DOH Bureau of Medical Marijuana: Technical Advisory on Continuous Monitoring

The Department of Health (Department) regulations permit the Department to issue technical advisories to assist permittees in complying with the Medical Marijuana Act (Act) and to provide guidance regarding the Department’s interpretation of those requirements and how permittees may maintain compliance.

The Department's regulations require that a ''grower/processor shall designate employees to continuously monitor the security and surveillance systems at the facility'' and that a “dispensary shall designate an employee or employees to continuously monitor the security and surveillance systems at the facility.'' These regulations introduced an additional security measure to prevent diversion at grower/processor and dispensary facilities by ensuring designated employees at the facility would be able to respond immediately to issues without delay caused by offsite notifications.

Earlier this year, the Department solicited feedback from the medical marijuana organizations (MMO) to assess whether having designated employees onsite effectively prevented diversion. Based on the MMOs feedback, the Department concluded that there was a lack of data suggesting that having the designated employees at the facility increased diversion prevention and that designated employees at the facility may be more susceptible to coercion and to participate in diversion attempts undertaken by other employees.

The Department is issuing this guidance on its interpretation of these regulations. The Department interprets the phrase ''at the facility'' to refer to the location of the security and surveillance systems. The designated employees who must continuously monitor these systems may be onsite or offsite.

To further assist with maintaining compliance, the Department reminds MMOs of the following requirements:

• MMOs must notify the Department in writing of any proposed modification of their plans of operation no less than 30 days prior to the proposed modification.
• MMOs must submit full and complete plans of operation for Department review, including all security policies and protocols. A security policy and protocol plan of operation specific to the offsite continuous monitoring must be provided to the Department for review.
• ''Employee'' is defined as ''an individual who is hired for a wage, salary, fee or payment to perform work for an applicant or permittee.''  Designated employees must be affiliated with the MMO whether they are onsite or offsite, which includes completion of a background check and the 2-hour training course.
• The Department and its authorized agents have access rights to an MMO's operation as part of inspections and investigations. Failure to provide the Department or its authorized agents immediate access to the MMO's operations related to continuous monitoring for inspection or investigation purposes may result in disciplinary action.

Copies of technical advisories may be obtained by contacting the Bureau of Medical Marijuana, RA-DHMMregulations@pa.gov, (717) 547-3454.

This notice was published in the October 24, 2026, edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin.