It’s time to finally legalize adult-use cannabis in the commonwealth, said Gov. Josh Shapiro during his Tuesday 2025–2026 budget address at the state capitol.
He touched on missed revenue opportunities, competition and a desire for stricter regulation of cannabis as key reasons he supports recreational legalization.
Twenty-four states have legalized adult-use cannabis, per Pew Research Center, bringing them millions in profits. This includes five states surrounding Pennsylvania: Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. It is estimated that more than half of all Americans now live in a state with legal weed, and nearly 80% live in a county with at least one dispensary.
Many states have also focused on equity in cannabis sales and the record expungements of people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis possession, a priority for Mr. Shapiro as well. He also called for recreational marijuana to be legalized during his February 2024 budget address, when he said he wanted a bill on his desk to legalize the substance.
In Tuesday’s speech, the governor stated that he hadn’t been immediately on board with legalizing cannabis.
“As a father of four and as the former chief law enforcement of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, this was really hard for me,” said Mr. Shapiro, who was Pa. attorney general prior to his current post. “But I took the time to study it and to understand the impacts, to understand the choice between continuing the black market of drug dealing versus a highly regulated industry with protections in place for our children.
“Letting this business operate in the shadows, it doesn’t make sense. And by doing nothing, we are making Pennsylvania less competitive.”
There has been legislative support to back up Mr. Shapiro’s goals for legal recreational use in the state.
Last session, on July 6, 2023, Sens. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, and Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, introduced bipartisan bill SB 846, which would have created a Cannabis Regulatory Control Board to oversee cannabis regulation, as well as a Cannabis Business Development Fund. The bill was referred to the Law and Justice Committee.
In December, House Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, and Rick Krajewski, D-Philadelphia, announced their intent to introduce a bill to decriminalize cannabis, including putting caps on THC percentages in products for safety reasons and reinvesting revenue funds into communities harmed by the War on Drugs.
But some physicians still want a healthy dose of caution applied to legalization.
In a March 2024 story, Ajay Wasan, co-director of the Center for Innovation in Pain Care at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, a pain medicine specialist and a psychiatrist, told the Post-Gazette it should not be assumed that legalization is inevitable.
He expressed concern that lifting supervision and safety protocols during a transition from medical to recreational cannabis may increase adverse reactions to the drug.
“Marijuana has been a controlled substance for a number of years for a good reason,” he said in the article. “Altering our state of consciousness might be reasonable for the majority of the population, but there is a unique minority for which there are sizable consequences.”
Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2016.
Mr. Shapiro’s concern is that demand for cannabis is not decreasing and, without recreational options in Pennsylvania, residents are simply getting it elsewhere, handing over the economic benefit to neighboring states.
“Pennsylvanians who want to buy cannabis, they’re just driving across the border to one of our neighbors,” he said during the address. “I’ve talked to the CEOs of the companies right across the border in Jersey and Maryland in New York, who tell me that 60% of their customers in those shops are Pennsylvanians. We’re losing out on revenue that’s going to other states.”
The Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, a trade organization that advocates for safe cannabis use and sensible policy, commended Mr. Shapiro for his budget address remarks in a written statement emailed to the Post-Gazette. The commonwealth is uniquely positioned to benefit from the economic pros of legalization because its medical cannabis infrastructure is already robust, it said.
“With 32 active grower/processors, almost 200 dispensaries and more than 25,000 employees, the current medical marijuana industry is ready to deliver safe, regulated cannabis on day-one while generating revenue for the Commonwealth immediately,” said Meredith Buettner Schneider, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, in the statement. “PCC stands ready to work with the Governor and legislature to file legislation that uses the existing program as a foundation while embracing lessons learned from surrounding markets and brings home lost revenues to be reinvested in the Commonwealth.”
Mr. Shapiro’s budget proposal aims to legalize the sale of recreational cannabis by July 1, 2025, with sales officially beginning the following January, according to proposal documents.
He also wants to invest $10 million of cannabis revenue into restorative justice initiatives that help those disproportionately impacted by a strict marijuana possession law, and $25 million for small and diverse businesses to be able to enter the cannabis market.
The budget proposal estimates an annual revenue of $250 million for Pennsylvania, with $1.3 billion over the first five years of legalization.
During the address, Mr. Shapiro said he’s been “heartened” to see more bipartisan support of cannabis legislation that encourages bolstering Pennsylvania’s economy and liberating those impacted negatively by past cannabis law: “Let’s get this done together.”
First Published: February 4, 2025, 9:38 p.m.
Updated: February 5, 2025, 7:18 p.m.
