Gov. Josh Shapiro will pitch legalizing recreational marijuana next week in his budget address. The GOP Senate still isn’t sold.

HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro will again pitch in his annual budget address next week that Pennsylvania should legalize recreational marijuana and tap into tax revenue like almost all of its neighboring states.

But legalizing recreational marijuana still faces major hurdles in Pennsylvania, where the GOP-controlled state Senate is not sold on the idea.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said in an interview earlier this month that Senate Republicans still have logistic reservations about marijuana’s federal classification as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin, as well as whether state government could support a recreational program.

“It’s a practicality issue more than a philosophical issue,” Pittman said.

Meanwhile, Democrats like Shapiro and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) say regulating the adult-use cannabis industry is a no-brainer, when all surrounding states — except West Virginia — are already profiting off Pennsylvanians crossing state lines.

“Frankly, we’re losing all kinds of revenue to other states,” Shapiro said in an interview earlier this month.

Shapiro proposed a 20% tax on legal marijuana as part of his budget address last year (and the year before). In his 2024 budget pitch, his administration estimated that an adult-use cannabis industry in the state could bring in $14.8 million in tax revenue in its first year and would be regulated by the Department of Agriculture. That estimate increased to $76 million in its second year, $160 million in its third, and $230 million in its fourth.

Still, some Pennsylvania Republicans seem more open to the cannabis industry after surrounding states, including Ohio, a GOP stronghold, legalized it.

And Pennsylvania will need new revenue generators to help fill a $4.5 billion budget shortfall as spending is set to outpace revenue beginning this fiscal year and is expected to grow in the coming ones — perhaps increasing lawmakers’ interest in taxing marijuana.

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State Sens. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie) and Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia) introduced a sweeping, bipartisan bill in the last legislative session to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana. The bill would have set a minimum purchase and use age requirement of 21 years old, created a regulatory board and a cannabis business development fund, strengthened driving-under-the-influence laws for marijuana use, and more. But the bill never came up for a vote.

Laughlin has moved into a new leadership role as chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee, where a recreational marijuana bill would likely be assigned as the first step of the legislative process.

Similar marijuana legalization legislation was introduced in the Democratic-controlled House last session, but it also did not get a vote.

But Pittman, the leader of Senate Republicans, still doubts there is widespread support for legalizing recreational marijuana among his caucus — in part, he said, because of the way Pennsylvania implemented its medical marijuana program under former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016, with dispensaries opening around the state in 2018. But that process was fraught with issues, from weak oversight to unfair application of the law and more. A Spotlight PA investigation found that a small number of Pennsylvania doctors approve most of the state’s medical marijuana cards, among other issues.

“Obviously, this state has not done well in rolling out medical marijuana,” Pittman said. “We’ve not demonstrated our ability to have the bureaucracy manage something of that magnitude.”

Both Pittman and Bradford said the other chamber should send them a bill to consider. However, Bradford was more confident that his narrow Democratic majority would be able to pass a measure legalizing recreational marijuana, in light of the lack of broad support in the GOP-controlled Senate.

“It strikes me as abdicating our responsibility to protect our communities and our children, and at the same time, we are losing revenue that is going to go into our neighboring states,” Bradford said. “Yes, our numbers are close, but we are confident that we can get our numbers together and show that there is a path forward on cannabis.”

Dave Sunday, Pennsylvania’s new Republican attorney general, has said he opposes the legalization of adult-use cannabis but said that if it is legalized, he would follow state law.