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Pennsylvania lawmakers eye liberalization of medical marijuana rules
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette link: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2023/06/22/pennsylvania-lawmakers-medical-marijuana/stories/202306220085
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state senators began advancing legislation Wednesday that would liberalize the state's 5-year-old medical marijuana program by expanding the scope of who can buy it and allowing it to be sold in edible form.
The three-bill package passed the Senate Law and Justice Committee almost unanimously. The bills won the votes of every Democrat on the committee, as well as the votes of the committee's Republican chair and the chamber's top Republican, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, of Westmoreland County.
The bills still must pass the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The votes come as a growing number of states are legalizing marijuana for adult non-medical use, including neighboring Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro supports the legalization of adult-use marijuana, but the idea has run into opposition from most GOP lawmakers.
The three-bill package passed the Senate Law and Justice Committee almost unanimously. The bills won the votes of every Democrat on the committee, as well as the votes of the committee's Republican chair and the chamber's top Republican, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, of Westmoreland County.
The bills still must pass the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The votes come as a growing number of states are legalizing marijuana for adult non-medical use, including neighboring Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro supports the legalization of adult-use marijuana, but the idea has run into opposition from most GOP lawmakers.
- more at link -
See the article for brief descriptions of the 3 bills that are out of committee. I'm rather cynical about the Legislature's motives. I'm reading this as, "How can we make more profit from the medical marijuana market before the baby boomers start buying from other states?" Pennsylvania has already over-regulated and over-taxed the med marijuana buyers, who are only going to tolerate it for so long, and then they'll figure out another way to get it.
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But don't we all know that the rural folks have little problem growing their own? It's the city dwellers who are coughing up for those Medical Marijuana ID Cards for $250 a pop. That's where most the profit lies (for the state), and eventually the potential buyers will say "screw this!"