ConnecticutHB 071812025 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

AN ACT CONCERNING THE REGULATION OF TOBACCO, CANNABIS, HEMP AND RELATED PRODUCTS, CONDUCT AND ESTABLISHMENTS.

Summary

To (1) establish a state-wide cannabis and hemp enforcement task force, (2) require a municipality to submit a copy of an application for a court order to the Attorney General, (3) authorize seizures of additional merchandise, (4) redirect funds derived from certain civil penalties to municipalities, (5) prohibit conduct concerning the shipment and transportation of tobacco products, electronic nicotine delivery systems and vapor products, (6) establish penalties concerning the unlawful shipment and transportation of cigarettes, tobacco products, electronic nicotine delivery systems and vapor products, and (7) provide that a cannabis establishment licensee, or any servant or agent thereof, shall be guilty of a class E felony if such person sells or delivers (A) any cannabis or cannabis paraphernalia to any person younger than twenty-one years of age, or (B) any synthetic cannabinoid to any person.

general law

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

45 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 19 costs, 20 mixed.

Cannabis businesses face set licensing fees

Beginning July 1, 2025, cannabis fees follow three stages: lottery entry, provisional license, and final license or renewal. Retailer and hybrid-retailer fees are $500/$5,000/$25,000; cultivator and producer fees are $1,000/$25,000/$75,000; micro-cultivator fees are $250/$500/$1,000. Product-manufacturer fees are $750/$5,000/$25,000; food-and-beverage-manufacturer fees are $250/$1,000/$5,000; packager fees are $500/$5,000/$25,000. Delivery-service and transporter fees are $250/$1,000/$5,000; dispensary-facility fees are $500/$5,000/$5,000. Added activities cost $5,000 for manufacturers adding food-and-beverage work, $25,000 for food-and-beverage manufacturers adding product manufacturing, and $30,000 or $25,000 for packagers adding product manufacturing. Backers and key employees pay $100; non-key employee registration costs $50. Dispensary-to-hybrid conversion costs $1 million and producer adult-use conversion costs $3 million, with statutory exceptions.

Cannabis businesses get longer equity deadlines

Producers and dispensaries that paid reduced conversion fees get 24 months after approval, up from 14, to license equity ventures. Producers must create two equity joint ventures and obtain a final license for each. Dispensaries must create one venture that receives a final license. Missing the deadline means producers owe the $3 million full fee minus what they already paid. Dispensaries owe the $1 million full fee minus what they already paid.

Cannabis growers get phased buildout deadlines

A social equity cultivator pathway allows provisional licenses through December 31, 2026, but no grants after that date. Applicants need Social Equity Council verification, a criminal background check, and a $3 million payment to the Cannabis Social Equity and Innovation Fund. From June 6, 2024, through December 31, 2027, eligible provisional growers can receive final licenses with 5,000 square feet of grow space. They must submit complete applications, comply with licensing requirements, pay the required $3 million fee, and plan to reach 15,000 square feet by December 31, 2027. Missing that buildout deadline brings a $500 daily extension fee and possible enforcement.

Equity growers can switch license paths

From July 1, 2025, through December 31, 2026, eligible social equity applicants can withdraw a cultivator application or provisional license and seek a micro-cultivator license. The council must verify eligibility, including continued eligibility after any lawful ownership or control change. Complete applications and documents are due December 31, 2026; provisional licenses may be issued through March 31, 2027. Withdrawn cultivator application fees are not refunded. Applicants without a provisional cultivator license pay a $500,000 application fee; conversion costs $500,000 unless a qualifying prior $3 million payment covers both application and conversion fees. Application fees go to the consumer protection enforcement account; conversion fees go to the social equity and innovation account.

Vapor shipments cannot go to homes

Beginning October 1, 2025, electronic nicotine and vapor-product shipments can go only to registered dealers or manufacturers, or government personnel acting officially. Common and contract carriers cannot knowingly deliver these products to homes or people they reasonably believe are ineligible. Other transporters also cannot knowingly deliver to ineligible recipients. Covered sales and deliveries require proof of age and a signed receipt; shipments outside original manufacturer packaging require visible product markings. Violations can lead to seizure, destruction, and civil penalties up to $10,000 per shipment or transport.

Infused drinks carry new wholesale fee

Beginning October 1, 2025, wholesalers must charge $1 per infused beverage container sold to package stores, cannabis retailers, hybrid retailers, or dispensaries. They must send collections to the state every six months for the preceding six-month period. The fee is not subject to sales tax and is not treated as income. Collections go to the consumer protection enforcement account for public health and safety, education, and enforcement.

Equity cannabis businesses face ownership limits

The Social Equity Council must approve or deny covered equity joint ventures in writing before licensing. Ventures generally cannot share an individual owner unless that person acts as a licensed backer. The council must set transfer limits during provisional licensing and for three years after final licensing, with exceptions including death or an operating-limiting condition. An approved transfer during those three years to a nonqualifying owner ends social equity status and reduced renewal fees immediately. Covered cultivators and their backers cannot increase venture ownership above 50% for seven years; for the specified phased-buildout group, that period starts at final licensing.

Equity cannabis growers owe revenue payments

Beginning October 1, 2025, final cultivator license holders under the specified social equity pathway owe annual revenue payments. Payments cover gross sales revenue from unaffiliated third parties. The rate is 0.5% in cultivation year one, 1% in year two, and 1.5% each year afterward. The Social Equity Council receives the money for deposit in the social equity and innovation account.

Equity cannabis ventures face new limits

Beginning July 1, 2025, social equity micro-cultivators under this pathway may seek no more than one equity joint venture. Before operating it, they must receive their license, begin cultivation, and submit required application and conversion fees. Cultivators that paid the $3 million fee and received conversion approval may create no more than two ventures. Cultivators with at least two provisionally licensed ventures on July 1, 2025, cannot apply for or create another.

High-THC beverage makers face export-only rules

The provision takes effect October 1, 2025; beginning January 1, 2026, only endorsed infused-beverage manufacturers can make high-THC beverages in Connecticut. Production must be for commercial resale exclusively outside Connecticut, with no direct sales or offers to individuals. Each beverage must say “Not for Sale in CT,” and manufacturers must verify out-of-state resale and electronically track specified products. They must follow applicable hemp sourcing, manufacturing, and testing requirements. Reports of out-of-state sales are due every six months beginning July 31, 2026.

Infused beverage wholesalers need state approval

Beginning October 1, 2025, infused beverage wholesalers generally need a renewable one-year state license. Owners must pass background checks without disqualifying convictions, and facilities must pass cleanliness and security inspections. Holders of specified Connecticut wholesaler or beer-wholesaler permits are exempt from this license requirement. Infused beverage wholesalers may sell only to package stores, cannabis retailers, hybrid retailers, and dispensaries, and cannot distribute alcoholic liquor. Beverages cannot appeal to people under 21 or make health claims; violations can bring license action or fines up to $5,000 each.

Some cannabis growers face flower caps

Beginning July 1, 2026, growers holding final licenses under the specified cultivator pathway face limits on flower sales. They must weigh harvested cannabis, excluding leaves and stems, within 24 hours after cutting or trimming and record the weight. At least 80% must be reserved for manufacturing or extraction; no more than 20% can be sold as flower. At renewal, growers must confirm compliance during the previous calendar year.

Vape dealers face penalties and reapplication bars

Beginning October 1, 2025, listed vape-dealer violations can bring fines up to $10,000 each, probation, conditions, registration denial, suspension, or revocation. Grounds include false applications, specified judgments or convictions, diversion-control failures, noncooperation, and covered advertising conduct. The law also removes the specific appeal route under section 30-55 without stating whether another route is available. Applicants who request a hearing within 10 days of a denial or nonrenewal notice and lose cannot reapply for one year. Revocation also bars the registrant and its owners from applying for one year.

Vape dealers face tougher registration checks

Beginning October 1, 2025, vape rules cover offers and attempted transfers, including barter, without requiring intentional conduct. Registration and renewal applications must disclose ownership, financial interests, and related enforcement history; covered owners need accredited background checks requested within 60 days before submission. Dealers must name a fiduciary agent, a guarantor personally liable for resulting department debts, and an on-site manager or supervisor. An authorized owner or designee must complete state prevention training; the state can request building, fire, and zoning compliance evidence. Some public-company and family-group interests of 10% or less have exceptions; false information, unpaid state taxes, disqualifying history, or missing training can block registration.

Vapor shops must check entry ages

Beginning October 1, 2025, vapor dealers must post a state-prescribed no-cannabis-sales sign on every outside entry door. Dealers earning at least 50% of annual gross revenue from specified cigarette, tobacco, nicotine, paraphernalia, and vapor sales must check every entrant's government-issued driver's license or ID and exclude anyone under 21. Dealers must retain financial and required records for the current tax year and three prior years. They must provide records within three days of a state request, electronically unless commercially impractical, without foreign-language, code, or symbol entries. At renewal, dealers must attest whether they meet the 50% threshold.

Cannabis delivery workers get full-time rules

Cannabis delivery services with at least 12 delivery workers must use only full-time delivery employees working at least 35 hours weekly. Every delivery employee must register with the Department of Consumer Protection. A service cannot employ more than 25 delivery employees at once.

Cannabis applicants face tighter lottery rules

Business applicants must register to do business in Connecticut and attest to registration; duplicate lottery entries lose their fees, except specified social equity entries. The state reviews selected applications for completeness and backer convictions, ownership-cap problems, or adverse findings; removing a disqualifying backer within 30 days can prevent denial. Social equity changes need council approval, and adding backers between lottery entry and final licensing is generally barred. A deceased backer can be replaced with commissioner approval and social equity review when applicable; general-lottery applicants can remove backers by notice. Covered provisional licenses last 24 months and cannot renew, except licenses issued under section 21a-420o.

Cannabis retailers gain options, lose giveaways

Beginning October 1, 2025, hybrid retailers can obtain cannabis from licensed growers, producers, packagers, manufacturers, and transporters. They can supply delivery services, testing labs, and research programs, and sell products to consumers or research programs. They cannot give cannabis free to consumers, qualifying patients, or caregivers as part of a commercial transaction. Retailers can apply to become hybrid retailers without a lottery; after a satisfactory inspection, the state replaces their retailer license. Hybrid retailers need written state approval and legal compliance to convert to dispensaries.

Cannabis transporters gain storage for $5,000

Beginning October 1, 2025, cannabis transporters can store products for up to 30 days after receipt, instead of 24 hours. Expanded storage requires a one-time $5,000 payment. Transporters must give at least 30 days' notice before storage exceeding 24 hours and receive written state security confirmation. They must meet security and electronic-tracking requirements and keep individual child-resistant packaging closed, subject to the stated bulk-packaging exception.

Equity applicants get reserved cannabis consideration

For each cannabis license type, 50% of the maximum applications considered are reserved for social equity applicants. When applications exceed the applicable limit, a third party runs separate equity and general lotteries and ranks applications for review. Denials can leave the state issuing fewer licenses than the posted maximum. If denials push the equity share below 50%, applications reopen only for social equity applicants.

Equity growers gain sites, owe transportation

Beginning October 1, 2025, social equity growers with final licenses can cultivate outside designated disproportionately impacted areas after council verification. Manufacturing and extraction must remain entirely in those areas, with at least 50% of those workers living there. For other work, resident-worker targets are 25% in year one, 50% in year two, and 75% afterward. Employers must provide transportation or advance travel-cost payments for workers who live in those areas.

Indoor cannabis growers gain retail option

Beginning July 1, 2025, final-license micro-cultivators growing only indoors can apply and pay for a retailer or hybrid-retailer endorsement. They must promise to follow retailer rules, avoid outdoor cultivation, and secure written confirmation of final-license compliance within 24 months. The retail site must share the premises, sit on adjoining land, or be within 100 feet. Endorsed growers cannot exceed 25,000 square feet of grow space. To convert to a cultivator license, they must permanently surrender the endorsement and stop retail sales.

Small cannabis growers gain sales options

Beginning July 1, 2025, licensed micro-cultivators can sell their own seedlings directly to consumers only through delivery. Qualifying patients and caregivers are excluded from these seedling sales, and other cannabis businesses cannot resell the seedlings. Delivery must use a delivery service or the grower's own workers. Beginning October 1, 2025, micro-cultivators with hybrid-retailer endorsements can sell their indoor-grown cannabis to consumers, qualifying patients, and caregivers. Those sales require written state confirmation that the grower meets retailer or hybrid-retailer requirements.

Vapor dealers face fees and penalties

Beginning October 1, 2025, new vapor-dealer applications cost a nonrefundable $1,000, up from $75; renewal applications have no application fee. Annual registration costs $800, and the former $400 annual fee for additional registrations is removed. Unregistered operation can bring fines up to $5,000 per violation after a hearing; registrations expired 90 calendar days or less can trigger up to $500 daily. The former written notice and 60-day chance to fix violations are removed, and dealers must update contact, ownership, and owners' criminal-history details online within 30 days of changes. Dealer-registration fees, settlements, and fines go to the consumer protection enforcement account.

Medical cannabis patients get priority access

Beginning October 1, 2025, hybrid retailers must offer qualifying patients and caregivers priority entry and private pharmacist consultation space. Each location must display the state's medical-marijuana symbol outside. A main-entrance sign, at least 12 by 18 inches, must identify the pharmacist available for consultations. Signs at each checkout must be at least 8 by 10 inches and say “Pharmacist available for consultation.” The same message must appear on any retailer website.

Indoor cannabis ads need no license

Beginning October 1, 2025, people can display cannabis ads or promotional materials without a cannabis establishment license. The materials must be visible only inside a cannabis establishment. The exemption does not cover ads visible outside.

Infused beverage makers gain wholesale channels

Beginning October 1, 2025, infused beverage manufacturers can sell to infused beverage wholesalers and holders of specified wholesaler permits. Authorized downstream buyers include dispensaries, hybrid retailers, cannabis retailers, and package stores. The law expands permitted wholesale distribution channels.

Cannabis sellers face synthetic cannabinoid felony

Beginning October 1, 2025, a licensed cannabis business commits a class E felony by selling or delivering any synthetic cannabinoid. The same penalty applies to its servants or agents. The prohibition covers sales or deliveries to anyone.

Cannabis shoppers get added safety protections

Beginning October 1, 2025, state cannabis rules must ban product types that appeal to children. This includes copies of foods, drinks, and other items that appeal to children. Cannabis dispensaries, retailers, and hybrid retailers must also prominently display state-prescribed signs about mold risks and mold-removal methods.

Connecticut strengthens cannabis and hemp oversight

Beginning July 1, 2025, a Cannabis Control Division oversees cannabis and certain hemp-product licensing and enforcement. It must run coordinated, unannounced checks with multiple agencies, covering at least two businesses per day during each initiative. A new state board meets quarterly about illegal sales, public health, science, regulation, and industry trends. The commissioner can use existing staff or hire staff within available funding.

Cannabis stores face set sales hours

Beginning July 1, 2025, cannabis retail sales are limited to 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. on Sundays. Other days, sales are limited to 8:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. These limits cover retailers, hybrid retailers, and micro-cultivators with retail or hybrid-retail endorsements, including indirect sales.

Hemp sellers face tighter sourcing rules

Hemp foods, drinks, oils, and other manufactured products for human ingestion can be distributed or sold only with approved hemp sourcing. The hemp must come from a USDA-licensed producer operating under an approved state or tribal production plan. Beginning October 1, 2025, manufactured hemp products sold at hybrid retailers must meet the same source standard. Existing packaging, labeling, testing, separation, and sales rules continue to apply where required.

Beverage wholesalers must verify product compliance

Beginning October 1, 2025, infused beverage wholesalers must keep auditable transaction records for the current tax year and three prior years. Requested copies are due within two business days, electronically unless commercially impractical; product and person entries cannot use foreign languages, codes, or symbols. The commissioner may inspect facilities and records, request information, or require an independent audit at the wholesaler's expense. Covered wholesalers must check representative container samples for product compliance before selling shipments. For specified out-of-state food or nonalcoholic-beverage manufacturers, they must also verify substantially similar manufacturing rules.

Cannabis businesses must submit workforce plans

Cannabis businesses without a workforce plan approved by July 1, 2025, must submit one by October 1, 2025, or 60 days before their next renewal, whichever comes first. The Social Equity Council must respond within 60 days with approval, rejection, or required changes. Social equity applicants seeking final cultivator licenses must include a council-approved workforce plan in their application evidence.

Cannabis growers need manufacturing approval

Beginning October 1, 2025, cultivators licensed under the specified pathway must obtain an off-site manufacturing endorsement before manufacturing or extracting cannabis. The Department of Consumer Protection may inspect the facility before issuing approval.

Public access to investigation records narrows

Beginning October 1, 2025, Consumer Protection must keep covered inspection and investigation information confidential until settlement or case closure. This limits when the public can get those records. The department can still share relevant information with state or federal agencies and law enforcement.

Cannabis businesses remain under interim rules

The commissioner must set maximum grow-space limits while seeking an adequate cannabis supply. Interim grow-space and covered delivery and transportation policies have the force of law until final regulations replace them or October 1, 2026. A separate set of interim cannabis policies runs until final regulations replace it or September 22, 2026. That separate deadline extends the prior limit from 48 to 63 months after June 22, 2021.

Consumers gain more cannabis delivery options

Beginning October 1, 2025, delivery services can bring cannabis from micro-cultivators, retailers, and hybrid retailers directly to consumers. Hybrid retailers can also use their own workers, with delivery authority tied to the commissioner's authorization of adult-use sales. Delivery services can bring cannabis or medical products from hybrid retailers or dispensaries to qualifying patients, caregivers, and hospice or inpatient facilities. Those facilities must hold public-health licenses and follow approved cannabis-handling protocols. Delivery services cannot hold products for more than 24 hours between an order and delivery.

Cannabis businesses get limited investigation time

Beginning October 1, 2025, cannabis businesses can investigate suspected diversion before reporting when they reasonably determine it involves no more than one-half ounce or its statutory equivalent. They must report findings within two business days after discovery. Suspected involvement by a person with a financial interest or a key employee requires immediate reporting. After two incidents in six months, the state can require immediate employee-diversion reports; after three in 12 months, immediate future reporting is mandatory. The state can still investigate independently.

Some growers get fee-free license conversions

Provisional cultivator license holders can apply to become micro-cultivators without a conversion fee or extra provisional-license fee. They qualify only if they created no more than two equity joint ventures that received final licenses. They must surrender the provisional cultivator license when the micro-cultivator license is issued and follow micro-cultivator laws. The conversion cannot include any ownership or control change.

Underage cannabis sales bring felony penalties

Beginning October 1, 2025, licensed cannabis sellers and their agents face a class E felony for selling or delivering cannabis to anyone under 21. That offense was previously a class A misdemeanor. Selling or delivering cannabis paraphernalia to anyone under 21 becomes a class C misdemeanor, down from a class A misdemeanor.

Hemp labels drop one child warning

The law removes the required warning that children should avoid ingestible hemp products before consulting a health professional. Labels must still advise people who are pregnant or breastfeeding to avoid use before consulting a health professional. The separate instruction to keep cannabinoid products out of children's reach also remains.

Residents gain input on tobacco licenses

Beginning July 1, 2025, cigarette and taxed-tobacco dealer applicants must notify town clerks, post notice at the business, and attest under oath. Clerks must post notices online for at least two weeks. At least 10 town residents age 18 or older can object, including about zoning matters. Initial objections are due within three weeks after posting ends; renewal objections are due at least 21 days before renewal. Towns can also require renewal notice to police, who have 15 days to comment; the state must consider and answer those comments.

Stronger cannabis allowed with added warnings

Beginning October 1, 2025, THC limits rise from 30% to 35% for cannabis flower and from 60% to 70% for other products. Specified medical sales are exempt, and prefilled cannabis cartridges are exempt from the 70% limit. The state may adjust these limits by regulation for public health, market access, or shortages. Sellers must separately display flower above 30% THC and other products above 60%, measured by dry weight; prefilled cartridges are excluded from this display rule. Products above these thresholds require “Warning - High THC” on menus and ads, plus health-risk signs.

Cannabis retailers must provide pharmacist care

Beginning October 1, 2025, hybrid retailers must have a pharmacist on site for at least eight consecutive hours per calendar week while open. When none is present and available, they must provide telehealth consultations and remote order checks; telehealth retailers must employ a pharmacist at least 20 hours weekly and maintain accessible technology. A licensed pharmacist must dispense cannabis sold to qualifying patients and caregivers. Sales must be reported immediately, no later than one hour unless immediate reporting is not reasonably feasible; only pharmacists and dispensary technicians may upload or access the data. Consulting pharmacists must complete five related education hours yearly, counted within—not added to—the existing 15-hour requirement.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

General Law Committee
Affiliation unavailable

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 244 • No: 37

House vote • 5/12/2025

APP Vote Tally Sheet (Joint Favorable)

Yes: 33 • No: 15

House vote • 4/25/2025

JUD Vote Tally Sheet (Joint Favorable Substitute)

Yes: 37 • No: 0

House vote • 3/24/2025

GL Vote Tally Sheet (Joint Favorable)

Yes: 22 • No: 0

Senate vote • 3/24/2025

Senate Roll Call Vote 395

Yes: 36 • No: 0