A bill that recently passed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that would legalized recreational cannabis in the commonwealth was voted down in a Senate committee Tuesday morning.
House bill 1200 will not move forward after it was rejected 7-3 by the Republican-led Law & Justice committee, chaired by Senator Daniel Laughlin and co-chair Senator Joe Picozzi.
But, Laughlin said, via the Post-Gazette, that compromise is still possible.
Democratic Senator Lisa Boscola from Allentown, joined the GOP and voted it down.
Locally, Republican’s Sen. Devlin Robinson and Sen. Kim Ward voted against the bill, Democratic Senator Wayne Fontana (minority chair) voted in favor of it.
Pittsburgh-area Rep. Dan Frankel, told The Big K Morning Show back when the bill was proposed, that Pennsylvania is missing out on significant revenue.
“We got Ohio, New York, Maryland,” said Frankel. “So, we are literally surrounded by states have legal adult-use cannabis.”
He said he also wants to make sure that there are regulations in place to monitor the sales of recreational pot.
Laughlin said while he supports legal cannabis in PA, he doesn’t like many of the items in the bill, including the “state store” model that the bill would create.