Connecticut
Cannabis Packaging Requirements
Connecticut cannabis packaging is regulated by the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP). The market is adult-use & medical. Packaging must be child-resistant, must carry the state universal symbol, and must print 9 required warning statements. No pre-approval of artwork is required. Royal Supply last reviewed this guide against the regulation on September 1, 2026.
Universal Symbol Requirements
Symbol Specifications
- THC symbol: not less than one-half inch by one-half inch.
- Under-21 symbol: not less than one-half inch by one-half inch.
- Medical marijuana graphic: not less than one-half inch by one-half inch.
- Infused-beverage 21+ symbol under C.G.S. s 22-61m(x): not less than one-half inch by one-half inch.
Notes on this section — 1
- Our page previously published 0.5 in by 0.4366 in as a Royal Supply production standard. That height is below the codified one-half inch floor. Re-check any Connecticut artwork tooled from the 0.4366 in figure — it is printing an undersized symbol.
- The rule prescribes the graphics themselves, not a colour formula, so do not recolour or redraw them.
- Everything else on the label is black Times New Roman on a contrasting background, which limits how much colour surrounds the marks.
Notes on this section — 1
- A previously published house practice setting the word THC at 25 percent of the largest face has been withdrawn. It appears in no Connecticut rule and it breaks small-format labels.
- Unobscured is the operative word — nothing may overlap either mark.
- A permitted product picture and a permitted logo are each capped at one inch square and may not overlap required information.
- Royal Supply house standard — Connecticut sets no requirement here. Primary display panel.
- The department issues all three marks; the codified rule embeds the artwork rather than publishing a specification to draw from.
- State guidance: portal.ct.gov/cannabis.
Connecticut requires two separate department-issued graphics on every package, and a third on medical product.
- A symbol issued by the department indicating the package contains THC.
- A symbol issued by the department indicating the package is not safe or legal for anyone under twenty-one.
- Medical marijuana product carries a third department graphic in addition to those two.
- Neither graphic may be used for any purpose other than the one the rule contemplates — they are not decorative marks.
Notes on this section — 1
- The rule reproduces the artwork as images rather than describing it in words, so obtain the files from DCP and place them as issued.
Official Files & Links
⬇CT — Uses IICPS-style yellow triangle. No official DCP download found. See IICPS below.Design & Print Specs
Label copy must be black Times New Roman, flat regular typeface, on a contrasting background. Packaging entirely and uniformly one colour; edible packaging and edible labels entirely and uniformly white. Logo max three colours and 1"×1", black only on edibles. Primary warning must be outlined by a red box; one of four health warnings rotates quarterly.
Warning Statements (9)
These must appear verbatim. Use the copy buttons to pull exact text into your artwork files. Anything marked otherwise is our recommendation and is not required by Connecticut.
—
See every statement individually, with citations10
Package label — always required1
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Rotating health warning — use one, rotate quarterly4
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Conditional on potency1
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Extended content label, insert or QR destination2
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Package label — always required1
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.
Beverages1
Not required by Department of Consumer Protection (DCP). This is Royal Supply's own compliance-tested language, offered as good practice.
Packaging & Labeling Rules
- Child-resistant means it meets the standard for special packaging at 16 C.F.R. 1700.1(b)(4).
- Tamper-evident means one or more indicators or barriers to entry that would show a reasonable person the package was breached.
- Light-resistant means entirely and uniformly opaque, protecting the whole of the contents from the effects of light.
- Packaging must be impervious and protect its contents from contamination and from any toxic or harmful substance — including any glue or adhesive built into the packaging itself.
- Multiple-serving packaging must reseal in a way that stays continuously child-resistant and preserves the integrity of the contents.
- Bulk product moving between establishments must be sealed airtight in material that is both tamper-evident and light-resistant.
- Connecticut names no child-resistance test protocol beyond the federal special-packaging cite. Confirm with DCP before certifying a novel closure.
Notes on this section — 2
- The adhesive clause reaches your material stack, not just the closure. A laminate or label adhesive that can migrate into product is a packaging defect under this rule.
- Connecticut says tamper-evident, not tamper-resistant. The test is whether a breach shows, not whether entry is prevented.
- Typography, all required copy: legible English, black Times New Roman, flat regular typeface, on a contrasting background.
- Type size: uniform, not less than one tenth of an inch, measured on a capital letter "K".
- Package label: the tracking system unique identifier.
- Package label: the registered name of the cannabis product.
- Package label: the establishment that manufactured the product, or for raw cannabis the establishment that cultivated it.
- Package label: expiration date, which may not assume refrigeration after sale.
- Package label: net weight or volume in both metric and imperial units.
- Package label: standardized serving size in customary units and the number of servings, where applicable.
- Package label: directions for use and storage, plus the range of time the product typically takes to affect an individual.
- Package label: each active ingredient at one percent or more, in metric units and as a percentage of volume.
- Package label: all known FDA-identified allergens, or the words no known FDA identified allergens.
- Package label: the chemotype.
- Package label: the warning block. Copy is in the warnings list.
- Package label: the two department graphics, each at least one-half inch square.
- Everything else moves to an extended content label, a package insert or a static QR code — and must also be available in store and on the establishment's website.
- Extended content: processing techniques and solvents, inactive ingredients at one percent or more, harvest and final-packaging dates, the full cannabinoid and terpene profile, the testing statement, every establishment in the chain with entity name, business address, email and telephone.
- Delivery device cartridge: label the cartridge itself, in flat regular Times New Roman at as large a size as it allows, with the growing or manufacturing establishment, the brand, total THC and total CBD, the expiration date and the unique identifier.
- Medical dispensing adds: date dispensed, patient and caregiver name and registration certificate number, certifying practitioner, dispensary and dispensing pharmacy employee, the prescription-monitoring serial number, and alcohol by volume where it exceeds one percent.
Notes on this section — 3
- The typography rule is the constraint most likely to break an existing design. Times New Roman is mandatory, black is mandatory, and one tenth of an inch on a capital K is roughly a 10-point face — considerably larger than the 6-point floors common elsewhere.
- The chemotype strings are fixed by statute: High THC, Low CBD; Moderate THC, Moderate CBD; Low THC, High CBD. A product fitting none takes the nearest by mathematical analysis of the THC to CBD ratio.
- Nothing may go on the package or label except what this section requires or permits, so there is no room for uncategorised marketing copy.
- THC symbol issued by the department: not less than 0.5 in by 0.5 in, unobscured.
- Under-21 symbol issued by the department: not less than 0.5 in by 0.5 in, unobscured.
- Medical marijuana product adds a third department graphic at the same half-inch minimum.
- None of the three may be used for any purpose other than the one the rule contemplates.
- Hemp-derived infused beverages sold outside the licensed channel carry their own 21+ symbol at not less than 0.5 in by 0.5 in.
- Place the department's files as issued — the rule embeds the artwork rather than specifying it in words.
Notes on this section — 2
- Two graphics at a half inch square each, plus a permitted logo and picture each capped at one inch square, is the whole of the non-text real estate. On a pre-roll tube or a cartridge sleeve that is the binding constraint on the design.
- Our previously published 0.4366 in height was a house production standard and falls below the codified floor. Any artwork built to it is undersized today.
- Every package: the primary warning statement, printed inside a red box.
- Every package: at least one of four rotating health warnings, rotated quarterly on an alternating basis.
- Cannabis concentrate over 30 percent total THC: the high-potency warning. From Oct. 1, 2026 it also covers flower and other plant material over 30 percent.
- Extended content label, insert or QR destination: all four health warnings together, plus the yeast and mold statement.
- Products with no FDA-identified allergen: the words no known FDA identified allergens.
- All of it in black Times New Roman, flat regular typeface, on a contrasting background, at not less than one tenth of an inch on a capital "K".
- Paste-ready copy for each of these is in the warnings list.
Notes on this section — 3
- The red box around the primary warning is a requirement, not a house treatment.
- Quarterly rotation means one plate cannot serve a year. Either build four label versions or design a panel the rotating line can be swapped into.
- The one-tenth-inch capital-K measure works out around 10 point, so the warning block occupies far more panel than the 6-point floors used in most states.
- Adult-use edible standard serving: not more than 5 mg total THC.
- Adult-use multiple-serving edible package: not more than 100 mg total THC.
- Cannabis beverage: not more than one single standardized serving per container.
- Each serving in a multiple-serving edible must be physically demarcated and readily separable, so a reasonable person can tell what one serving is and what the whole package holds.
- If that demarcation is impracticable, the entire package is capped at 5 mg total THC.
- Adult-use single package: not more than one ounce of cannabis or the equivalent.
- Medical single package: not more than five ounces of cannabis or the equivalent.
- Medical multiple-serving edibles and transdermal patches carry the same demarcation duty unless impracticable for the product type.
- Mark THC and CBD per serving and per package.
- Flower and plant material: 35% THC maximum. Repealed effective Oct. 1, 2026.
- Other cannabis products: 70% THC maximum. From Oct. 1, 2026 this stops reaching concentrates, flower, other plant material and prefilled vape cartridges.
Notes on this section — 3
- Physical demarcation is a tooling decision, not a print decision: scored, separated or individually wrapped pieces. The fallback for getting it wrong is a 5 mg package, which is a different product.
- A single-serving beverage cap combined with a 5 mg serving means Connecticut cannabis beverages are 5 mg cans. Do not size a multi-serve bottle for the licensed channel.
- P.A. 26-8 s 79 repeals the 35 percent flower cap outright and exempts concentrates, flower, plant material and prefilled cartridges from the 70 percent cap, all effective Oct. 1, 2026. It also removes the department's power to adjust those percentages by regulation.
- Light-resistant, defined as entirely and uniformly opaque and protecting the whole of the contents from the effects of light.
- Packaging must be entirely and uniformly one colour. Black and white each count as a colour.
- Edible cannabis product packaging must be entirely and uniformly white.
- Labels on edible products, beverages included, must also be entirely and uniformly white.
- No information, print, embossing, debossing, graphic or hidden feature on the packaging other than the labeling the rule requires or permits.
- One carve-out: a liquid containing cannabis may go in an aluminium alloy bottle or can of at least eight fluid ounces, provided the vessel carries no colour at all — no painting, no dyeing, no anodising.
- Packaging may not be visually similar to a comparable non-cannabis product, or to packaging for anything marketed to an audience reasonably expected to be under twenty-one.
- Where internal packaging is used to meet the child-resistance, reseal or impervious duties, the internal and external packaging must be the same one uniform colour.
Notes on this section — 2
- One uniform colour plus a black-Times-New-Roman type rule plus a three-colour one-inch logo is the whole design system. Connecticut is closer to plain packaging than to a branded market.
- The aluminium carve-out is narrow and easy to lose: eight fluid ounces minimum, and an anodised or painted can does not qualify.
- Packaging for cannabis intended for multiple-serving use must be resealable.
- The reseal must be continuously child-resistant — not merely closeable again.
- It must also preserve the integrity of the contents.
- Single-serving packaging carries no reseal duty.
Notes on this section — 2
- Our page previously said no Connecticut resealability mandate had been verified. There is one, at s 21a-421j-31(c)(2). Any Connecticut multi-serving specification built on the assumption that reseal was optional needs re-checking.
- Continuously child-resistant rules out a simple adhesive flap on a multi-serving pack: the closure has to keep performing across openings.
- Oct. 1, 2026: the high-potency warning extends from concentrates to cannabis flower and other cannabis plant material over 30 percent total THC.
- Oct. 1, 2026: the 35 percent cap on flower and other plant material is repealed.
- Oct. 1, 2026: the 70 percent cap stops applying to concentrates, flower, other plant material and prefilled cartridges for electronic cannabis delivery systems.
- Oct. 1, 2026: the department loses its power to adjust those percentages by regulation.
- Mold remediation is handled by dispensary signage, not by a label statement — an earlier draft would have put it on the package and the enacted text does not.
- Chemotype labeling has been required since Oct. 1, 2023 and uses three fixed display strings.
- Logo: one logo per label, no more than three colours, no larger than one inch by one inch. Black and white do not count toward the three. On an edible label the logo may only be black.
- One picture of the cannabis is allowed, no larger than one inch by one inch, and it must clearly depict the size, shape and colour of the product.
- A cartridge may carry an embossed, debossed or printed establishment name and a logo of up to three colours, and nothing else.
- No label may appeal to persons under twenty-one.
- Organic may only be used for cannabis grown and certified under C.G.S. ss 21a-92 and 21a-92a.
- Hemp-derived infused beverages outside the licensed channel: 3 mg THC or less per container, containers at least 12 fl oz, four containers maximum per package, plus a 21+ symbol at half an inch square.
- High-THC beverages over 3 mg and up to 0.3% THC per container may be made from Jan. 1, 2026 for sale outside Connecticut only. Do not design Connecticut retail artwork to it.
- Retail display: locked case, 1 lb maximum, 'FOR DISPLAY ONLY' sticker, own tracking UID and secure storage when the store is closed.
Notes on this section — 4
- The permanent regulations are still not codified. The Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies contain no 21a-421j sections; what governs is the department's Policies and Procedures, which C.G.S. s 21a-421j(b) gives the force and effect of law. The current edition is dated November 12, 2024.
- A proposed permanent regulation carrying substantially the same packaging and labeling text sits at eRegulations tracking number PR2024-053, LRRC docket 2025-020B. Section numbering there matches the Policies and Procedures, so a citation to s 21a-421j-31 or -32 reads correctly against either.
- Retail display rules rest on DCP's Cannabis Displays guidance (Jan. 8, 2025), agency guidance issued under the P&P, not statute.
- Infused-beverage container limits rest on DCP's Infused Beverage Checklist (Apr. 4, 2025), also guidance.
Connecticut Packaging FAQ
What universal symbol is required on cannabis packaging in Connecticut?
Is child-resistant packaging required in Connecticut?
What warning statements are required on Connecticut cannabis packaging?
Sources & Citations
- DCP Policies and Procedures, Regulation of Adult Use Cannabis, effective November 12, 2024 — ss 21a-421j-31 (packaging) and 21a-421j-32 (labeling), the operative text: https://eregulations.ct.gov/eRegsPortal/Search/getDocument?guid=E0A0C492-0000-C219-A56D-0EF1F5478D25
- Current Policies and Procedures landing page: https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/knowledge-base/articles/policies-and-procedures
- Public Act 26-8 (Substitute H.B. 5350), ss 78 and 79 — full enrolled text: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2026/ACT/PA/PDF/2026PA-00008-R00HB-05350-PA.PDF
- Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 420h; s 21a-421j(5)(K), (L), (M) and (16)
- C.G.S. s 22-61m(x) — infused-beverage 21+ symbol, not less than one-half inch by one-half inch
- Public Act 25-166 ss 30, 38 (eff. Oct. 1, 2025) — potency caps; beverage provisions
- Public Act 23-79 — chemotype (THC:CBD ratio) labeling, eff. Oct. 1, 2023
- Proposed permanent regulation, eRegulations tracking PR2024-053 (LRRC docket 2025-020B), posted 2/21/2025 — not yet codified in the RCSA
- DCP Infused Beverage Checklist (Apr. 4, 2025) — agency guidance
- DCP Cannabis Displays guidance (Jan. 8, 2025) — agency guidance
- Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) — portal.ct.gov/cannabis