Edibles for Pennsylvania medical marijuana patients

Walk into a Pennsylvania dispensary and you will not find gummies, chocolates or baked goods. The Medical Marijuana Act forbids dispensaries to sell edibles. The same law, though, lets patients and caregivers mix medical marijuana into food or drink to make it easier to take. The difference is who does the mixing.

Two rules that work together

The act's list of permitted forms covers pills, oils, topical forms, forms for vaporization or nebulization, tinctures, liquids and dry leaf or plant form for vaporization. Edibles are not on it, and a separate provision makes it unlawful for a dispensary to sell medical marijuana as an edible. The act then carves out an exception for patients and caregivers: they may mix medical marijuana into food to assist ingestion.

So the line is drawn at the sale. A dispensary sells you a measured product in an allowed form. What you do with it at home, as long as you are not smoking it, is up to you and your physician.

Which products make sense to mix

Oils, tinctures and liquids are the forms designed to be taken by mouth, so they are the natural choice for mixing into food or drink. They come with labeled concentrations, which lets you measure a dose before it goes into anything. Pills are already a swallowed form; if swallowing them is the problem, ask your physician or the dispensary whether another oral form would work better than opening or crushing them.

Flower is sold in Pennsylvania for vaporization. Turning it into something you eat is not what the law's flower provision describes, and it makes the dose hard to know. If you want an oral product, buy one.

Mixing it carefully

1. Measure the dose from the product's label before you add it to food, and use the dose your physician discussed with you.
2. Mix it into a single serving, not a whole batch, so each portion contains a known amount.
3. Label the food clearly, and keep it separate from everyone else's food.
4. Store the original product in its original package, as the law requires for unused medical marijuana.
5. Keep everything out of reach of children and pets.

For caregivers of children

The food provision applies to caregivers as well as patients. For a child who resists droppers or pills, mixing a measured dose into a small amount of food can make administration easier. Minor patients take part only through a registered caregiver, who buys and holds the product. Our caregiver guide covers the registration and background check, and the autism guide discusses this situation for one listed condition.

What stays the same

Mixing medicine into food does not change the other rules. Smoking remains illegal. You may receive up to a 90-day supply of individual doses at a time. You must carry your ID card whenever you have medical marijuana with you. And Pennsylvania has long applied zero-tolerance DUI rules to marijuana, so check current law and do not drive after taking it. Our patient rules page has the full set, and the guide to vaping versus smoking covers the inhaled forms.

Next step

Ask the physician who certifies you which oral product and dose make sense for your condition, then check the Department of Health's list of dispensaries with product to see who stocks it. Our dispensary guide explains how to use that list.

Questions people ask

Worth reading next

• The 24 qualifying conditions in PA
• How to apply for a PA medical card
• What the PA card costs
• Online certification in PA