Is weed legal in Pennsylvania?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is not legal in Pennsylvania. (The Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, Act of Apr. 14, 1972, P.L. 233, No. 64, § 13 (Prohibited Acts; Penalties))

Clause (31) is listed among the 'acts ... hereby prohibited' in subsection (a), and subsection (g) sets its penalty: 'Any person who violates clause (31) of subsection (a) is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), or both.' A reduced penalty for a small amount is not the same as a lawful adult-use channel; nothing in section 13 authorizes a sale or purchase. 28 Pa. Code § 25.72 Schedules of controlled substances(b) confirms marihuana is listed in Schedule I, for which 'the Secretary will find: a high potential for abuse; no currently accepted medical use in the United States; and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.'

Pennsylvania still lists marijuana in Schedule I, whose own finding records no accepted medical use in the United States, while the state runs its medical program under a separate act. The prohibition authorizes no sale to you and no purchase by you, so the lighter penalty attached to a small amount is not a route in.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Pennsylvania, serving patients the program registers. (28 Pa. Code § 1141a.21 Definitions)

'Serious medical condition' is defined by cross-reference to 'the conditions listed in Appendix A,' which is not itself reachable at this section's URL, so no registered source for this question names the list. What this same source does state is that authorized product forms include 'a form medically appropriate for administration by vaporization or nebulization, including dry leaf or plant form for administration by vaporization,' and defines a 'medical marijuana unit' as '3.5 grams of dry leaf, 1 gram of concentrate or 100 milligrams of THC infused into a pill, capsule, oil, liquid, tincture or topical form' -- full-plant and concentrate forms, not a single low-THC preparation. 28 Pa. Code § 1181a.27 Issuing patient certifications and 28 Pa. Code § 1191a.23 Patients and caregivers generally, the register's other two sources for this question, describe the physician-certification and patient/caregiver registration process without narrowing the condition list further.

A physician registered with the program certifies you first, and you then register with the Department of Health for the identification card a dispensary asks to see. Authorized forms run wider than pills and oils, because the regulation permits dry leaf for vaporizing as well.

Hemp-derived products

Pennsylvania permits the sale of hemp-derived products that meet its definition of hemp. (Hemp Program FAQs)

The Department of Agriculture states there is no state-level permit or licence requirement in Pennsylvania specifically for wholesaling, retailing or brokering hemp and hemp products, and recommends that sellers read the Hemp General Permit's transportation, warehousing and storing articles. Federal law also applies; see the federal record.

The Department of Agriculture asks for no state permit to wholesale, retail or broker hemp products, though hemp food, hemp seed and hemp plants each fall under narrower licenses of their own. Sellers are pointed instead at the transportation, warehousing and storage articles of the Hemp General Permit, with federal law sitting over all of it.

Home cultivation

Pennsylvania allows nobody to grow cannabis at home. (Medical Marijuana Act, Act of Apr. 17, 2016, P.L. 84, No. 16, § 304 (Unlawful use of medical marijuana))

Section 304(b) lists among the unlawful uses of medical marijuana to '(3) Grow medical marijuana unless the grower/processor has received a permit from the department under this act' and to '(4) Grow or dispense medical marijuana unless authorized as a health care medical marijuana organization under Chapter 19' -- cultivation is confined to a permitted commercial grower/processor, not extended to a patient or caregiver at home. 28 Pa. Code § 1151a.21. Growers/processors generally(b)(1) confirms growing is a licensed-organization activity: a grower/processor may not 'engage in the business of growing ... seeds, immature medical marijuana plants, medical marijuana plants' without first being issued a permit. 28 Pa. Code § 1191a.31 Obtaining medical marijuana products from a dispensary(a) confirms the patient's own route to product is a dispensary, not a plant: 'A medical marijuana cardholder may only obtain medical marijuana products from a dispensary.' 28 Pa. Code § 25.72 Schedules of controlled substances, the register's fourth listed source, schedules marijuana generally and does not itself address cultivation.

Growing belongs to the permitted grower/processor here, a commercial operation the department licenses, and none of that permission reaches a patient or a caregiver. A cardholder's only lawful route to product is a dispensary, so the card that lets you buy does nothing for a seed.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Pennsylvania states it: A patient or caregiver may not be dispensed, and so may not come to possess, more than a 90-day supply -- 192 medical marijuana units -- of medical marijuana product at a time. A medical marijuana unit equals 3.5 grams of dry leaf, one gram of concentrate, or 100 milligrams of THC infused into a pill, capsule, oil, liquid, tincture, or topical form. (28 Pa. Code § 1161a.24 Limitations on dispensing)

This question and purchase_limit share the same registered figure because Pennsylvania's regulation ties them together: a dispensary may not dispense past the 90-day/192-unit ceiling, which functions as both the purchase ceiling and, since nothing in the registered sources describes an independent quantity a patient may possess outside of what was dispensed, the practical possession ceiling as well. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of the Medical Marijuana Final-Form Regulations restates the same rule in plain language: 'The dispensary may not dispense an amount of medical marijuana product greater than a 90-day supply, 192 medical marijuana units, to a patient or caregiver until the patient has exhausted all but a 7-day supply.' No registered source states a possession figure for anyone other than a certified patient or caregiver, since adult_use_status is not-legal here.

On buying, Pennsylvania states: A dispensary may not dispense to a patient or caregiver an amount of medical marijuana product greater than a 90-day supply -- 192 medical marijuana units -- until the patient has exhausted all but a 7-day supply of medical marijuana units provided under the patient's current certification. (28 Pa. Code § 1161a.24 Limitations on dispensing)

This is subsection (b). Subsection (a) separately bars dispensing a quantity greater than the patient's certification allows, or a form or dosage the certification restricts, or a form not otherwise permitted by the act.

Possession and purchase are one ceiling here, because no registered source gives a patient an amount to hold apart from what a dispensary was allowed to hand over. The pacing is what catches people out: a dispensary may not top you up until your supply is down to its last week, and your own certification can cap the form and the dose below the ceiling.

Minimum age

There is no recreational channel in Pennsylvania, so no recreational age applies. (The Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, Act of Apr. 14, 1972, P.L. 233, No. 64, § 13 (Prohibited Acts; Penalties))

Null because Pennsylvania has no adult-use channel; see adult_use_status. 28 Pa. Code § 25.72 Schedules of controlled substances is the register's other listed source and, read in full, sets no age of any kind -- it is the Schedule I substance listing.

Pennsylvania sets no minimum age for a patient. (28 Pa. Code § 1191a.32 Medical marijuana patient authorization letters)

Section 1191a.32(a): 'The Department will issue a medical marijuana patient authorization letter to a minor patient instead of issuing an identification card to the minor patient. Upon reaching 18 years of age, a minor patient who has been issued a medical marijuana patient authorization letter will be entitled to receive an identification card.' No age floor is given for the minor patient who receives the authorization letter -- 18 is only when the letter converts to a card. 28 Pa. Code § 1191a.23 Patients and caregivers generally(c), the register's other listed source, confirms the mechanism: 'A minor patient shall have a caregiver who is one of the following: (1) A parent or legal guardian. (2) An individual designated by a parent or legal guardian,' again with no age given for the minor.

A minor patient holds an authorization letter rather than an identification card, and the letter converts to a card at 18. Nothing in the registered sources sets a youngest age for that patient, and the minor never buys personally: a parent, a legal guardian, or an adult one of them designates must be the registered caregiver.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed medical dispensary and a retailer of hemp-derived or CBD products. (28 Pa. Code § 1191a.31 Obtaining medical marijuana products from a dispensary)

28 Pa. Code § 1161a.24 Limitations on dispensing, the register's other source and the same one recorded for possession_limit and purchase_limit, states the dispensing rules that flow from this channel. Hemp Program FAQs, the register's third listed source for this question, answers a Q&A directly: 'Is there a license requirement in Pennsylvania for wholesaling, retailing or brokering hemp? ... There is not a state level permit/license requirement in Pennsylvania specifically for wholesaling, retailing or brokering hemp and hemp products,' with narrower licenses noted for hemp food, hemp seed, and hemp plants specifically -- recorded here as the hemp-cbd-retailer channel. No adult-use-dispensary channel is recorded since adult_use_status is not-legal, and no registered source for this question mentions delivery to a patient or consumer.

The regulation is exclusive about it: a cardholder may obtain medical marijuana products from a dispensary and from nowhere else, which shuts off every informal route. Hemp and CBD stores sit outside the program and need no state permit, so what you buy there is not medical marijuana in Pennsylvania's sense of it.

The Pennsylvania store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.