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⚖️ Reference material only. Always verify with your state regulator and your compliance / legal team before finalizing packaging.
MD Maryland Adult-Use & Medical
State Compliance Guide

Maryland
Cannabis Packaging Requirements

Maryland cannabis packaging is regulated by the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC. The market is adult-use & medical. Packaging must be child-resistant, must carry the state universal symbol, and must print 8 required warning statements. No pre-approval of artwork is required. Royal Supply last reviewed this guide against the regulation on September 1, 2026.

8Required Warnings
YesChild-Resistant
NoPre-Approval Needed
September 1, 2026Last Reviewed
Official symbol available from the state agencySTATE SYMBOLVIA OFFICIAL AGENCY
No public artwork download — obtain via the state agency
01 — The Mark

Universal Symbol Requirements

Symbol Specifications

SymbolMaryland Universal Cannabis Symbol
Minimum Size1/2 inch by 1/2 inch minimum area (12.7 mm x 12.7 mm).
ColorsUse the file exactly as issued. No recoloring.
  • Do not modify, recreate, stylize, stretch or distort it.
  • Get contrast by choosing the background, never by changing the mark.
PlacementFront panel, or the most predominantly displayed area of the package.
  • Outer marketing layer only. Not an inner label, not behind a QR code.
  • Nothing on the package may obscure it.
Notes on this section — 1
  • Outer-layer-only is MCA agency guidance, not codified rule. The codified backstop only bars obscuring required information.
How To ObtainDownload the artwork from the Maryland Cannabis Administration at cannabis.maryland.gov. Do not redraw it.

The MCA-issued mark that identifies the package as containing cannabis.

  • It is the only symbol permitted on a Maryland package under this regulation.

Official Files & Links

No official downloadable artwork published — see symbol specs and the agency site.

Design & Print Specs

PlacementFront of packaging
Bold RequiredNo

QR code linking to Certificate of Analysis required on all labels as of Jan 1, 2024.

02 — Say It Exactly

Warning Statements (8)

Statements marked Exact text required must be reproduced character for character — use the copy buttons. Those marked Required content are mandated by Maryland in substance only; you write the sentence.

Product
Market
Format
Options
Your warning block 
—
See every statement individually, with citations8
Required warning statements — all retail products4
Print as written. All four .03C(1) statements appear together on every retail package — Maryland has no rotating-warning scheme.
All cannabis and cannabis products sold at retail.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

The contents may only be lawfully consumed by a consumer 21 years old or older, or a registered medical cannabis patient.
All cannabis and cannabis products sold at retail.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

Consumption of cannabis may impair your ability to drive a car or operate machinery. Please use extreme caution.
All cannabis and cannabis products sold at retail.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

There may be health risks associated with cannabis use, especially if pregnant or breastfeeding.
All cannabis and cannabis products sold at retail.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

This package contains cannabis. Keep out of reach of children and animals.
Required by product type4
Print exactly as written. Maryland does not say "intoxicating effects" and does not open with "The effects" — do not substitute another state's phrasing. Whether this applies to tinctures is unresolved: .05A extends only Regulations .02—.04 to tinctures, .05B speaks only of edible cannabis product packaging, and the chapter defines neither term. Confirm with MCA before a tincture label goes to print.
Edible cannabis product packaging. The .05B chapeau reads "All edible cannabis product packaging shall include:" — this is not a general all-product warning.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

Effects of this product may be delayed by 4 or more hours.
Cannabis seeds and plants sold for home cultivation.
Exact text required

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC prescribes this wording. Reproduce it character for character, including capitalization and punctuation.

For home cultivation only. Must be 21 years old or older or a registered patient for home cultivation.
Products for topical application.
Required content — your wording

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC requires this information but does not fix the sentence. Write your own copy; the agency approves it.

Print a statement that the product is not intended for human consumption, ingestion, or inhalation. Maryland mandates the substance only — the sentence is yours, so do not treat any wording as fixed regulatory type.
Medical cannabis products.
Required content — your wording

Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC requires this information but does not fix the sentence. Write your own copy; the agency approves it.

Print a clear warning that only the qualifying patient may possess or consume the contents, and that transferring the package or its contents to anyone else is illegal, except a caregiver's transfer to the patient. Wording is yours.
03 — The Fine Print

Packaging & Labeling Rules

Child-ResistantEvery retail package has to be three things at once: child resistant, tamper evident, and plain and opaque.
  • Soft-sided packages: 4 mil minimum film thickness. That is 0.004 inch, roughly 0.1 mm.
  • Child resistant means meeting the federal Poison Prevention Packaging standard.
  • Soft-sided: seal the opening so tampering shows, and so it still shows after the package has been opened.
  • Rigid containers: either a tamper-evident seal, or an adhesive band or seal on the lid or enclosure that shows prior opening. Either option satisfies the rule.
Notes on this section — 1
  • Our page previously published 4 mm instead of 4 mil, about forty times thicker. Re-check any Maryland soft-sided quote built off the 4 mm figure.
COMAR 14.17.18.02B(1)-(3); definition of "child resistant" at COMAR 14.17.18.01, incorporating 16 CFR 1700.15(b)(1)
LabelingWhat has to appear on a Maryland retail label, and which layer it may sit on.
  • Type: 6 point minimum, or 1/12 inch.
  • Written clearly in English.
  • Print on the outer marketing layer, or on a label or sticker affixed directly to it.
  • Net weight of the cannabis or cannabis product.
  • Finished product lot number.
  • Name of the licensee that packaged the product.
  • Name and phone number of the manufacturer licensee, for reporting adverse events.
  • Itemize all cannabinoid and terpene ingredients with weights. Any concentration under 1 percent takes a leading zero before the decimal.
  • Declare major food allergens, and list all non-cannabis ingredients.
  • List any solvents used to produce the product.
  • Dates: harvest, packaging, production, expiration and best use.
  • The Maryland Poison Center emergency telephone number, on every product offered for retail sale.
  • The four required warning statements.
  • The MCA universal symbol, on the front or most predominantly displayed area.
  • A certificate of analysis from an independent lab, reachable from the package by link or QR code.
  • Only three elements may move to an inner label layer, a link or a QR code: the cannabinoid and terpene itemization, the allergens, and the non-cannabis ingredients. Everything else stays on the marketing layer.
  • Medical packaging: leave blank space for the dispensary's personalized patient label.
Before you print
  • Poison Center number: the rule names it but prints no digits, and no MCA document supplies them. Confirm the current number with MCA or the Poison Center before it is set in type. Do not substitute a national poison-help line.
  • Allergens: the cite freezes a 2010 reference that predates sesame becoming the ninth major allergen. Whether a Maryland cannabis label must declare sesame is unanswered. Confirm with MCA before advising either way.
Notes on this section — 1
  • Outer-marketing-layer-only placement for warnings, disclaimers and the symbol is MCA agency guidance, not codified rule. The codified backstops are narrower: nothing may obscure required information, the label must be on or affixed to the marketing layer, and the only inner-layer or QR carve-outs are the three data elements, the certificate of analysis and the edible nutritional panel. Guidance and code point the same way, but know which is which before leaning on it in a compliance argument.
COMAR 14.17.18.03A, .03B(1)-(3), .03C(1)(a)-(d), .03C(2)-(3), .03D(1)(a)-(i) and .03D(2) (.03D amended effective April 14, 2025, 52:7 Md. R. 324), .03E, .03F(1)-(2), .04B(1)-(2), .04D, .07B — plus MCA packaging guidance (agency guidance, not codified) for the outer-marketing-layer placement rule
THC SymbolTwo rules that get welded together and should not be: where the symbol goes, and how cannabinoid content is disclosed.
  • Symbol: 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch minimum area.
  • Symbol goes on the front, or the most predominantly displayed area of the package.
  • Use the Administration's file unmodified, on a background where it stays clearly distinguishable and identifiable.
  • It is the only symbol allowed on the package under this rule. No house-designed cannabis mark alongside it.
  • Every product type: itemize all cannabinoids and terpenes with weights, leading zero under 1 percent.
  • Per-serving and per-package mg of total THC, total CBD and any other marketed cannabinoid is an edibles-only requirement. Do not carry it onto flower, vape or concentrate artwork.
COMAR 14.17.18.03D(1)(e), .03F(1)-(2), .05B(1)-(3)
Health WarningsFour sentences, word for word, together on every retail package. No rotation scheme, no product-type carve-out on those four.
  • The contents may only be lawfully consumed by a consumer 21 years old or older, or a registered medical cannabis patient.
  • Consumption of cannabis may impair your ability to drive a car or operate machinery. Please use extreme caution.
  • There may be health risks associated with cannabis use, especially if pregnant or breastfeeding.
  • This package contains cannabis. Keep out of reach of children and animals.
  • Every retail product also carries the Maryland Poison Center emergency telephone number.
  • Edibles add the delayed-effects warning, printed exactly as the state words it.
  • Topicals add a statement that the product is not intended for human consumption, ingestion or inhalation. Wording is yours.
  • Medical products add a warning that only the qualifying patient may possess or consume the contents, and that transfer is illegal. Wording is yours.
  • Seeds and plants sold for home cultivation follow their own labeling set, not these four.
COMAR 14.17.18.03C(1)(a)-(d), .03C(2)-(3), .04B(2), .05B(6), .06D(4)
Serving SizeServing and dosage rules here are edibles-only. They do not reach flower, vape or concentrate.
  • Multi-serving edibles: 10 mg THC per serving maximum, 100 mg THC per package maximum.
  • Bundled single servings: combined THC may not exceed 100 mg.
  • State mg of total THC, total CBD and any other marketed cannabinoid per single serving and per package.
  • State the number of servings per package, and the recommended serving size where applicable.
  • Add a nutritional fact panel consistent with FDA standards.
  • List all active and inactive ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight.
  • Multi-serving edibles must be resealable and clearly indicate the serving size.
  • Include a measuring device suited to the form. The rule's own examples are a dropper for liquids and a measuring spoon for powders.
  • Only the nutritional fact panel may move to an inner layer, a link or a QR code. The mg figures, servings count, ingredient list and delayed-effects warning may not.
  • Bundling single servings under one marketing layer is allowed only if that outer layer carries every label, warning and standard the chapter requires.
Before you print
  • Tinctures are unresolved. The chapter extends only the general packaging and labeling regulations to tinctures, not the edible set, and it defines neither "edible cannabis product" nor "tincture". Whether the mg disclosures, servings count, nutritional panel, ingredient list and delayed-effects warning are compelled on a tincture label is not settled by the text. Confirm with MCA before a tincture label goes to print. Do not resolve it by inference.
COMAR 14.17.18.05A, .05B(1)-(6), .05C, .05D(1)-(5), .05E; multi-serving resealability at .02B(4)
Opaque PackagingPackaging must be plain and fully opaque.
  • No transparent windows.
  • No cutouts.
  • Applies to every retail package, alongside child resistant and tamper evident.
Notes on this section — 1
  • Pending MCA rulemaking would strike "Plain and" from this requirement, leaving opacity in place but dropping plainness. Proposed June 26, 2026 under 26-078-P; not adopted as of September 1, 2026. Do not design to it yet.
COMAR 14.17.18.02B
ResealableMulti-serving packages have to close again, and keep closing safely.
  • Any package holding multiple servings must be resealable.
  • It must keep its child-resistant properties after opening.
  • Multi-serving edibles must also clearly indicate the serving size on the package.
COMAR 14.17.18.02B(4); .05D(1)-(3)
Notable RulesWhat Maryland forbids on cannabis packaging and labeling. These apply to all products, not just edibles or medical.
  • No image that may appeal to minors. This is an umbrella ban. Artwork can violate it without matching any listed example, so review against the umbrella first.
  • No resemblance to the packaging of any commercially available candy, snack, baked good or beverage.
  • No images of food, candy, baked goods, cereal, fruit or beverages.
  • Not the words candy or candies.
  • No imagery popularly used to advertise to children: cartoons, animals, neon colors, celebrities, mascots, catchphrases.
  • No statement, artwork or design that could mislead anyone into thinking the package holds something other than a cannabis product.
  • No seal, flag, crest, coat of arms or insignia implying State, county or municipal endorsement.
  • No depiction of any form of cannabis consumption.
  • No depiction of overconsumption or of intoxicating effects.
  • No claims of health or physical benefit to the consumer.
  • No false or misleading statements.
  • Nothing on the package may obscure any required warning, statement or information.
  • The product itself, not only its packaging, may not be designed to appeal to anyone under 21.
  • Cartoon means a drawing showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way.
Before you print
  • Appeal to minors and designed to appeal to are judgment standards. No test, no safe-harbor list, and we located no published MCA artwork-review criteria. Treat them as reviewable at MCA's discretion, not a bright line.
Notes on this section — 6
  • Animals and neon are barred where popularly used to advertise to children, so not banned outright in every context, but they draw review.
  • Chapter dates, for the record: emergency July 1 2023, re-adopted emergency June 7 2024, final effective July 22 2024. The labeling regulation was amended April 14 2025. January 1 2024 is the MCA guidance rollout date, not the chapter's effective date and not a tamper-evidence deadline.
  • Pending rulemaking, still not adopted as of September 1, 2026. Notice of Proposed Action 26-078-P, Maryland Register Vol. 53, Issue 13, June 26, 2026; comment closed July 27, 2026. COMAR 14.17.18 still runs .01 to .07 with no Regulation .08, and the chapter's most recent amendment remains .03D on April 14, 2025 — so nothing in the proposal binds yet.
  • What the proposal would do to packaging, so concepts can be prepared: strike "Plain and" from .02B(1)(c), leaving packaging opaque but no longer plain; recast .07A(1) from prohibited images to prohibited "aspects" that may appeal to minors; add an anthropomorphism ban covering human traits given to animals, plants or objects and the reverse; add a ban on sensory effects including texture, scent and sound; replace the health-or-physical-benefit claim ban with a bar on medical or therapeutic claims; and extend the anti-obscuring rule from labels to marketing layers, images, graphics and any other aspect of the package.
  • The sensory-effects clause is the one to watch on materials rather than artwork: a textured varnish, a scented ink or a deliberately noisy film would be in scope.
  • The proposal would also add Regulation .08 for sublingual pouches, with the warning statement "Pouches are not intended to be heated, burned, or swallowed.", the universal symbol on each pouch or on each individual wrapper where marking the pouch is impractical, and 10 mg THC per serving and 100 mg per package. Do not print any of it until adoption.
COMAR 14.17.18.07A(1)(a)-(c), .07A(2)-(7), .07B, .07C; "cartoon" defined at .01B; COMAR 14.17.18 chapter history; Maryland Register Vol. 53, Issue 13 (June 26, 2026), Notice of Proposed Action 26-078-P
04 — Quick Answers

Maryland Packaging FAQ

What universal symbol is required on cannabis packaging in Maryland?
Maryland requires the Maryland Universal Cannabis Symbol. Minimum size: 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch minimum area (12.7 mm x 12.7 mm).. Placement: Front panel, or the most predominantly displayed area of the package. Outer marketing layer only. Not an inner label, not behind a QR code. Nothing on the package may obscure it..
Is child-resistant packaging required in Maryland?
Every retail package has to be three things at once: child resistant, tamper evident, and plain and opaque. Soft-sided packages: 4 mil minimum film thickness. That is 0.004 inch, roughly 0.1 mm. Child resistant means meeting the federal Poison Prevention Packaging standard. Soft-sided: seal the opening so tampering shows, and so it still shows after the package has been opened. Rigid containers: either a tamper-evident seal, or an adhesive band or seal on the lid or enclosure that shows prior opening. Either option satisfies the rule.
What warning statements are required on Maryland cannabis packaging?
Maryland prescribes exact wording for 6 warning statement(s) and requires a further 2 by content, where the licensee writes the sentence. Both are set out on this page.
05 — Receipts

Sources & Citations

  • COMAR 14.17.18 (.01–.07), Finished Product Packaging — Maryland Cannabis Administration, published at https://regs.maryland.gov/us/md/exec/comar/14.17.18
  • Maryland Register Vol. 53, Issue 13 (June 26, 2026), Notice of Proposed Action 26-078-P — proposed amendments to COMAR 14.17.01, .05, .10, .12, .13, .18 and .22; comment closed July 27, 2026; not adopted: https://cannabis.maryland.gov/Documents/2026_Laws_and_Regs/NOPA_06.26.26_Maryland%20Register.pdf
  • Maryland Cannabis Administration, Laws, Regulations and Reports — https://cannabis.maryland.gov/pages/law.aspx
  • MCA Packaging Guidance (11.8.23, Attorney General update) — agency guidance, not codified regulation
  • MCA General Information, All Licensees guidance (3.18.25) — agency guidance, not codified regulation
  • Authority: Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article §§36-202, 36-203 and 36-203.1, Annotated Code of Maryland

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Reference material only — not legal advice. Verify all requirements with Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) / ATCC and your compliance / legal team before production.
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