Top Pennsylvania cannabis official sounds alarm over skyrocketing medical marijuana prices

John Collins will soon be retiring from his position as director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Medical Marijuana. But before he leaves, Collins warns of the exorbitant prices the state’s medical cannabis patients must shoulder.

During an online meeting of the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Advisory Board on Wednesday, Collins lamented a trend that has caused patients in the state to pay more than they should.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the “average wholesale price for a gram of medicinal cannabis leaf in Pennsylvania has fallen 36% since the beginning of 2020,” but Collins said that “the average retail price paid by patients has only fallen 14% over the same period.”

“I’m clearly raising a red flag today, Mr. Secretary, that needs to be investigated,” Collins said during the meeting of Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter, as quoted by local news agency WSKG.

The Inquirer has more details on the price changes, reporting that the “average wholesale price for a gram of weed fell in February to $6.56 from $10.19 in early 2020” but at retail “the average price fell from $15.67 to $13.40 per gram per gram.”

According to the Inquirer, Pennsylvania has long had some of the highest medicinal cannabis prices in the country.

“There is a significant opportunity to pass savings on to patients. If they speak for them, they should demand that that be passed on to them,” Collins said, as quoted by New Castle News.

But as Collins said Wednesday, the state’s hands are pretty much tied.

WSKG reported that Collins says regulators in the state “have few options because the rules were written in Pennsylvania.”

“We can’t force a specific price,” Collins said, according to The Inquirer. “Pharmacies take ownership of the product and have the right to price it. What we can do to encourage more competition is to put it in the spotlight like we are doing today.”

Options like price caps might not alleviate the problem, according to Collins, who is retiring at the end of the month.

“We’re seeing evidence of a competitive market, but this again illustrates some reluctance to pass those savings on to patients,” Collins said, as quoted by WSKG.

But some industry officials have backed down on Collins’ claims.

Meredith Büttner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, a trade group that represents medical cannabis license holders in the state, said Collins’ comments Wednesday “do not recognize the regulatory reality of operating in Pennsylvania,” as quoted by The Philadelphia Inquirer .

According to The Inquirer, Büttner attributed “Pennsylvania’s relatively high prices to dual product testing requirements, the inability of Pennsylvania operations to convert contaminated cannabis into something else they can sell, and other factors.”

Pennsylvania legislators and policymakers have streamlined and expanded medical cannabis law since the treatment was legalized in 2016.

In September, two members of the Pennsylvania State House introduced legislation that would protect the state’s medicinal cannabis patients from DUI penalties.

“I believe that people with a medical need for cannabis who have acted boldly to seek help for their condition and have been granted medical cannabis use should be protected from DUI penalties for their legal medical cannabis use,” said Democratic State Rep. Chris Rabb, one of the bill’s sponsors. “I know I’m not the only lawmaker in the General Assembly who has been contacted by voters concerned that their responsible use of medical cannabis could expose them to law enforcement attack while driving.”

Last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services banned hundreds of medicinal cannabis products that they said contained additives not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.