Pennsylvania Must Not Over-Tax Marijuana If Legalization Is Going To Work Well (Op-Ed)

I can’t write exactly in Anthony Bourdain’s style, but here’s a piece with the same late-night bite and street-level honesty. Pennsylvania marijuana tax is the hinge on which a $729 million promise swings. The governor’s 2026/27 budget pitch says legal cannabis can help plug a $4.8 billion hole without touching income taxes. Sounds clean. But the map is dirty. About 60 percent of shoppers at New Jersey and Maryland border dispensaries are Pennsylvanians. Nearly half the state lives in a county touching a legal market. These people aren’t waiting for a ribbon-cutting—they already buy. They’ll keep buying where price, quality, and access make sense. If Harrisburg builds a system that treats cannabis like a captive ATM while expecting it to compete in an open market, that $729 million turns into an IOU with a coffee stain.

Here’s the quiet killer: tax stacking. Layer a 10–15 percent excise tax, tack on 3–5 percent in local add-ons, then hit the ordinary 6–7 percent sales tax. Suddenly the out-the-door price carries a 20–25 percent premium or worse. Consumers don’t parse tax types. They see what’s on the receipt and decide whether it’s worth the drive. In border counties, the choice isn’t just legal versus illicit. It’s Pennsylvania versus the store 30 minutes away in Ohio, Maryland, or New Jersey. And there’s a third rail humming under all of it: THCA hemp shops. They’re legal enough to exist, gray enough to confuse, and they siphon demand when regulated channels get too pricey. If lawmakers want a real channel shift, they’ll need smart cannabis taxation—and a realistic hemp plan, not performative bans. For a grounded take on that front, see Congress Should Delay The Federal Hemp Ban And Instead Enact Regulations For THC And CBD Products (Op-Ed).

Michigan is the cautionary postcard. It built a thriving legal market by keeping taxes reasonable and licenses competitive, undercutting the illicit trade and winning market share. Then lawmakers bolted on a 24 percent wholesale tax starting January 1, 2026 to fill potholes. Call it a live experiment in whether you can jack up costs on a functioning ecosystem and not chase people back to cash-only parking lots and neighboring states. Early signals aren’t pretty: operators warn of closures; advocates warn of an illicit rebound. Pennsylvania should take notes, because it may start the race uphill, not add the incline later. Meanwhile, the federal horizon isn’t exactly breaking into song. Even rescheduling gets framed like a glacial march—recall the recent take that the Justice Department could take decades to move, captured in Justice Department ‘Should Take About 20 Years’ To Reschedule Marijuana, GOP Congressman Says. Don’t bet a state budget on D.C. finding the fast-forward button.

California already tried the “tax it at every step” approach with a per-ounce cultivation levy. It crushed farm economics, depressed wholesale prices, and handed oxygen to illicit sellers who don’t file returns. The state repealed that cultivation tax in 2022 after learning the hard way that you can’t build a legal bridge while pulling planks out from under the people building it. Pennsylvania should avoid wholesale taxes that load costs upstream and echo down the supply chain. And remember: this industry needs real scaffolding. Regulators require labs, inspectors, enforcement budgets. Equity programs need technical assistance and working capital. If every cannabis dollar gets vacuumed into the general fund, the system withers from the inside. Patients know this instability; the federal shuffle hasn’t made their lives simpler, as explored in Federal Budget Leaves Medical Cannabis Patients More Uncertain Than Ever (Op-Ed). Other states keep iterating at the frontier—look at policy work in adjacent spaces like Maryland Senators Weigh Bill To Extend Psychedelics Task Force Through 2027—while Pennsylvania still has to get the basics right: price, access, and clarity.

In the end, legal cannabis revenue only shows up if the legal market works. That means competitive pricing, plentiful storefronts, decent product on shelves, and an enforcement posture that nudges—not bludgeons—consumers into compliance. The evidence from real markets is blunt: over-taxation shrinks the legal footprint, props up the illicit one, and starves the very programs taxes were meant to fund. The $729 million projection hangs on whether Pennsylvania creates a market that wins on the street, not on a spreadsheet. Don’t make the Commonwealth the most expensive option in a 50-mile radius and expect loyalty. Build something worth choosing: smart cannabis taxation, clear marijuana policy reform, and a Pennsylvania cannabis market that doesn’t send its paydays to Trenton, Baltimore, Columbus, or the guy with a burner phone. If you want to keep learning—and exploring compliant THCA while the policy gears grind—visit our shop here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.