A key Pennsylvania senator says he’s working with bipartisan and bicameral lawmakers to develop a passable marijuana legalization bill as the legislature stares down a quickly approaching budget deadline—telling supporters that “we’re getting close” and they shouldn’t “ease up” on the fight.

“It is time to end the prohibition on adult-use cannabis in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Sen. Shariff Street (D) said during a Cannabis Day at the Capitol event on Monday. “We’re going to make sure that we do this in an equitable way.”

“There are some basic things that we know we need to have done,” he said. “We need to make sure when we pass a recreational adult-use bill that we seal and expunge the records of all those people who’ve been who’ve had cannabis convictions in the past.”

“We need to make sure that we pass a bill that creates opportunities for all folks. That means small farmers and small business people. And we need to make sure we have a diversity of folks involved in the growing, processing and also in the dispensary part of the business,” Street said. “We need to make sure that we have a completely diverse supply chain.”

“Look, Black and brown communities were disproportionately affected by the war on cannabis. We need to make sure that they  equally benefit in the cannabis legalization market, and that’s why we need to make sure we have social equity licenses. We need to make sure that we have social equity grants. We need to make sure that the communities that were closest to the pain are closest to the profits as well. We need to get this done, because it makes no sense that our revenue goes across the lines.”

“Almost all the states around us have already legalized adult-use cannabis, and we know, even though it’s not federally lawful, people are driving right across that border and consuming legal, adult-use cannabis,” he said. “That revenue is going to all of our border states, and it’s not going into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

“I want you to know we’re getting close. This is not the time to ease up. This is not the time to back off,” the senator said. “We are closer now to ever passing an adult-use cannabis bill and getting it on the governor’s desk.”

Street thanked his bipartisan colleagues in the House—including Reps. Emily Kinkead (D), Abby Major (R) and Amen Brown (D), who have championed their own legalization proposals—for working with the Senate “in a collaborative way.”

“We have a good core group of us who’ve been working to move this bill—to move this concept forward—and I think we’re gonna get it done,” he said. “We need your voices to stay engaged. We need to stay involved.”

The senator also stressed the need to allow medical cannabis patients to grow their own medicine for personal use, saying that if it’s “a plant that comes from the earth, and if people want to grow it in order to take care of their own needs, that should be included as well” in a reform plan.

“So look, we’re moving forward,” he said. “But Pennsylvania law has not caught up with the realities of our situation… We need to end the prohibition of cannabis, adult-use cannabis, in Pennsylvania. Now we need to do it in a fair and equitable way.”

Kinkead, also speaking at the Monday rally, said that while she and other House Democrats recently passed a bill to legalize cannabis sales through a system of state-run stores, “I disagree with that model, because I think that a state that for generations has criminalized a substance should not be the primary beneficiary of that substance when it’s legalized—it should be the communities that we have been criminalized.”

“We cannot legalize marijuana without considering the impacts that we have had on communities by the over criminalization of marijuana,” she said, “and that has to be the first and foremost thought when we talk about adult-use marijuana, we have to be putting investments back into the communities that have been most negatively impacted by the failed war on drugs.”

Rep. Chris Rabb (D-PA) similarly said that “the bill that we passed out of the House will not be the bill that comes before us when we finally vote to legalize adult-use cannabis.

“What we will ultimately vote on will look very different than what we’ve considered thus far,” he said. “And there are a lot of great minds who’ve come together on a number of pieces of legislation.”

“If we try to pass a bill that’s about generating tax revenue for other purposes, we’ve lost. So folks who are talking about, ‘this will be a great revenue generated to X, Y and Z’—that’s not how we should lead on this subject. It should be around criminal legal reform. It should be around racial justice. It should be around community safety, public health, social impact—not about creating more money for politicians to support various projects of theirs back home or what have you. If you’re putting an egregious tax on weed, who’s going to buy it?”

Other lawmakers continue to emphasize the revenue generating potential of legalization, however.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris (D) also weighed in on cannabis policy issues in an interview with WHTM that aired on Sunday, saying that the “states around us have already legalized adult-use cannabis.”

“This is another opportunity for us to generate revenue. We’re leaving money on the table, but not only are we leaving money on the table if you talk to our friends in New York, if you talk to our friends in New Jersey, what they’ll tell you, honestly, is ‘Thank you. Thank you,’” he said. “Tell the Pennsylvanians who flood to New York and flood to New Jersey and spend their money in their [legalized marijuana] market. Those are taxpayer dollars that we should be having.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) recently said marijuana legalization will not be included in the 2026 budget as lawmakers approach a deadline he expects they will miss. But Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is still holding out hope that negotiators can “get it done.”

With the budget due by a constitutionally mandated deadline of June 30, legislators appear to be at an impasse on certain key issues, including the governor’s request to legalize adult-use cannabis via the legislation. Pittman said he doesn’t see a path forward for the reform on that schedule, however.

Shapiro, on the other hand, hasn’t quite thrown in the towel, saying at a press briefing last week that “we all understand we have to compromise” on a number of issues to reach a budget agreement.

“We also, I think, all understand the set of issues we have to work through—and we’re going to continue to work through them,” he said. “We’re each going to have to give a little bit. We’re going to make progress. We’re going to get it done.”

Pittman, for his part, criticized House lawmakers for passing a marijuana legalization bill that would have involved state-run shops. The legislation was quickly rejected by a Senate committee.

Following that defeat, the governor said he still remained “hopeful” that lawmakers could deliver a reform bill to his desk by a budget deadline at the end of this month—and he urged the GOP-controlled Senate to “put their ideas on the table.”

“We’ve had really good, honest dialogue about it,” the governor, who separately criticized the Senate for abruptly derailing the House marijuana legalization bill, said.

“Look, I think this is an issue of competitiveness,” he said. “Every state around us, with the exception of West Virginia, has gotten it done. You go visit some of these dispensaries along our border—in this case with Maryland, [that] is probably the closest one here. Sixty percent of the people walking into those dispensaries are from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Whether Pennsylvania legislators will advance legalization this session remains to be seen. But two Democratic lawmakers—Street and Rep. Rick Krajewski (D)—recently said they’re aiming to reach a compromise and pass reform legislation before the budget deadline.

Also, last month Sen. Marty Flynn (D) announced his intent to file a new bill to legalize marijuana in the state, calling on colleagues to join him on the measure.

While the House legislation Krajewski sponsored alongside Rep. Dan Frankel (D) was rejected in a Senate committee following its expedited passage through the House along party lines, Street said he’s “cautiously optimistic we’re going to be able to revive the bill and amend it and move forward with a work product that allows us to get a bill on the governor’s desk and realize revenue.”

That said, Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), who has sponsored legalization legislation with Street, recently seemed to suggest that lawmakers should pump the brakes on the push to enact the policy change amid resistance to reform within his caucus and instead pass a bill to create a new regulatory body that can begin overseeing medical cannabis and hemp while preparing to eventually handle the adult-use market as well.

“I remain committed to crafting a cannabis bill that can pass the Senate and be signed into law to benefit all Pennsylvanians,” Laughlin said. “That starts with honest dialogue from everyone involved, including House leadership and the governor, to develop a realistic approach–not political theater.”

Following the Senate committee vote, lawmakers from both chambers who support legalization have been trading criticisms about each other’s roles in the stalled push to end prohibition.

Krajewski, for example, recently wrote in a Marijuana Moment op-ed that Senate Republicans who killed his House-passed cannabis legalization bill are “stuck in their prohibitionist views of the past” and are “out of touch with the will of our Commonwealth.”

Prior to that vote, Pennsylvania’s Republican attorney general said that while he doesn’t currently support the House-passed marijuana legalization bill, he’s open to changing his mind about the policy change after continuing to review the details.

For what it’s worth, a recent poll found that Pennsylvania voters say they favor a model where cannabis is sold by licensed private businesses, rather than through a system of state-run stores.

The governor has repeatedly called for adult-use marijuana legalization. However, he hasn’t endorsed the specific idea of having a state-controlled model.

GOP lawmaker Major—who is sponsoring another forthcoming legalization bill that envisions a traditional private sales model alongside Democrat Kinkead—said during the House floor debate on HB 1200 that she stands opposed to the competing bill, emphasizing that she disagrees with the state-run stores proposal.

While Democrats control the House and governor’s office, they will still need to reach a deal with the GOP-controlled Senate to effectuate change. And in addition to the conflicting perspectives among pro-legalization legislators, another potential barrier to reform is exactly that political dynamic.

Regardless of which direction Pennsylvania lawmakers do—or don’t—go on marijuana legalization this session, a survey released in April shows a majority of adults in the state support the reform—and opposition to the policy change has fallen by nearly 50 percent over the last decade.

Kinkead has made the case in another recent interview that legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania will help the state mitigate public health and safety concerns associated with the illicit market, including the fact that unregulated products can be laced with fentanyl.

The lawmaker previously introduced a separate bipartisan marijuana legalization bill, alongside 15 other cosponsors, last September. It did not advance, however.

Meanwhile, Laughlin recently called for the creation of a state “legacy” fund, using tax revenue from adult-use marijuana sales and gaming to make long-term investments in the Commonwealth’s economy.

The senator argued that, beyond using any resulting tax revenue to fund day-to-day projects and public services, the state should earmark a portion of those tax dollars for a fund to “provide a sustainable source of prosperity that lasts for generations.”

Another GOP Pennsylvania senator, Sen. Gene Yaw (R), is backing the push to legalize marijuana in the commonwealth, pointing out that, historically, prohibition “has not turned out well,” noting the country’s experience with alcohol criminalization.

Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D) recently said that Democrats are ready to pass a marijuana legalization bill this session, but that the party “will need Republican support” to get the job done—adding that it will be a “heavy lift.”

Polls have shown bipartisan support for legalization among voters, but the reform has consistently stalled in the legislature, owing in large part to GOP opposition. But not all Republican members are against the policy change—and one recently said she felt her party should seize the “opportunity to snatch” the issue from Democrats.

Separately in March, the Pennsylvania House approved a bill sponsored by Frankel that’s meant to strengthen safety standards and oversight of the state’s medical marijuana program as lawmakers work to advance adult-use legalization.

While Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program was enacted nearly a decade ago, lawmakers say the measure, which now heads to the Senate, is necessary to improve testing compliance, product audits and lab inspections, among other aspects of the industry.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Democratic lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would allow farmers and other small agriculture operators to sell marijuana they cultivate to existing growers and and processors if the state moves to legalize adult-use cannabis.

Separately, an independent Pennsylvania agency is projecting more tax dollars to be generated from adult-use marijuana sales compared to what the governor’s office has estimated, although it expects significantly less overall revenue from cannabis legalization due to differing views on licensing fees.

Pennsylvania officials have also launched a new survey that invites legal marijuana businesses across the country to provide information about their operations to help the state better understand the cannabis industry as lawmakers consider enacting adult-use legalization this session.

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Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

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Also, in a video interview released in March, the governor emphasized that the state is “losing out” to others that have already enacted adult-use legalization, while maintaining a policy that’s enriched the illicit market.

“I think it’s an issue of freedom and liberty. I mean, if folks want to smoke, they should be able to do so in a safe and legal way,” he said. “We should shut down the black market—and, by the way, every state around us is doing it. Pennsylvanians are driving to those other states and paying taxes in those other states.”

The state’s agriculture secretary separately told lawmakers that he’s fully confident that his department is in a “really good” position to oversee an adult-use marijuana program if lawmakers act.

Meanwhile, in February, top Pennsylvania police and health officials told lawmakers they are prepared to implement marijuana legalization if the legislature moves forward with the reform—and that they stand ready to work together as the details of legislation to achieve it are crafted.

Amid the growing calls for marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania, a GOP state senator said prohibition has been a “disaster,” and a regulated sales model for cannabis—similar to how alcohol and tobacco are handled—could serve as an effective alternative.

A Republican Pennsylvania senator also recently defended the push to legalize and regulate marijuana, calling it “the most conservative stance” on the issue.

Texas GOP Governor ‘Wants To Legalize Recreational Marijuana,’ Lieutenant Governor Claims

[PRESS RELEASE] – SAVONA, Italy, June 24, 2025 – Tilray Medical, a division of Tilray Brands Inc. and a global leader in medicinal cannabis, empowering the therapeutic alliance between patients and health care practitioners to make informed individualized health decisions, announced a significant milestone in its European expansion with the introduction of three new medical cannabis flower varieties in Italy.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, FL Group, Tilray has become the first company in Italy to receive official authorization from the Ministero della Salute (Italian Ministry of Health) to import and distribute proprietary Tilray Medical-branded medical cannabis flower for therapeutic use.

Beginning this month, the following Tilray Medical products are approved for therapeutic use in Italy and available for distribution through pharmacies across Italy:

• Tilray THC 25%
• Tilray THC 18%
• Tilray THC 9% / CBD 9%

“This milestone underscores the vital role of medical cannabis as a therapeutic medicine for patients in need, supporting their health and well-being,” Denise Faltischek, chief strategy officer and head of International at Tilray Brands, said.

“We are proud to expand our medical cannabis portfolio in Italy with the introduction of our Tilray Medical high-quality, EU-GMP certified medical cannabis products that uphold the highest standards in patient care,” Faltischek said. “We extend our gratitude to the Ministero della Salute for their trust in Tilray Medical and for providing the necessary regulatory framework to ensure access to safe, consistent and reliable cannabinoid-based therapies. Together, we are advancing health care and patient wellness through innovation and collaboration.”

Tilray continues to lead the European medical cannabis market with operations in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland and the United Kingdom, offering a broad portfolio of EU-GMP certified medical cannabis products.

A powerful House committee has approved a spending bill containing provisions that hemp stakeholders say would devastate the industry, prohibiting most consumable cannabinoid products that were federally legalized during the first Trump administration.

The House Appropriations Committee passed the agriculture appropriations legislation in a 35-27 vote on Monday. It now heads to the Rules Committee to be prepared for floor consideration.

While the panel adopted a manager’s amendment to a report attached to the bill earlier this month that provided clarifying language stating that members did not intend to prohibit non-intoxicating cannabinoid products with “trace or insignificant amounts of THC,” the underlying bill went unchanged, despite the industry’s concerns about the proposal.

The large-scale measure covers a wide range of issues, but for hemp advocates and stakeholders, there’s one section of particular concern that would redefine the crop under federal statute in a way that would prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)—chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies—championed the hemp ban, which he said “closes the loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill allowing for consumable hemp products with THC that led to the proliferation of the market.

As many states have stepped in to curb these dangerous project products from reaching consumers, particularly children, it’s time for Congress to act to close this loophole while protecting industrial hemp industry,” Harris said this month. “Reports that the included language would destroy legitimate businesses are simply not true, and that’s clear to anyone closely reading the carefully drafted language that I believe threaded the needle.”

Despite Harris’s strong opposition to cannabis reform and criticism of intoxicating hemp products, his manager’s amendment to the report that the committee approved notably expresses the intent of the committee to take a more flexible regulatory approach to certain cannabis items.

“In determining the quantifiable amounts, the Committee does not intend for industrial or nonintoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products with trace or insignificant amounts of THC to be affected,” it says.

But the language in the bill itself would still effectively eliminate the most commonly marketed hemp products within the industry, as even non-intoxicating CBD items that are sold across the country typically contain trace amounts of THC. Under current law, those products are allowed if they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

The proposed policy championed by Harris would drastically change that. It would instead maintain the legal status of “industrial hemp” under a revised definition that allows for the cultivation and sale of hemp grown for fiber, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, microgreens or “other edible hemp leaf products intended for human consumption.”

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report last week stating that the legislation would “effectively” prohibit hemp-derived cannabinoid products. Initially it said that such a ban would prevent the sale of CBD as well, but the CRS report was updated to exclude that language for reasons that are unclear.

An Appropriations Committee press release on Monday said the bill “supports the Trump Administration and mandate of the American people by…closing the hemp loophole that has resulted in the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products, including Delta-8 and hemp flower, being sold online and in gas stations across the country.”

The hemp language is largely consistent with appropriations and agriculture legislation that was introduced, but not ultimately enacted, under the last Congress.

Hemp industry stakeholders rallied against that proposal, an earlier version of which was also included in the base bill from the subcommittee last year. It’s virtually identical to a provision of the 2024 Farm Bill that was attached by a separate committee last May via an amendment from Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), which was also not enacted into law.

There are some differences between the prior spending bill and this latest version for 2026, including a redefining of what constitutes a “quantifiable” amount of THC that’d be prohibited for hemp products.

It now says that a quantifiable amount is “based on substance, form, manufacture, or article (as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture),” whereas it was previously defined as an amount simply “determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

The proposed legislation also now specifies that the term hemp does not include “a drug that is the subject of an application approved under subsection (c) or (j) of section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355),” which seems to carve out an exception for Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved drugs such Epidiolex, which is synthesized from CBD.

A leading alcohol industry association, meanwhile, has called on Congress to dial back language in the House spending bill that would ban most consumable hemp products, instead proposing to maintain the legalization of naturally derived cannabinoids from the crop and only prohibit synthetic items.

Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) President and CEO Francis Creighton said in a press release that  “proponents and opponents alike have agreed that this language amounts to a ban.”

“By pushing a rapidly evolving industry back into the shadows, Congress is creating even more chaos in the marketplace, undermining state initiatives and punishing responsible actors,” he said. “We urge the full House to reconsider this approach. States can regulate intoxicating products safely and effectively through systems that preserve consumer trust and public safety. It’s time for Congress to follow their lead, not override their authority.”

Members of WSWA also met with lawmakers and staffers in April to advocate for three key policy priorities that the group says is based on “sound principles of alcohol distribution.” They include banning synthetic THC, setting up a federal system for testing and labeling products and establishing state-level power to regulate retail sales.

Separately, key GOP congressional lawmakers—including one member who supports marijuana legalization—don’t seem especially concerned about provisions in the bill despite concern from stakeholders that it would put much of the hemp industry in jeopardy by banning most consumable products derived from the plant.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
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Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told congressional lawmakers in April that the market is “begging” for federal regulations around cannabis products.

At the hearing, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) also inquired about FDA inaction around regulations, sarcastically asking if it’d require “a gazillion bureaucrats that work from home” to regulate cannabinoids such as CBD.

A report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) last year called cannabis a “significant threat” to the alcohol industry, citing survey data that suggests more people are using cannabis as a substitute for alcoholic beverages such a beer and wine.

Last November, meanwhile, a beer industry trade group put out a statement of guiding principles to address what it called “the proliferation of largely unregulated intoxicating hemp and cannabis products,” warning of risks to consumers and communities resulting from THC consumption.

Texas GOP Governor ‘Wants To Legalize Recreational Marijuana,’ Lieutenant Governor Claims

Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney.