A top aide to Pennsylvania’s governor says lawmakers should stop introducing new competing marijuana legalization bills and instead focus on building consensus on the issue—but emphasized that any measure that advances needs to contain equity provisions if the governor is going to sign it into law.
During a summit organized by Ethos Cannabis and Thomas Jefferson University on Friday, Meghna Patel, deputy secretary of policy and planning in Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) office, discussed the challenges and opportunities of enacting adult-use legalization while maintaining patient access under the state’s existing medical marijuana program.
But while multiple bills have been filed in the legislature to enact legalization for adult use, none have been enacted so far. And certain legislators have indicated that a key problem is a lack of engagement from the governor, despite his calls for reform and inclusion of legalization in his budget requests.
Asked about that criticism, Patel said in response to a question from Marijuana Moment that she’s “not behind the scenes,” and so can’t speak to the status of any ongoing negotiations, but stressed that in order to advance legalization, the legislature first needs to pass a state budget that’s already about two months overdue.
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