A Pennsylvania criminal justice expert told state lawmakers Friday that the commonwealth is increasingly isolated by its continued prohibition of recreational marijuana, pointing to nearly $5 billion in sales recorded in neighboring states last year.
“We’re surrounded by legal cannabis,” Oren Gur, Ph.D., said during a Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on adult-use marijuana. “We can regulate this, or we can continue to let our neighbors do that for us. As an example, nearly $5 billion in recreational sales went to our neighbors in 2025.”
Gur serves as director of research and the District Attorney’s Transparency Analytics (DATA) Lab for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. He previously served as an assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington.
Pennsylvania now borders five states with legal recreational marijuana sales: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio. West Virginia is the only neighboring state without a legal adult-use market.
Gur’s comments came during a hearing titled “Adult-Use Cannabis: Criminal Justice, Safety & Economic Impacts,” hosted by Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chair Nick Miller (D) alongside Sen. Sharif Street (D). The committee said the hearing would examine marijuana legalization from the standpoint of enforcement and public safety, economic and social considerations, and criminal justice reform.
The hearing comes as Pennsylvania lawmakers continue debating how, rather than simply whether, the state should establish a regulated recreational market.
In May 2025, the Pennsylvania House voted 102-101 to approve House Bill 1200, marking the first time the chamber had passed legislation legalizing recreational marijuana. The proposal would have established state-operated marijuana stores through the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board while creating provisions dealing with expungement, social equity, taxation, testing and other regulations.
The bill stalled days later when the Republican-controlled Senate Law and Justice Committee rejected it. Street, who supports legalization, was among those who opposed the House proposal’s state-store model and has advocated for a privately operated regulated market.
Friday’s hearing represents the latest attempt to build support for a framework that could advance through both chambers.
Gur argued that maintaining prohibition does not prevent Pennsylvanians from accessing marijuana, but instead leaves regulation and much of the associated economic activity to surrounding states.
