New Marijuana Regulations Effective

The Marijuana Enforcement Division’s rules focus on legislation implementation, including new concentrate restrictions and contingency plans for outdoor cultivations

Marijuana rules from the General Assembly’s 2021 legislative session went into effect on January 1, 2022, for all regulated marijuana businesses across Colorado. New rules of note include the reduction of daily sales limits of medical concentrate from 40 grams to eight grams (two grams for 18-20-year-olds), the development of an educational resource; stores are required to provide with every concentrate purchase, and a new process for outdoor cultivations to establish and obtain approval for contingency plans to prepare and respond to adverse weather events. Final rules were adopted by the State Licensing Authority on November 10, 2021, after a summer and fall of extensive stakeholder engagement led by the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED).

“The General Assembly delegated significant items for MED to tackle during rulemaking this year, and we wouldn’t have been successful without the active engagement and hands-on effort we received from our stakeholder community,” said Dominique Mendiola, MED Senior Director. “While parties didn’t always agree, the diverse perspectives of our stakeholders were critical to ensuring we ultimately got to a place of acceptable compromise that aligned with the legislative direction.  Our work, however, isn’t complete. We will continue to refine regulations and support the implementation of these new rules well into 2022 and beyond.”

Highlights of notable key rules that go into effect on January 1* include:

• As a result of HB21-1317: Regulating Marijuana Concentrates:
  • Patients over 21 years of age can now purchase no more than eight grams of Medical Marijuana Concentrate and patients ages 18 to 20 can purchase no more than two grams of Medical Marijuana Concentrate per day unless otherwise recommended by a physician. The previous limit was 40 grams per day. No changes were made to Retail Marijuana Concentrate purchases, which remain at eight grams per day.
  • Creation of an educational resource pamphlet to be distributed with all medical and retail concentrate purchases (includes a recommended serving size for Concentrates)
  • Creation of the Uniform Certification Form for medical marijuana stores to accept official documentation from recommending providers to outline an exception (either physical or geographical hardship) for patients to purchase above their statutory daily limit of Concentrates.
  • Requirements for stores to document patients’ daily purchases in Colorado’s marijuana inventory tracking system to ensure that no individual is purchasing above their daily limit across stores.
• As a result of HB21-1301: Cannabis Outdoor Cultivation Measures:
  • Allows outdoor cultivations to submit contingency plans in circumstances of an Adverse Weather Event (such as a drought, a freeze, hail, excessive moisture, excessive wind, tornado, an earthquake, wildfire, or flood).
  • Outlines the process, procedures, requirements, and restrictions for contingency plans
• As a result of HB21-1216: Marijuana Licensees Ability To Change Designation (effective July 1, 2022):
  • Qualified Medical Marijuana Cultivation Facilities and Medical Marijuana Products Manufacturers may accept Retail Marijuana and change its designation from Retail Marijuana to Medical Marijuana.

MED will continue to focus on outreach to support stakeholders through the implementation process.

Please visit the MED Rules Page to view the Colorado Marijuana Rules, 1 CCR 212-3, in its entirety.

* Unless otherwise noted directly in the rule, these new adopted rules were effective beginning January 1, 2022.