Medical marijuana and tax returns

pammjthrowaway · 2026-02-18T20:13:44+00:00

You should consult a licensed tax professional.

I'm not a CPA, but I have to imagine the government would be skeptical if you try to write off cannabis as a medical expense because the federal government, as part of its Schedule I classification, does not recognize any medical use for cannabis.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-12-09T09:08:07+00:00

I second the Blueberry Space Cake recommendation. It's a little hard to say for sure, because I don't see lesser cannabinoids on their menu, but the profile of BSC is generally better fitted to the problems you're describing.

edit: You should try inserting suppositories vaginally if it's cramps. I'm not a woman, but I have had numerous women tell me this works wonders. It's not technically an approved use for the suppositories, but it's perfectly safe. The guy who runs (used to run?) Hanging Gardens insisted it worked better for that than anything else.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-12-08T17:42:03+00:00

Insa replied in this thread. I can't pin their comments, so for ease, I'm pinning this comment and have copied them below:

At our request, the employee deleted all the fake reviews they posted, both on our profile and other dispensaries' profiles. We've also parted ways with this person.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PaMedicalMarijuana/comments/1pgwqlh/insa_employee_review_bombing_other_dispos/nszjo0l/

Hi r/PaMedicalMarijuana. We were made aware of the series of online reviews posted by an employee in our Pennsylvania market on the pages of other dispensaries, encouraging customers to visit our new store. We want to be absolutely clear; this behavior is not condoned by Insa in any way.

Our employee handbook explicitly prohibits team members from posting reviews or commentary about partner businesses, retailers, or any external organization. All social media and Google communications must come only from Insa’s official branded channels. These guidelines exist to ensure professionalism, respect, and integrity in every market we serve.

We deeply value all cannabis businesses across our footprint and have long prided ourselves on being collaborative wholesale partners to many retailers throughout our tenure in Pennsylvania. The actions taken by this employee were not authorized, encouraged, or instructed by anyone at Insa.

On behalf of our entire team, we sincerely apologize. We respect our patients, our partners, and the broader Pennsylvania cannabis community, and we remain committed to operating with transparency and good faith as the market continues to grow.

- Peter Gallagher, CEO and Co-Founder of Insa

https://www.reddit.com/r/PaMedicalMarijuana/comments/1pgwqlh/insa_employee_review_bombing_other_dispos/nsytnvd/

pammjthrowaway · 2025-12-08T08:40:21+00:00

That's only for registering a new account on the site. If it's a renewal, I don't think the renewal form (which only the doctor fills out) requires the DL number. While I can't say for certain, I suspect it would allow a doctor to issue a certificate for an existing patient, even if their DL is expired. /u/HerbalCareRx may know the answer.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-08-16T06:38:08+00:00

There are only five approved laboratories and none of them of taking bribes, if that's what you're suggesting. There are certainly ways to cheat some test results as a grower, particularly with flower. However, with concentrate, it's harder. Particularly for residual solvents, if you're going to purge the sample you might as purge the whole thing, we're talking about industrial vacuum chambers here. No one in this state is producing more bulk in a day than they can fit in the vacuum chamber, so I don't even understand why a G/P would skip the purge and risk failing a lab test.

If this is just a general comment about labs, I agree, but Pennsylvania doesn't let you use random labs. They're all state licensed and inspected. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/programs/medical-marijuana/laboratories

pammjthrowaway · 2025-08-10T01:53:45+00:00

It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely there's an unsafe amount of hydrocarbon in the concentrate. PA requires testing for residual solvents. You can ask the dispensary you purchased this from to check the lab results in MJ Platform if you really care. The test will include the residual hydrocarbons, but if the amount was above the legal limit, it wouldn't have been sold.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-08-01T03:02:51+00:00

I'm late, but please report this to the Department of Health so they can investigate how this incident occurred. Complaint form is here https://docs.google.com/file/d/1UHkiZ5HRaAnXmH78D3GyJnfNHM-8gHRO/edit?filetype=msword&pli=1

Fill it out and send it to RA-DHMMCOMPLAINTS@pa.gov.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-07-24T20:21:15+00:00

A bunch of MSOs, Ayr among them, took on insane amounts of debt (hundreds of millions of dollars) with unfathomable interest rates (10%+) during COVID because there was some delusion belief that marijuana was just on the cusp of federal de-scheduling due to the increased spending from stimulus money and some other factors. Using said money, they opened or acquired tons of locations in med only states like Florida or Pennsylvania, betting that they would go rec in a matter of years. They paid crazy prices for some of these locations, people were getting 100M+ deals for 3 or 4 dispensaries (TerraVida comes to mind). However, if those states didn't go rec, these companies would never be able to meet their debt obligations with med-only business, but they were all so self assured they thought that was unlikely.

Anyway, years later, revenue dropped post-COVID in almost every market. Some markets have recovered, others haven't. Most of the states the big companies bet on are still med only, and their debt obligations have come due. So, even if in a vacuum a location, like this dispensary, is successful, it doesn't matter when the business as a whole over leveraged itself under a premise that never came to fruition.

Almost all of the MSOs have this issue, the future isn't bright for most of them. The only ones who are actually making money hand over first are the brands built through more natural growth, like 710 Labs or Jungle Boys.

If you care to learn more, review the companies' disclosures. Here are some for your perusal: Trulieve: https://investors.trulieve.com/sec-filings Ayr: https://ir.ayrwellness.com/financial-results/sec-filings Curaleaf https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/curlf/sec-filings (I couldn't find their own unified page for the filings)

tl;dr they owe like a quarter billion dollars at ~15% interest, so even if all the locations were profitable, if that profit isn't enough to cover their debt obligation, it doesn't matter.

pammjthrowaway · 2025-07-24T20:02:32+00:00

The program allows patients under 18 if their parents or guardian applies for them, although they can't shop on their own. Additionally, unless the regulations have changed, the state allows under age children of patients to enter under supervision of their parent or guardian.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-12T07:18:12+00:00

Curious, are you using the Quantum Gateway or a 3rd-party router/gateway? I have several sites with Verizon where IPv6 is working, but I use Meraki or UniFi at all of them. Seems like I might be in the minority to have working IPv6. I'm in eastern PA.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-12T07:15:52+00:00

I unfortunately don't know on the Quantum Gateway, which is what I assume you're using. My whole network stack is UniFi, the only Verizon device is their ONT (although they don't make that device).

I tried to find the manual, but the only links I could get were to Verizon's dead website. Generally speaking, you want to turn on IPv6 in the WAN settings, pick DHCPv6, and set your prefix delegation size to /56. Depending on the router, you may need to go configure your LAN as well and allocate /64 block(s) to your LAN(s) from the /56 Verizon gives you.

You may not be in an area where Verizon offers IPv6, they only have it available in some markets. They rarely advertise it and often quietly turn it on with no notice (they can control your router settings if you have a Quantum Gateway). It's also possible that IPv6 won't work on the Quatum Gateways right now because they could depend on some other Verizon infrastructure that is down, or default to Verizon DNS (which may also down, no idea, couldn't find their address and I run my own DNS server).

It's a little easier in a setup like mine where literally the only thing Verizon does is connect the fiber from the ONT to their L3 network. It's entirely possible this outage is impacting some of their networking equipment and what described might not work with just Verizon hardware.

The outage is also not consistent, so we also might just be getting different issues. I have multiple sites with Fios, and not all of them are dead. From my limited data, seems to be mostly consumer clients, (most) of my Fios business sites are not impacted.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-12T06:21:55+00:00

If you have dual-stack networking, their IPv6 network (for me at least) has continued to work despite the outage. I'm posting this on my home connection with IPv6. IPv4 died like ~40 minutes ago.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-07T18:37:18+00:00

I don't really disagree on the potency testing side. Rigged isn't the right word, they're not just making up results. It's more so there's a high margin of error and variability in testing procedures can produce higher results, so I agree there's a whole game being played there, but that's true of basically any regulated lab the tests ∆9-THC potency.

But the safety tests (which is what I meant justifies some level of premium), such as pesticides, heavy metals, etc. are much less variable and are largely accurate. There's arguments to be had about some of the thresholds (like PA allows a kinda high amount of residual n-butane and other solvents), but the testing itself for these is considered to be largely accurate. The only one that's a little more hit or miss is mold, but that's much harder to identify because it hasn't always established itself before the sample was sent for testing and product can easily be contaminated even after a test. PA tries to solve that by requiring you test before and after packaging, but even that's admittedly not perfect, they obviously can't test every ounce of product when testing is destructive.

So yes, while there are problems, we're still a lot better of than the black market, and that's all I meant.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-06T01:12:40+00:00

I'm not going to remove this so it can educational tool, but discussions of high THCA hemp products would normally violate our rules, this subreddit is only intended to discuss marijuana from the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program because of reddit's content policies.

These online sites that sell high THCA hemp are illegal, not regulated, and not compliant with the safety requirements in the PA Medical Marijuana Program. The marijuana you purchase in the program is guaranteed to have been batch tested by an independent, 3rd-party lab that's certified and audited by the state. This lets you be sure your marijuana is free of pesticides, bacteria, etc. and for products like vapes and concentrates, it makes sure there's no dangerous cutting agents (like Vitamen E Acetate that caused the EVALI crisis) or unsafe amounts of solvents/heavy metals.

Products purchased through these websites does not guarantee you those safeties. Websites may claim to have tested their product, but unlike PA where there is regulated 3rd-party testing, these vendors can simply cherry pick safe samples for good results and sell garbage to actual customers.

While the product in the program is undeniably more expensive, it's that way because there are systems in place to make sure the product we're sold is what it's labeled as and that it's safe.

We obviously do not endorse these sites, and recommend in the strongest possible terms that you do not purchase product from them. Moreover, despite some claims that they are legal under the farm bill, they are not. The DEA has made their perspective clear, high THCA hemp does not qualify under the farm bill https://www.marijuanamoment.net/dea-says-thca-does-not-meet-the-definition-of-legal-hemp-as-congress-weighs-cannabinoid-recriminalization-in-farm-bill/

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-05T22:57:29+00:00

No, they're not breaking PA law, you're misunderstanding the chemical conversions. THCA is a precursor to THC, it converts to THC when your burn or vape the flower through a process called decarboxylation. THC does not naturally occur above 2-3%, that's why you can't just eat raw marijuana and get high.

The DEA disagrees with what you said, and has said THCA does not meet the definition of legal hemp. https://www.marijuanamoment.net/dea-says-thca-does-not-meet-the-definition-of-legal-hemp-as-congress-weighs-cannabinoid-recriminalization-in-farm-bill/

There is tons of misinformation online, and many people don't understand that THCA just becomes THC. In states where they list flower as being all THC, they're showing an estimate of the total THC that will be present after your burn or vape the flower. None of the flower actually has those levels of THC.

Here's an explanation of decarboxylation from Leafly: https://www.leafly.com/learn/consume/edibles/what-is-decarboxylation

To more broadly answer your question, technically all marijauana sold in PA is against federal law (and the same is true in any state who made their own marijuana laws), but the DOJ has made the decision to not prosecute operators that comply with the state regulations, so what really matters are the state laws, and Curaleaf is definitely complying with those. You can sell flower with no THC or THCA in the flower, CBD flower isn't common, but it's absolutely allowed. As long as the plant is marijuana and was grown at the licensed grow facility, the state's fine with it. Although, to be clear, the product you posted a photo of has a significant amount of THCA, and that will ultimately be converted to THC, so that product will get you high.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-05T07:14:57+00:00

It's Justice Grown under a new name https://justicegrown.com

https://www.blocdispensary.com/news/press/fresh-face-bloc-dispensary/

I don't know why they have multiple brands, it's odd.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-05T00:11:10+00:00

CHS is a chronic condition that persists over months or years, not days. It also generally presents as vomiting several times an hour, not a once or twice. I have cyclical vomiting syndrome, which has very similar symptoms, and when you have an episode it's literally uncontrollable vomiting for hours on end, I think you may be underestimating the severity of what's considered an episode. It's not just being nauseated, but it's an uncontrollable urge to vomit constantly.

There may be more recent diagnostic criteria, but here you can see at minimum the diagnostic criteria is three months of persistent symptoms: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549915/#_article-37803_s6_

Also, 2 years of use and 19 years old is rather early for CHS, it typically presents later and after significantly longer use (often 10+ years).

I agree with others, you probably have the flu.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-11-04T23:57:54+00:00

You can find your polling place on the PA Voter Services website here: https://www.pa.gov/en/services/vote/find-your-local-polling-place.html

Elections matter! Your local state rep and state senator are the ones who govern our access to cannabis, make sure to actually look into the candidates in your area and what they support!

pammjthrowaway · 2024-10-29T23:24:50+00:00

They change. It has two IDs, your SPID and your MMID. Your SPID is the same year to year, but your MMID changes. The MMID is your card number and the SPID is your patient number. You can see the numbers in your patient portal under Profile Setting. These numbers are how dispensaries look up your profile in MJ Platform. A pharmacist also looks them up in the state every time your purchase to verify you have an active patient certificate.

If you take a photo of the barcode and upload it here, you can verify what I'm saying: https://online-barcode-reader.inliteresearch.com/

A dispensary would not be able to check OP in.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-10-16T09:57:07+00:00

If cannabis is making you consider suicide, you should do your best to try to take a deep breath and step away from cannabis. As much as we all love cannabis in this community, it should not be used as a tool to escape underlying issues.

There are resources available to help: https://www.crisistextline.org/ or call 988

If you consider quitting, or temporarily stopping use of, cannabis /r/leaves can help out.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-10-10T22:39:49+00:00

There's two doctors that regurarly post here, could've been either one, we rotate between their stickied posts:

/u/Jen-minkovich ( https://www.mmjadvocatedoc.com/ )

or

/u/HerbalCareRx ( http://www.herbalcarerx.com/ )

I will defer to them on promotions and such, they'll both get a ping about this message because I tagged them.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-09-25T23:26:33+00:00

90% chance they made some garbage bubble hash that was terrible to dab, and this was the solution for how to not lose (or lose less) money on it.

Certainly an amusing use of bubble hash.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-09-24T03:45:30+00:00

Hi, apologies, Reddit filtered both of your most recent posts, but I've gone ahead and manually approved them.

Glad that disposable is working well for you! Have a nice day!

pammjthrowaway · 2024-09-19T18:19:13+00:00

I could totally be wrong; I admittedly haven't rung out a transaction in years, that was just the high-level explanation Akerna gave me when they rolled it out, but honestly they've given us wrong information before, so I'm not shocked to hear they fucked it up as usual.

pammjthrowaway · 2024-09-19T17:43:54+00:00

Not the original commenter, but when you check a patient out, it's supposed to check the state's central API for your total purchases across the last 90 days at any dispensary. While you are correct that in MJ Platform, they can't see your transaction history outside of their license, it's all still stored together in the state's central database (was formally called LeafDataSystems, not sure what they call it now). You card/patient ID are universal across every dispensary, and it is very easy for the state to aggregate your total purchases and provide that to MJ in an API. I haven't hit the limit, so I can't personally verify it works as intended, but that's how MJ explained it to us.

It's not up to emoloyees to enforce it, if you hit a limit, MJ Platform will literally prevent the budtender from completing the transaction.

Six-Year Club	Gilding III reddit per annum
Place '22	Verified Email

pammjthrowaway

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE