Despite Pennsylvania lawmakers and the governor proposing adult-use cannabis legalization for years, Monday was the first time a committee took up legalization in the General Assembly. The Senate Law & Justice Committee held a hearing on Monday that included lawmakers and members of law enforcement to testify on legalization. It was the first of three such hearings, and subsequent ones will focus on, for example, regulation and lessons learned from other states. The conversation largely focused on concerns, ranging from increasing crime and substance use to changes to how members of law enforcement currently do their jobs. Another repeated topic of discussion was just how sophisticated the state’s unlicensed cannabis market has become. Pennsylvania lawmakers have for years introduced legislation to legalize cannabis. Those bills, though, stalled before gaining any traction, due primarily to a lack of support from Republicans in the legislature, as Cannabis Wire has extensively reported. Sen. Daniel Laughlin, who has co-sponsored adult use legislation in the past, said on Monday that the medical cannabis program without adult-use cannabis was the “worst of both worlds.”
Alyson Martin, Cannabis Wire, 02/06/2022 19:00:00