the federal 280E tax penalty on cannabis businesses.

Separately, Pennsylvania’s prior governor separately signed a bill into law in July 2022 that included provisions to protect banks and insurers in the state that work with licensed medical marijuana businesses.

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