Maryland MCA-aware dispensary platform

Statutes that bite

Tax stack

Compliance topics surfaced in-platform

• Age 21+ adult-use / 18+ medical at the register (medical exempt from 12% — the split is real-money) — a Maryland qualifying patient under eighteen must have a caregiver by definition (Md. Code, Alc. Bev. & Cannabis §36-101: “if under the age of 18 years, has a caregiver”, that caregiver being a parent or legal guardian plus up to two additional designated adults), so the caregiver transacts and the register floor holds at 18
• METRC tag handoff + manifest reconciliation per COMAR 14.17
• Patient registry lookup hook (Maryland Medical Cannabis Patient ID)
• Monthly physical-inventory reconciliation export with 0.5% discrepancy flagging (COMAR 14.17.12.04D). A discrepancy over 0.5% starts a chain, not a single step: 14.17.12.10A(1) requires an investigation commenced within one business day AND, if it is not resolved within 30 business days, a report of the discrepancy to MCA — and A(2) says failure to report an unresolved discrepancy "may be used as evidence of diversion." Section C then requires, within 30 business days of discovering a theft, diversion or unresolved discrepancy, that the dispensary complete the investigation, amend its standard operating procedures if necessary, and send a report of the investigation to the Administration. Theft or diversion itself is reportable within one business day under B. We track the whole clock, not just the opening day
• COMAR 14.17.14.02A(1) requires a record kept INDEPENDENT OF the seed-to-sale tracking system — verbatim, “Independent of the seed-to-sale tracking system, a searchable, secure, tamper-evident record of each distribution” carrying the patient name and address where applicable, the quantity delivered, and the product name, strength, batch number and lot number. A(5) adds a duplicate set of all records at a secure OFF-SITE location. A Metrc export cannot satisfy this by construction: the rule’s first four words exclude it. This is the operator’s duty and our reconciliation export is not it — we say so rather than let an adjacent export imply otherwise.
• Social-equity license-class flagging — kept SEPARATE from the 2023 conversion, because they are different processes. §36-401(b)(1)(ii) is a grandfather of existing medical licensees: “on or before July 1, 2023, convert licenses that were issued to medical cannabis growers, processors, and dispensaries, including those businesses preapproved for licensure, to licenses to operate a medical and adult-use cannabis business”, conditioned only on a conversion fee (§36-403) and the ownership restrictions in subsection (e). Social equity is not a criterion in it. Welding the two together implies a conversion applicant was ranked on equity status, which no one was

What CannAgent is built toward for MD

• ✓Adult-use + medical product lanes with separate tax stacks (12% vs exempt)
• ✓METRC-shaped inventory + sale receipt mirror
• ✓Daily reconciliation report (auto-runs at close)
• ✓Social-equity vs standard license-class tagging
• ✓Manager write-up assistant configurable to MD labor + MCA rule taxonomy

Operator playbooks

Maryland cannabis retail — common questions

Who regulates cannabis retail in Maryland?

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) is the state cannabis regulator for Maryland. Official site: https://cannabis.maryland.gov.

What seed-to-sale track-and-trace system does Maryland use?

Maryland uses METRC (Franwell) for seed-to-sale traceability — the de-facto standard across most regulated states. CannAgent maps its inventory and transfer events to METRC's required fields.

What cannabis taxes apply to retail in Maryland?

12% adult-use cannabis sales-and-use tax (Md. Code Tax-Gen §11-104(k)) — applied at retail, effective July 1, 2025 (FY2026 and thereafter; was 9% in FY2024–2025). No separate excise; the 12% replaces (rather than stacks on) the 6% general sales tax for adult-use. Medical cannabis is exempt from the sales and use tax — and that is an exemption from 12%, NOT from 6%. The 6% general rate never reaches cannabis at all: Tax-Gen §11-104(k) sets “the sales and use tax rate for cannabis” at 9% for fiscal 2024–2025 and “12% for fiscal year 2026 and each fiscal year thereafter”, so 12% IS the sales-and-use rate here rather than a separate excise. §11-245 then removes three things from it, not one: “(1) medical cannabis …; (2) cannabis between cannabis businesses that are licensed …; or (3) cannabis between a cannabis business … and a cannabis nursery registered under Title 36.” So licensee-to-licensee transfers and nursery transfers are outside the tax as well. Adult-use retail is the only taxed line — no additional state or local sales tax stacks on cannabis. No local cannabis sales tax — Maryland is unusual in being state-only on the cannabis tax line, so there is no city/county add-on math to resolve.

Is CannAgent available for Maryland dispensaries?

Regulatory-summary coverage for Maryland is current; engineering capacity opens as operator demand lands. There is no MD queue to join yet — read the rules here, and come back when you want a second opinion on a MD question.

Other states