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Pennsylvania is medical only and applications are closed, so the way in is working with an existing permit holder
Pennsylvania Cannabis Retail
Entering Pennsylvania
Medical onlyMedical only. The Medical Marijuana Act, signed on 17 April 2016, created the program, and the Department of Health runs it. Dispensaries sell only to Pennsylvania residents certified by an approved practitioner who hold a state ID card, and to their registered caregivers.1, 2, 3
- License types and caps
- Grower/processor and dispensary permits, issued across six regions. Cap: the Department may initially issue no more than 25 grower/processor permits and 50 dispensary permits; each dispensary permit covers up to three locations, and no one may hold more than five dispensary permits or more than one grower/processor permit. On top of that, up to ten clinical registrants (operators under contract with an academic clinical research center) may each run up to six locations. Since Act 63 of 2023, an independent grower/processor may apply for one dispensary permit and an independent dispensary for one grower/processor permit.2, 5, 4
- Application window
- Closed. The most recent round was Phase 3 of the Act 63 permits in fall 2025, open only to independent grower/processors and dispensaries that already held a permit (the new permit goes to the existing permittee). The Department lists Phases 1, 2 and 3 as closed.4
- Local opt-out
- No. The Act has no local opt-out. Its zoning rule says a dispensary must meet the same municipal zoning and land use requirements as other commercial businesses in its zoning district, and a grower/processor the same as other manufacturing facilities. A dispensary may not be within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center, unless the Department waives this to give patients adequate access.2, 7
Ownership and social equity, taxes, delivery and testing, upcoming changes and the numbered sources are in the Pennsylvania rules panels on this page.
CannDev is evaluating the Pennsylvania market to find the best locations for medical dispensaries. Dispensary permits are capped and the application rounds are closed, so the way in is working with an existing permit holder. Please sign up for our Off Market Deals to be included in our alerts where you can get first look at new real estate opportunities in Pennsylvania.
Latest Pennsylvania News
Latest regulatory update
Cresco cannabis acquisition 2026 closes a $50M PharmaCann deal for 9 dispensaries, plus a first state program audit and new patient bill.
Regulatory Detail
Applications must name and verify every principal, operator, financial backer and employee, and all of them are fingerprinted for criminal history checks. Each principal and financial backer swears to any controlling interest held in the past ten years in a business making or distributing controlled substances. Applicants file a diversity plan, and the law's goal is equal opportunity in permitting for certified minority-, women- and veteran-owned and disadvantaged businesses. Permits cannot be transferred.2, 6
A 5 percent tax on a grower/processor's gross receipts from sales to dispensaries, paid by the grower/processor and never added as a separate line on the price a dispensary or patient pays. Medical marijuana is exempt from the sales tax (section 202 of the Tax Reform Code).2
- Delivery: sales happen inside an enclosed, secure dispensary the Department has inspected, or curbside to a patient or caregiver waiting in a vehicle on the dispensary's site.
- Testing: grower/processors must contract with a Department-approved laboratory; samples are tested for pesticides, solvents, moisture, THC and CBD, microbes, terpenes, heavy metals and mycotoxins. The rule setting when each batch and lot is tested (28 Pa. Code 1171a.29(c)(1) and (2)) is on hold under a court order while the case continues.
- Packaging: child-resistant, tamper-evident, resealable and opaque (except dry leaf), with every package and label approved by the Department in advance; nothing that resembles a food or drink brand or could attract children.
- In effect: The Commonwealth Court set deadlines for motions and a possible further hearing in the laboratory testing case; the stay on the batch and lot testing rule stays in place meanwhile.1
- In effect: The Commonwealth Court temporarily blocked the rule on added botanical terpenes in vaporization products, so the Department no longer checks those terpenes against FDA approval.10
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Medical Marijuana Program home page (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Medical Marijuana Act, Act 16 of 2016 as amended (35 P.S. 10231.101 et seq.), Pennsylvania General Assembly (statute, seen 11 November 2026)
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Medical Marijuana Patients (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Act 63 of 2023 permits (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- 28 Pa. Code 1141a.24: medical marijuana regions (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Dispensaries (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- 28 Pa. Code 1161a.26: dispensary facilities (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- 28 Pa. Code 1171a.29: testing requirements (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- 28 Pa. Code 1151a.34: packaging and labeling of medical marijuana products (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Medical Marijuana Program announcements (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
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