Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) used 4/20 Monday to press the legislature to legalize marijuana, citing residents crossing state lines to buy recreational cannabis in neighboring states and the resulting revenue loss.
"Pennsylvanians who want to buy recreational marijuana are already driving across the border to one of our neighboring states who've legalized it," Shapiro said. "That's hundreds of millions in revenue going out of state instead of being spent here in Pennsylvania."
Days earlier, the House passed Shapiro's $53.2 billion budget plan, which includes expected revenue from recreational marijuana sales even though cannabis remains illegal in the state. The budget now heads to the Senate.
On Monday, the House Majority Policy Committee held a hearing on cannabis "clean slate" issues, focusing on how conviction records impose collateral consequences on people's lives. Witnesses included representatives from the Last Prisoner Project, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, and Community Legal Services. Rep. Andre Carroll (D) noted that "States that seemingly have nothing else in common, like Mississippi and North Dakota, they have already decriminalized cannabis. Yet, Pennsylvania remains one of only 19 states in the country where possession of cannabis is criminal offense, and that carries potential jail time here in our commonwealth."
The Democratic-controlled House passed a bill last year to legalize marijuana through state-run dispensaries; the Republican-controlled Senate has neither embraced that plan nor advanced one of its own. House Democrats also launched an online petition Monday allowing residents to contact state senators on legalization.
The House Health Committee separately approved a bill allowing terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals. A new poll found 69 percent of Pennsylvania likely voters support legalizing adult-use cannabis—72 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans, and 64 percent of independents.
Shapiro has cited $1.3 billion in projected revenue over five years. The state's Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) estimated in February that legalization with a 20 percent wholesale excise tax and 6 percent state sales tax would generate $140 million in year one (2027–2028) and reach $432 million by 2030–2031—well above the governor's own estimates of $36.9 million in year one and $223.8 million by 2030–2031.
Last month, the Senate Law and Justice Committee amended and approved a bill to establish a Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state's medical marijuana program and intoxicating hemp products, with potential adult-use oversight if legalization passes.
