Cannabis
in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has not legalized adult-use cannabis, so possessing any amount without a medical ID card is a crime. Under 35 Pa. Cons. Stat. 780-113, having 30 grams or less of flower, or 8 grams or less of hashish, is a misdemeanor carrying up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Above those amounts the penalty rises to up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, with steeper penalties for repeat convictions. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have local ordinances that can treat small amounts as a lesser violation, but state law still applies there. Registered medical patients may possess up to a 30-day supply of medical marijuana, which must stay in its original dispensary packaging with the receipt while being transported.

Because Pennsylvania has no adult-use program, there is no age at which recreational use becomes legal; possession outside the medical program is illegal at any age. Within the medical program run by the Department of Health, patients can be adults or minors. Patients under 18 may not buy medical marijuana themselves and must have a registered caregiver, usually a parent or guardian, obtain it for them. Caregivers must be at least 21 and pass a criminal background check. Adult patients may register and buy on their own, and any adult patient may also choose to name a caregiver. Legalization proposals such as Senate Bill 350 would set 21 as the adult-use age, but none has become law.

Home cultivation is not allowed in Pennsylvania for anyone, including registered medical patients. Growing cannabis is prosecuted as manufacturing a controlled substance, a felony punishable by 2.5 to 5 years in prison and a $15,000 fine whether or not the grower meant to sell, according to NORML's summary of 35 Pa. Cons. Stat. 780-113. Penalties rise with the number of plants and the weight involved. Medical patients must instead buy from state-licensed dispensaries. Bills to change this have been introduced, including Senate Bill 76, which would let medical patients grow at home, and adult-use proposals that would allow a limited number of plants, but none has passed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health regulates the state's only legal cannabis market, the Medical Marijuana Program created by the Medical Marijuana Act, Act 16 of 2016, which began as Senate Bill 3. Through its Office of Medical Marijuana the department licenses and oversees grower-processors, dispensaries, laboratories and clinical research centers, registers practitioners, and issues patient and caregiver ID cards. Its regulations sit in Title 28 of the Pennsylvania Code. Final-form regulations were posted in March 2023, and in June 2023 the Commonwealth Court declared certain of them invalid and unenforceable. A Medical Marijuana Advisory Board advises on the program. There is no adult-use regulator, because adult-use cannabis has not been legalized.

Medical marijuana is taxed at the wholesale level rather than at the register. Act 16 imposes a 5 percent tax on sales by grower-processors to dispensaries, and the sources gathered here do not describe any separate retail sales tax charged to patients. Patients do pay a $50 fee for their ID card, which is waived for people enrolled in Medicaid, PACE/PACENET, CHIP, SNAP or WIC. Because adult-use cannabis is not legal, there is no recreational cannabis tax. Legalization proposals under discussion would likely tax adult-use sales at a higher excise rate than medical products, but none has been enacted.

Pennsylvania has no licensed consumption lounges and no on-site consumption at dispensaries. Adult-use cannabis is illegal, so there is no recreational venue of any kind. The Medical Marijuana Act also limits how patients may use their medicine: smoking medical marijuana is prohibited, although flower may be vaporized, and dispensaries may not sell edibles, though patients may mix products into food or drink at home. Employers are not required to allow medical marijuana use on their premises. A parent or guardian may give medical marijuana to a child at school only after notifying the school and obtaining a Safe Harbor Letter.

Access runs through the Department of Health's Medical Marijuana Program. The patient registers online with proof of Pennsylvania residency and an email address, and is certified by an approved practitioner as having a qualifying serious medical condition; the certification visit may not be covered by insurance. The patient then has 60 days from certification to pay for the ID card, or the certification expires. The card costs $50, and the fee is waived for people enrolled in Medicaid, PACE/PACENET, CHIP, SNAP or WIC. Cards take about seven days to print and up to 14 days to arrive by mail. Once it arrives, the patient can buy at any licensed dispensary in the state.

Medical marijuana is limited to patients with a serious medical condition listed in the Medical Marijuana Act; the Department of Health counts 23. They include cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and intractable seizures, Crohn's disease, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid use disorder, terminal illness, central nervous system damage with intractable spasticity, dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders, and severe chronic pain. Chronic pain patients no longer have to try riskier painkillers first. Two further conditions, moderate to severe traumatic brain injury and type II diabetes, are approved for research purposes only. Other guides give totals of 17 or 24 because the list has changed since 2016.

Patients must be Pennsylvania residents, shown with a Pennsylvania driver's license or state ID, and need a working email address to register with the Department of Health. Their serious medical condition must be certified by a practitioner who is an MD or DO with an active Pennsylvania license, is registered with the department and has completed its approved training, a four-hour course under Senate Bill 3. Minors must go through a registered caregiver. Caregivers must be at least 21, pass a criminal background check and pay for their own ID card, and anyone convicted of a drug offense in the past five years is disqualified. Holding a card also bars a person from getting or renewing a Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearms.

A practitioner's certification can last no longer than one year, so patients must be recertified at least once a year to stay in the program. Recertification means another visit with an approved practitioner, who confirms the patient still has a qualifying condition and issues a new certification. The Department of Health's pages do not describe a separate renewal track; recertification follows the same certification and payment steps as a first application, and commercial guides describe the $50 card fee as annual, with the same waivers for Medicaid, PACE/PACENET, CHIP, SNAP and WIC participants. A patient whose certification lapses cannot buy from dispensaries until recertified.

The Department of Health's pages do not address telemedicine. They require only that the patient be certified by a practitioner who is registered with the department and has completed its approved training. Commercial certification services in Pennsylvania state that they certify patients through video consultations, so remote visits appear to be used in practice, but the sources gathered here include no official statement on whether telemedicine is permitted, whether it must be video rather than phone, or whether it is limited to follow-up visits. Patients using a remote service should confirm that the practitioner is registered with the Department of Health before paying.

Pennsylvania does not recognize out-of-state medical cannabis cards. The program is open only to Pennsylvania residents, and visiting patients cannot use it, according to the Marijuana Policy Project's summary of Senate Bill 3. Because adult-use cannabis is also illegal, visitors have no lawful way to buy cannabis in the state, and possession without a Pennsylvania card is a criminal offense. The limit runs the other way too: Pennsylvania patients may not carry medical marijuana across state lines or send it by mail, and within the state it must travel in its original packaging with the dispensary receipt.