Dutchie does not provide compliance advice. Merchants are responsible for their own compliance. External Dutchie compliance documentation may be updated from time to time and has been prepared for informational purposes only, is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or compliance advice. Merchants should consult their own tax, legal and compliance advisors to determine how best to operate within the cannabis industry.
In Maryland, cannabis is regulated by the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA). Medical and adult-use cannabis are allowed.
Maryland uses Metrc as their state traceability system. In Maryland, medical and adult-use cannabis inventory are combined, and tracked in a single βhybridβ traceability instance per license. Patient allotments are tracked and reported to Metrc for each sale.Β
In Maryland, Recreational consumers may purchase up to the legal possession limit, as follows:
1.5 oz of Flower
12g Concentrate (Vape Cartridges)
750mg THC in other cannabis products (edibles, tinctures, etc.)
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According to the interpretation of these limits provided by the MCA: An adult use consumer may purchase up to 100% of a single category but may not purchase any other product without going over the limit.Β They can purchase up to 99% of each category in one purchase and not go over the purchasing limit.
Adult use consumers may purchase Vape cartridges and accessories, but otherwise may not purchase cannabis concentrates, or any THC products that exceed 100mg per package.
Medical Cannabis patients in Maryland may purchase against a rolling 30 day supply, which is tracked in METRC
The medical patient allotments are tracked directly in METRC. Dutchie POS will pull the METRC patient allotment to determine whether a particular sale surpasses the daily or monthly patient purchasing limit.
The State of Maryland does not explicitly define product type equivalencies.
Adult Use cannabis sales are subject to a 9% tax
Medical cannabis is classified as a prescription medication in Maryland making it exempt from the state's Sales and Use Tax. However, consumption devices and ancillary products for the use of medical cannabis not specified in the patient's medical prescription remains subject to the state's Sales and Use Tax.
Currently, Standard Cannabis licenses may only deliver cannabis to medical patients. Standard Dispensary licenses will be allowed to conduct medical cannabis deliveries until July 1, 2024.
Micro-Dispensary licenses, and Courier licenses will be awarded in 2024 which allow those specific licensees to conduct retail delivery sales for recreational consumers.Β
βMCA Homepage ->
MCA Rules and Regulations ->
MCA Guidance and Bulletins ->
All applications (except for ROD and ROND licensees) must be accompanied by a non-refundable application fee of $1,000. Additional license fees are imposed prior to the issuance of a final license. If the applicant qualifies as a social and economic equity applicant, then a 50% reduction, waiver, or deferred fee will apply. Other reductions, waivers, or fee deferrals may be approved by the Board for those demonstrating sufficient need.Β
Application review for the AUCC, AUCP, and CAURD applications takes approximately 4 to 8 weeks, per the Office. After the Office reviews and processes your application, if it meets the requirements, it will then be presented to the Board for final approval. Applicants may only begin adult-use cannabis activities upon final license approval from the Board.Β
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For the non-conditional adult-use application round opening on October 4, OCM has indicated that it would begin reviewing those retail and microbusiness applications with site control as early as November 3, with no set timeline for ultimate license issuance.
The short answer is that there are no caps on total number of licenses in the Cannabis Law. Weβve seen hundreds of AUCP and AUCC licenses issued to date. For CAURD licenses, whereas the Board initially only planned to issue 150 total licenses, they then agreed to double that number to 300, and then exceeded that number thereafter.Β
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That being said, the Board and the Office may limit the total number of applications in a few different material ways. For instance, they may limit licenses by location or authorized regions (as they have done in the CAURD application round), size of operation or output, or other operating conditions, dependent on issues related to sustainability, public health and safety, and social and economic factors.Β
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For the application round opening on OCtober 3, OCM has indicated that it intends on issuing more than 1,000 total licenses, estimated to be broken down as follows:
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Given that New York has now held three (3) distinct adult-use application rounds (AUCC, AUCP, and CAURD), it should be noted that those three (3) applications were notably consistent. The applications are hosted on the New York Business Express website, which is largely user friendly, though subject to crashes on high volume days (such as the final date for submission of the CAURD applications).Β
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The proposed adult-use regulations identify similar areas of information for the forthcoming license opportunities, including:Β
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For the application period opening on October 3, the Office will initially review:
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As it relates to final licensure, the Office will assess, among other things:
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