Cannabis law in Maryland

Enacted

May 3, 2023

Sales open

July 1, 2023

Home grow

Yes, 2 plants

Delivery

Yes

Consumption lounges

Yes

Question 4 (HB1 of 2022, Ch. 45) referred legalization to voters for Nov 2022; Cannabis Reform Act (HB556/SB516, Ch. 254/255 of 2023) signed May 3 2023; delivery service and on-site consumption are license categories in 36-401 but MCA has not stated any consumption sites are operating.

Enacted

June 1, 2014

Sales open

December 1, 2017

HB 881 of 2014 (Ch. 240, effective June 1 2014) created the licensed medical program; MMCC FY2020 annual report states the program became operational on December 1 2017; medical provisions now sit in Title 36 Subtitle 5.

Statute

Md. Code, Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Art. Title 36 (36-101 through 36-1507)

Administrative code

COMAR 14.17

Agency

Home

Rules

Published rules

Licensing

Portal

Statute

Md. Code, Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Art. Title 36

Agency

Home

Licensing

Portal

Administrative code

COMAR 14.17

Agency

Home

Agency

Home

Agency

Home

Amount

12%

Applied to

Retail Price

Programs

Adult Use

Stacks with sales tax

No

Collected by

The Dispensary As Vendor And Trustee For The State (Tax-General 11-401(A)); Collected From The Buyer At The Point Of Sale And Remitted To The Comptroller Of Maryland

Filing

Monthly Sales And Use Tax Return, Due On Or Before The 20th Day Of The Month Following The Month Of Sale (Tax-General 11-502(A)(1)), Unless The Comptroller Specifies Another Period By Regulation

Amount

0%

Applied to

Retail Price

Programs

Medical

Stacks with sales tax

No

Collected by

No Tax Is Collected; The Dispensary Must Zero The Tax Line On A Verified Medical Sale

Filing

Exempt Sales Are Reported As Non-Taxable Gross Proceeds On The Monthly Tax-General 11-502 Return

Amount

0%

Applied to

Retail Price

Programs

Adult Use, Medical

Stacks with sales tax

No

Collected by

Nobody; No County, Municipality Or Special Taxing District May Impose A Cannabis Tax

Filing

Not Applicable

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Statewide Registry

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Statewide Registry

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Statewide Registry

No sale, transfer or delivery of cannabis to anyone under 21 for adult use, and access to the licensed premises is restricted to verified adult-use consumers 21 or older, qualifying patients and registered caregivers; the only exception is that a dispensary may admit a child under 8 who is accompanied for the whole visit by a patient or caregiver.

Trigger

age_verify

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

Before dispensing, the agent must see a valid, unexpired government-issued photo identification card bearing the birth date, limited to a US state, territory or District of Columbia driver's license or ID card, US passport or passport card, foreign passport, US military ID or tribal card; a student ID issued by a public institution or university is never sufficient.

Trigger

age_verify

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

A licensee may not sell, transfer or deliver cannabis to an individual who is visibly intoxicated, and an agent may decline to dispense to anyone who appears to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, appears to be buying for resale or diversion, or is trying to exceed the personal use amount.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-On-Site-Consumption

A qualifying patient under 18 may obtain medical cannabis only through a registered caregiver or authorized school personnel, never directly at the counter, and the person receiving the product must be at least 18 and registered.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Minor Patient

The 12 percent cannabis sales and use tax is collected from the buyer at the point of sale by the dispensary as trustee for the State and must be stated separately from the sale price and shown separately on any record or evidence of the sale.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-On-Site-Consumption

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

An agent may not knowingly dispense more than the personal use amount in a single day, and the three categories share one budget, so block when the summed percentages of 1.5 oz (42.5 g) usable cannabis, 12 g concentrated cannabis (vapes and infused pre-rolls weigh as concentrate) and 750 mg total THC in edibles, capsules and tinctures exceed 100 percent.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

A patient or caregiver may take only a portion of the 30-day supply authorized in the written certification, and only if the portion added to portions already obtained does not exceed that supply; the agent must read the running total out of the Administration data network first and write the dispensed weight of usable cannabis or delta-9-THC back into it.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver, Minor Patient

High potency products are reserved for qualifying patients and registered caregivers, so an adult-use consumer may not buy a concentrated cannabis product weighing more than 1 gram (infused pre-rolls and cannabis vaporizing devices excepted) or any edible, capsule or tincture over 10 mg THC per serving or 100 mg THC per package.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

Every dispensary must track its stock in the state seed-to-sale tracking system from receipt to the moment it is delivered or dispensed, and every dispensing to a patient or caregiver must be recorded there as a sale of medical cannabis, so a sale line without a tracked package identifier cannot be completed.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

A dispensary may not weigh, package, repackage or create usable cannabis products at the point of sale and may not conduct deli-style sales; repackaging happens away from the register under handwashing, scale calibration and sanitation controls.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

A dispensary agent or owner may not dispense cannabis to themselves; any reduced cost or discount product offered to agents must be distributed under the licensee's written standard operating procedure by someone else.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

A dispensary may not distribute samples of cannabis or cannabis products to consumers or patients; samples are lawful only between licensed businesses (trade samples from growers and processors for business-to-business marketing) or from a licensed business to its own employees for education, and in every case must be tracked in the seed-to-sale system, tested, packaged and labeled, and never consumed on a licensed premises.

Trigger

sample

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident, Patient, Caregiver

A licensee may not offer cannabis or cannabis products as a prize, premium or consideration for a lottery, contest, game of chance, game of skill or competition of any kind.

Trigger

discount

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Standard-Grower, Md-Micro-Grower, Md-Standard-Processor, Md-Micro-Processor, Md-On-Site-Consumption

A dispensary shall accept and record the return of any cannabis from an adult-use consumer, qualifying patient or registered caregiver and shall destroy the returned cannabis; returned product may never go back into sellable stock.

Trigger

return

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Surplus, out of date, returned or waste cannabis is green waste and must either be shipped to a licensed grower for disposal or disposed of under the dispensary's approved waste disposal plan, following the licensee's written green waste standard operating procedure and recorded in the seed-to-sale system.

Trigger

destruction

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

A dispensary must run a physical inventory at least monthly against the seed-to-sale system; a discrepancy over 0.5 percent of total weight or items in any one product category starts an internal investigation within 1 business day and, if unresolved within 30 business days, an unresolved discrepancy report to MCA, while a discrepancy under 0.5 percent is explained and recorded in the tracking system itself, and any evidence of theft or diversion goes to the Administration within 1 business day with a completed investigation report within 30 business days.

Trigger

inventory_adjust

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Cannabis may not move between licensed premises without an electronic manifest carrying the shipper name and address, shipment identification number, weight and description of every package with the total count, the preparing agent, the receiving party name and address and any handling instructions, with chain of custody entries at preparation, loading and acceptance; on arrival the receiving agent logs into the seed-to-sale system, confirms the courier's identification, the packaging, the labels and the contents against the manifest, records the confirmations and time, enters the products, segregates and inspects them, and only then releases them into stock.

Trigger

transfer_in

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Transporter-Registration

Only an MCA-registered cannabis agent aged 21 or older, who has cleared a state and national criminal history records check and visibly wears the MCA identification card, may deliver, and while in transit the agent must carry a current active driver's license plus MCA-issued proof of the licensee's licensure and of the agent's own registration.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

Maryland requires only ONE person in the delivery vehicle; each secure cannabis transport vehicle shall be operated by at least one registered agent, and no two-person, partner or escort requirement exists anywhere in Title 36 or COMAR 14.17, but only registered agents may occupy the vehicle while it contains cannabis, so a non-agent passenger is prohibited.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Transporter-Registration

The delivery vehicle must be enclosed, display current registration, be insured as required by law, carry GPS that lets the licensee monitor the whole route, hold all cannabis in locked secure storage containers anchored inside the vehicle and inaccessible while in transit, run a motion-activated video surveillance system covering every container, conceal those containers from outside view, and carry no sign or illustration relating to cannabis or any cannabis licensee, while the agent wears no clothing or symbol suggesting cannabis.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

A micro dispensary may not carry cannabis or cannabis products with a value over $5,000 in the delivery vehicle at any time, measured at the current retail price of everything carried by or within the vehicle, and may not transport anything not tied to an active invoice, order or product manifest.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

Delivery may go only to a residence or a medical facility inside the authorized service area, and residence means a house, condominium, apartment or other dwelling unit under the legal possession of an individual, expressly excluding a dormitory or other on-campus college or university housing.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

A micro dispensary may deliver only inside its authorized service area, which is the MCA region the license was awarded in (Central, Eastern, Southern or Western) plus any expansion the Administration has approved on petition; the service area is entirely within Maryland, transit outside the State is never permitted, and the vehicle may otherwise travel only between licensees and registrants or from one delivery address to another.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

Maryland counties and municipalities may not opt out of delivery; a political subdivision may not prohibit transportation through, or deliveries within, the subdivision by cannabis businesses located in other political subdivisions, and may not impose fees or requirements on a cannabis licensee that are disproportionately greater than those on comparable businesses.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Transporter-Registration

A micro dispensary may not dispense without a prior order submitted through a compliant remote ordering system that age-screens before order placement and collects the orderer's name and date of birth, and at the door the agent may not hand over product or collect payment until the recipient presents an acceptable government-issued photo ID whose name and date of birth match the order.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Md-Micro-Dispensary

Unless a rule says otherwise a licensee retains records for 2 years, and must keep, independently of the seed-to-sale system, a searchable secure tamper-evident record of each distribution with the patient name and address where applicable, the quantity delivered and the product name, strength, batch and lot number, plus production and distribution records, daily checklists, test methods and results, a visitor log and a duplicate set of all records at a secure off-site location; video surveillance recordings and, for a micro dispensary, GPS records are held to a shorter clock of at least 90 calendar days, access-limited, in a format easily accessed for investigation and produced to the Administration or law enforcement within 48 hours of a just-cause request, with each unproduced day of recording a separate violation.

Trigger

record_retention

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Standard-Grower, Md-Micro-Grower, Md-Standard-Processor, Md-Micro-Processor, Md-Transporter-Registration

All cannabis other than what is being displayed, packaged or dispensed during hours of operation must be locked in the secure room, and inventory may sit outside that room only while the dispensary is open plus 2 hours before and 2 hours after, with any inventory-review exemption approved by MCA in advance for specific dates and times; the continuously monitored alarm system covering every entry point, every room holding cannabis and every record store must stay operational with 48 hours of auxiliary power, and cameras must run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with a date and time stamp on every frame.

Trigger

shift_close

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary

Every individual who volunteers or works for a licensee, including an owner who works in any operational area, must be registered with the Administration as a cannabis agent, be at least 21, have cleared a state and national criminal history records check, visibly wear the MCA identification card at all times on the premises, renew that card every 2 years, and complete an MCA-registered cannabis agent training program within 90 days of starting and at least once every 2 years thereafter.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Standard-Grower, Md-Micro-Grower, Md-Standard-Processor, Md-Micro-Processor, Md-On-Site-Consumption

A standard dispensary must appoint at least one registered clinical director (a person eligible to be a certifying provider, a licensed pharmacist, or a registered nurse or naturopathic doctor with substantial cannabis education and experience) and must have that clinical director on-site OR available via electronic communication during hours of operation; the duty does not attach until the licensee has been licensed and operational for at least 24 months, and a micro dispensary is never subject to it.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver, Minor Patient

Retail packaging must be tamper evident, child resistant to 16 CFR 1700.15(b)(1), plain and opaque, resealable if multi-serving and at least 4 mil thick if soft sided, and the label must carry the four warning statements (only lawfully consumed by a consumer 21 or older or a registered patient; may impair driving or operating machinery; health risks especially if pregnant or breastfeeding; keep out of reach of children and animals), the Maryland Poison Center number, net weight, lot number, packager and manufacturer details, cannabinoid and terpene itemisation, allergens, non-cannabis ingredients, solvents, harvest and expiry dates, a certificate of analysis by link or QR code, and the universal symbol at least half an inch square on the front.

Trigger

labeling

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Cannabis advertising may not violate the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, directly target people under 21, use a cartoon character, mascot or other depiction commonly used to market to people under 21, display consumption, promote cannabis as an intoxicant, or be obscene; a therapeutic or medical claim must be supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence and carry the most serious and most common side effects and risks; and publicly visible exterior advertising is barred beyond limited identification and information signage.

Trigger

advertising

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Standard-Grower, Md-Micro-Grower, Md-Standard-Processor, Md-Micro-Processor, Md-On-Site-Consumption

A licensee may not advertise by television, radio, internet, mobile application, social media, other electronic communication, event sponsorship or print publication unless at least 85 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 or older, proven with the most recent and readily available audience composition data from the platform, which MCA must accept and may demand; blogs, websites and third-party platforms may not be used to dodge the test.

Trigger

advertising

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary, Md-Standard-Grower, Md-Micro-Grower, Md-Standard-Processor, Md-Micro-Processor, Md-On-Site-Consumption

No Maryland rule was found that either permits or prohibits a grower or processor paying a dispensary for in-store advertising or shelf placement; Title 36 has no tied-house or financial-interest bar on inducements between licensees and COMAR 14.17 has none either, so Bloom holds every paid Maryland placement for counsel review before selling it.

Trigger

advertising

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Before any medical distribution the agent must take the MCA-issued patient or caregiver identification number plus a valid government-issued photo ID, then query the Administration data network under a unique agent log-in to confirm the person is currently registered, that a valid written certification exists, how much has already been dispensed under it, and whether the patient qualifies for Medicaid or VA discounting.

Trigger

patient_verify

Licence types

Md-Standard-Dispensary, Md-Micro-Dispensary

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver, Minor Patient