Bipartisan Pennsylvania Senators Team Up On New Marijuana Legalization Bill – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania senators announced on Friday that they will soon file a bill to legalize marijuana in the Commonwealth.

Sens. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sharif Street (D), who’ve partnered on cannabis reform in previous sessions, shared some details about the forthcoming proposal, which would create a commercial marijuana market for adults 21 and older, in a co-sponsorship memo seeking support from colleagues as they prepare to introduce it.

“Legalized adult use of marijuana is supported by an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians and this legislation accomplishes that while also ensuring safety and social equity,” Laughlin said in a press release.

“With neighboring states New Jersey and New York implementing adult use, we have a duty to Pennsylvania taxpayers to legalize adult use marijuana to avoid losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars of new tax revenue and thousands of new jobs,” he said.

While the bill hasn’t been officially filed and the text is not yet available, the senators said that it would “improve upon our proposal from last session.” They described the effort as a “bipartisan approach to legalize adult use marijuana in Pennsylvania.”

Daw Fidler, Laughlin’s legislative director, told Marijuana Moment in an email that the bill is “currently a work in progress” and that the offices “have some changes and updates that we are still working through based off” of the legalization measure they filed last…