HARRISBURG, PA – Today, Senate Bill 120 was unveiled, which would force Pennsylvania municipalities to host recreational marijuana dispensaries with no freedom to opt out of retail stores, strip local governments of any authority to ban or restrict them, and even allow up to “1,000 milligrams of THC contained in cannabis-infused edible products or cannabis-infused nonedible products.” That is a shocking, dangerous amount.
Kevin A. Sabet, President & CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, issued the following statement in response to the introduction of Senate Bill 120:
“Pennsylvania should not be the next state to repeat the costly mistakes we’ve seen from commercialization elsewhere. When we prioritize industry profits over public health, we see skyrocketing rates of youth use, psychosis, emergency room visits, and impaired driving. Senate Bill 120 would rob communities of their right to protect themselves and open the door to high-potency THC products, heavily marketed to children. Rather than forcing dispensaries on unwilling towns with zero means of redress, lawmakers should strengthen treatment, prevention, and local control so that families, not corporate CEOs, decide what’s best for their neighborhoods.”
Dan Bartkowiak, Chief Strategy Officer at Pennsylvania Family Council added:
“This is an awful proposal that grants the wishes of the addiction-for-profit marijuana industry at the expense of Pennsylvania families and communities. It will incentivize our state government to profit from more addictive use of marijuana. All this while it blocks local communities from saying ‘no’ to pot shops for retail recreational sales and does nothing meaningful to limit skyrocketing high potency THC levels, with manufactured marijuana products now up to 90%+ THC compared to low single-digit levels just a generation ago. Lawmakers should prioritize the public health and safety of Pennsylvania families, not hand over our children and neighborhoods to the marijuana lobby.”