Cannabis legalization bill goes up in smoke following PA Senate Republican opposition

House Bill 1200 met its untimely demise less than a week after the Pennsylvania House passed its first adult-use cannabis bill. Senate Republicans oppose selling recreational cannabis in state-owned stores and shot the bill down in a committee vote.

Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate slammed on Tuesday the door shut on Pennsylvania House Democrats’ proposal to legalize adult-use cannabis for those over the age of 21. 

State Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie), a proponent of cannabis legalization, on Monday scheduled a Senate Law and Justice committee meeting for a Tuesday vote on House Bill 1200, which House Democrats passed in a 102-101 party-line vote last week. 

The bill failed to advance out of the Senate committee in a 7 to 3 vote, with State Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton) joining six Republicans, including Laughlin, to vote against the bill. 

Laughlin and other Republicans’ opposition to House Bill 1200 stemmed from provisions that would see adult-use cannabis sold through Pennsylvania’s state store system, which sells wine and liquor to the public, and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board in charge of regulating cannabis sales. 

“I’ve made it pretty crystal clear that I do not believe that the state store model that is included in House Bill 1200 has a path through the Senate let alone through this committee,” Laughlin said during Tuesday’s committee meeting. 

Laughlin fears that the state would have to spend close to $300 million in order to bring wine and spirit stores up to par to sell cannabis on their shelves and that they would not have the adequate square footage to handle cannabis sales.  

“ The cost to relocate and retrofit locations would be prohibitive to success, causing further unwarranted delay in the execution of the adult use rollout for Pennsylvania,” Laughlin said. “Pennsylvania wine and spirit stores do not have the appropriate square footage to properly serve consumers or store the volume of products required to meet the variety of demand in both the alcohol and cannabis product categories.” 

In previous sessions, Laughlin and State Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) introduced legislation that would have allowed private companies to grow and sell cannabis, and called for the creation of the Cannabis Regulatory Control Board to regulate the industry. 

Last month, State Reps. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny) and Abby Major (R-Armstrong) began circulating a cosponsor memo for a bill that would allow for private companies to sell cannabis and to establish an advisory board to regulate cannabis sales. 

Responsible PA, a coalition of cannabis dispensaries and growers opposed to House Bill 1200, applauded the Senate’s committee vote in a statement. 

“Today’s remarks from Sen. Laughlin encourages a real, bipartisan solution that utilizes the existing medical marijuana infrastructure. Pennsylvanians want a practical solution now – one that is bipartisan, offered in a way that can grow jobs and provide better product selection, and can get broad support,” the Responsible PA coalition said in a statement.

According to Responsible PA, 68% of Pennsylvania voters support legalization now and 74% support legalization when they learn about the issue. They also said that only 25% of voters support selling cannabis through a state store system.

State Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-Philadelphia) was the prime sponsor for House Bill 1200, and he shared his skepticism about how private markets have worked in other states following the Senate’s committee vote. 

“ A lot of members of the Democratic Caucus have real concerns about the way we’ve seen private retail markets lay out in other states,” Krajewski said. “ It’s led to local entrepreneurs falling into debt and bankruptcy. It’s led to lawsuits around social equity guidelines and legislation.”