The Pennsylvania Senate shot down a bill Wednesday to create a board to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and regulate hemp-derived products like vapes and gummies that have become ubiquitous at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, failed in a 27-23 vote. Six Republicans opposed the measure, as did 21 Democrats, including eight members who had cosponsored the legislation.
“Pennsylvania is choosing to leave intoxicating ‘gas station weed’ completely unregulated,” Laughlin said in a statement after the vote.
“That means no testing, no oversight, no age checks and no real accountability. It preserves a system where these products can be marketed like candy and sold wherever a transaction can take place,” he added.
Laughlin said he would continue working to advance the legislation.
“I will not stop working to bring order and accountability to this space. Protecting children and ensuring consumer safety is not optional. It’s our responsibility,” Laughlin said.
State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, one of the Democrats who cosponsored the legislation and then voted against it, said he reversed course because of changes made to the bill since it was introduced and concerns about the proposed board’s structure.
“We have to be clear about who is going on there. Those rules need to be tightened up,” Fontana said in a phone interview.
The bill said three board members would be appointed by the governor — one with experience in law enforcement, one with experience in the medical and addiction fields, and one with experience in matters related to cannabis.
One board member each would be appointed by the Senate president pro tempore, House speaker, Senate minority leader and House minority leader. The legislation didn’t list required professional or clinical qualifications for those appointments.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, said he opposed creating “an independent board that will take over an existing industry … it seems to me that we are changing the oversight agency to take power away from the governor. I think that is unnecessary and costly.”
The state Department of Health, an agency overseen by the governor, currently oversees the medical marijuana program.
Costa said that program, “while having some hiccups like any new industry, has been successfully serving patients across the state for nearly a decade and should be used as a steppingstone to expand to adult and recreational use.
“(The bill) is a distraction from what needs to be done to bring Pennsylvania into line with our surrounding states and the direction of the country generally.”
A spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, who cosponsored the bill and voted in favor of it, did not return a message.
Rosie Lapowsky, a spokeswoman for Gov. Josh Shapiro, said in a statement that the administration “remains supportive of comprehensive cannabis regulation, which would enable a competitive, revenue-generating adult use market; protect patient access to the current Medical Marijuana Program; and rein in hemp-based intoxicant products that are currently unregulated.
“(The bill) does not substantively advance those goals.”
