A coalition of civil rights and criminal justice reform groups are calling on Gov. Josh Shapiro to convene talks with legislative leaders to strike a deal to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana.

The groups said legalizing adult recreational use of marijuana would create jobs and generate tax revenue.

However “more important” than the potential economic impact, the state’s failure to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana means that thousands of Pennsylvanians are “arrested, jailed or otherwise entangled in the criminal justice system each year for non-violent cannabis offenses — conduct that is legal and unpunished in nearly every neighboring state.”

The new call for Shapiro to make marijuana legalization a priority comes as lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement on how or whether to proceed with legalization even as adult recreational sales are already underway in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

Who’s calling for action?

The nine groups pressing for legalization include: The Marijuana Policy Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, Doctors for Drug Policy Reform, Last Prison Project, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Straight Ahead and the Public Defenders Association of Pennsylvania.

Public defenders stress enforcement disparities

The public defenders group has begun publicly supporting the legalization of adult recreational use of marijuana for a variety of reasons, executive director Sara Jacobson told CapitolWire/State Affairs in an interview Friday.

Broadly, the group supports any effort to reduce the number of offenses on the books, she said.

“There are lots of bills that go through the General Assembly that add new crimes or enhance penalties,” Jacobson said. “It’s very rare that there are opportunities to actually shrink the footprint of the Crimes Code. So that’s just a sort of a basic values thing for us.”

In addition, the country’s war on drugs has resulted in stark disparities in the way marijuana possession offenses are enforced, she said. She pointed to an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union that found that Blacks were three times as likely to be arrested for minor marijuana offenses than white cannabis users.

“This is a law that has not been enforced equally. And one way to remove that is to remove the law,” Jacobson said.

Most of Pennsylvania’s major cities have enacted local ordinances decriminalizing possession of a small amount of marijuana, but that only aggravates the disparities and confusion over the legality of marijuana use.

Those charged with possessing 30 grams or less of marijuana flower can be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail along with a $500 fine.

“There are absolutely counties that will put people in jail for 30 days for possession of a small amount of marijuana, and you could lose everything in 30 days,” Jacobson said. “You could lose your job, kids, your house, as a collateral consequence of being in prison.”

Legislative stalemate

The state House approved a marijuana legalization plan, House Bill 1200, in May 2025 on a party-line vote, with all Democrats supporting it and all Republicans opposed. HB 1200 would have legalized adult recreational use of marijuana and had the state-run liquor store system handle cannabis sales. Proponents in the House said having the state operate the dispensaries would ensure that the public interest is given priority over profit. While a handful of Senate Republicans have publicly supported the idea of marijuana legalization, the Senate Law and Justice Committee voted down HB 1200.

Sen. Daniel Laughlin, R-Erie, chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, joined Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, to introduce a separate marijuana legalization bill, Senate Bill 120 in July 2025. That legislation would establish a Cannabis Control Board to assume oversight of the marijuana program. However, that legislation hasn’t moved out of committee.

Shapiro first backed the idea of legalizing adult recreational use of marijuana while he was serving as the state attorney general. Since then, he’s repeatedly called for lawmakers to send him a legalization bill and touted the potential tax revenue in his budget proposals.

Shapiro in his Feb. 3 budget address said recreational marijuana sales would generate $200 million in tax revenue a year.

Jacobson added that one of the marijuana legalization bills introduced in the state House would use a portion of the tax revenue to create a designated revenue stream to help cover the cost of legal representation for indigent defendants.

House Bill 20 proposed using 10% of the tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales for grants to local police and 5% of the tax revenue for indigent defense services.

The last three state budgets have included appropriations to help pay for legal representation for low-income defendants. But the state does not have a designated source of revenue to ensure that those costs are included in the budget each year.