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Colorado is adult-use and medical and takes applications year-round, so the way in is a site in a town that allows stores
Colorado Cannabis Retail
Entering Colorado
OpenAdult-use (Colorado calls it retail) and medical. The Marijuana Enforcement Division licenses and regulates both the medical and the retail marijuana industries under the Colorado Marijuana Code.1, 2
- License types and caps
- Medical and retail versions of the store, cultivation facility, products manufacturer, testing facility, transporter and business operator licenses; a marijuana research and development license; hospitality, and hospitality and sales, licenses; and accelerator store, cultivator and manufacturer licenses, which let a social equity licensee operate on an established host licensee's premises. A store may add a delivery permit.2
- Application window
- Open on a rolling basis. The Division posts the fees for new retail applications, must act on each retail business application 45 to 90 days after it is filed, in the order complete applications arrive, and since 1 July 2026 offers a unified application. The city or county may also require its own license.4, 2, 1
- Local opt-out
- Yes. A city, county or city and county may ban retail marijuana businesses by ordinance or ballot measure, or regulate their time, place, manner and number; voters or the governing board may also ban medical stores, cultivation and manufacturing. A medical store may not be within 1,000 feet of a school, an alcohol or drug treatment facility, a college campus or a residential child care facility, though local governments may change or drop that distance.2
Ownership and social equity, taxes, delivery and testing, upcoming changes and the numbered sources are in the Colorado rules panels on this page.
CannDev is evaluating the Colorado market to find the best locations for retail marijuana stores. The state takes new applications on a rolling basis, but each city or county decides whether to allow stores, so the way in is a site where local rules welcome them. Please sign up for our Off Market Deals to be included in our alerts where you can get first look at new real estate opportunities in Colorado.
Latest Colorado News
Latest regulatory update
Colorado cannabis average market rate for Q4 is set, a state audit flags testing gaps, and August tax and fee collections climbed past $19M.
Regulatory Detail
Anyone who owns 10 percent or more of a licensed business, or controls it, is a controlling beneficial owner and needs a state finding of suitability before the application is filed, along with an ownership chart. Everyone with day-to-day operational control must be a Colorado resident; investors from other states and certain publicly traded companies may put in capital. A social equity licensee (qualifying by where they lived, a marijuana arrest or conviction in the family, or public assistance) must hold at least 51 percent of the business, may get reduced fees and may join the Accelerator Program; a marijuana conviction alone is never grounds for denial.2, 5
A 15 percent retail marijuana sales tax on adult-use sales, on top of state and local sales tax, plus a 15 percent excise tax charged when a cultivation facility first sells or transfers unprocessed retail marijuana. 10 percent of the retail marijuana sales tax goes to local governments where it was collected, and in recent years all of the excise tax has gone to the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund. Cities and counties may add their own taxes.6, 7, 9
- Delivery: a retail store may add a delivery permit, needs both state and local approval to deliver, delivers only to the adult who placed the order, and charges a one-dollar surcharge on each delivery for local enforcement.
- Testing: the Division may require any batch to be tested for potency and contaminants (pesticides, microbes, mycotoxins, molds, elemental impurities, residual solvents and more), and businesses must test enough to make products safe; it began expanding residual solvents testing in September 2026.
- Packaging: products leave the store in an opaque exit package, which must itself be child-resistant when flower, trim or seeds are in a container that is not.
- Adopted: The Colorado Marijuana Code is set to repeal on this date unless the legislature continues it; the Department of Regulatory Agencies runs a sunset review first.2
- In effect: Revised Division rules and new fees took effect; the Division will link the official Secretary of State copy once it is published.3
- Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division home page (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Marijuana Code, C.R.S. title 44 article 10 (Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, title 44, Office of Legislative Legal Services PDF) (statute, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, Rules and Rulemaking (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, Licenses and Fees (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, Social Equity (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado retail marijuana taxes, C.R.S. title 39 article 28.8 (Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, title 39 PDF) (statute, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Department of Revenue, Disposition of Marijuana Tax Revenue (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- 1 CCR 212-3 Colorado Marijuana Rules, official Secretary of State publication (effective 5 January 2026) (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
- Colorado Department of Revenue, Taxation Division, Marijuana Tax FAQ (regulator, seen 11 November 2026)
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