Is weed legal in Montana?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is legal in Montana. (16-12-106, MCA: Personal use and cultivation of marijuana -- penalties)

16-12-106(1) makes lawful, for a person 21 or older or a registered cardholder, possessing, purchasing, using, and home-cultivating marijuana within the amounts the section states, subject to the limitations in 16-12-108 (not a registered source).

Montana wrote one allowance covering possession, buying, use and a home grow, and it runs to a person of 21 or to a registered cardholder of any age. Step past the amounts that allowance names and you are outside it, whichever door you came through.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Montana, serving patients the program registers. (16-12-501, MCA: Purpose)

The Part's purpose section names posttraumatic stress disorder only as one example of a qualifying 'debilitating medical condition'; it does not enumerate a closed list of conditions or state a product-form or THC-content limit distinguishing the medical program's marijuana from the adult-use supply.

Holding a card still changes things in a state where recreational use is legal, because it doubles what you may grow at home. A cardholder also buys against monthly and daily ceilings of their own, and a physician's support can carry a petition for a higher monthly amount.

Hemp-derived products

Montana permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (16-12-117, MCA: Synthetic cannabinoid products prohibited -- restriction on sale of marijuana products)

The 0.5 mg-per-serving/2 mg-per-package total delta-9 THC caps on hemp and hemp products sold by any person do not apply to 'unadulterated hemp flower that is not further processed into extracts, infused products, or concentrates.' The same section separately bans synthetic cannabinoid products outright and confines marijuana and marijuana products (as opposed to hemp) to licensed manufacturers, cultivators, and dispensaries.

The cap here is written per serving and per package rather than as a percentage, so a product can meet the hemp definition and still be over the line. Unprocessed hemp flower sits outside that cap, and a synthetic cannabinoid product is barred whatever it is made from.

Home cultivation

Montana allows an adult to grow up to 2 plants at home. (16-12-106, MCA: Personal use and cultivation of marijuana -- penalties)

16-12-106(1)(c) permits 'up to two mature marijuana plants and two seedlings, or four mature marijuana plants and four seedlings for a registered cardholder,' at a private residence the grower owns or has written permission to use, kept in a locked space out of public view. Subsection (1)(c)(ii) caps a single residence at twice the per-person figure regardless of how many qualifying occupants live there.

Two is the mature count, and two seedlings come with it, doubled for a registered cardholder. The residence is capped at twice one person's figure however many qualifying adults live there, and you need to own the place or hold written permission to grow in it.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Montana states it: 1 ounce or less of usable marijuana, except that not more than 8 grams may be in a concentrated form and not more than 800 milligrams of THC may be in edible marijuana products meant to be eaten or swallowed in solid form. (16-12-106, MCA: Personal use and cultivation of marijuana -- penalties)

16-12-515(1)(a)(i), governing a registered cardholder who obtains marijuana through the licensed dispensary system, states the identical 1-ounce possession figure.

On buying, Montana states: 1 ounce or less of usable marijuana, except that not more than 8 grams may be in a concentrated form and not more than 800 milligrams of THC may be in edible marijuana products meant to be eaten or swallowed in solid form. (16-12-106, MCA: Personal use and cultivation of marijuana -- penalties)

16-12-515(1)(a)(ii) separately caps a registered cardholder who buys through the licensed dispensary system at 'a maximum of 5 ounces of usable marijuana a month and no more than 1 ounce of usable marijuana a day,' with a physician-supported petition process for a higher monthly amount.

The ounce is one pool with two smaller ceilings inside it: at most 8 grams of it may be concentrate, and an edible may carry no more than 800 milligrams of THC. Buying and holding are measured by the same figures, so what you may carry out is what you may keep.

Minimum age

You must be 21 or over to buy without a medical card. (16-12-106, MCA: Personal use and cultivation of marijuana -- penalties)

The same subsection also extends the listed lawful acts to 'a registered cardholder' regardless of age, through the separate medical registry.

Montana sets no minimum age for a patient. (16-12-508, MCA: Individuals with debilitating medical conditions -- requirements -- minors -- limitations)

16-12-508(2) requires a minor applicant's custodial parent or legal guardian to consent, agree to control acquisition/dosage/frequency, and agree the minor will not smoke marijuana; subsection (4) requires certification from a second physician unless the treating physician is an oncologist, neurologist, or epileptologist. No subsection states an age below which a minor may not be registered at all.

No number governs a patient's own age here, which is not the same as an open door for a minor. A custodial parent or guardian has to consent and take charge of what is obtained and how it is used, and a second physician has to certify unless the treating one is an oncologist, neurologist or epileptologist.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed recreational dispensary and a licensed medical dispensary. (16-12-224, MCA: Licensing of dispensaries)

16-12-224(3) lets an adult-use dispensary and a medical marijuana dispensary share one location under common ownership. Nothing in this section or elsewhere among the register's sources for this question describes a delivery channel to a consumer's or cardholder's residence, and the hemp-restriction source is not among those the register lists for this question, so neither licensed-delivery nor hemp-cbd-retailer is recorded.

One address can hold both licenses when the same owner runs them, so the shop you walk into may serve cardholders from the same counter. Nothing in the licensing rules cited here sets up delivery to an address of your own.

Montana licenses somewhere to buy, and this site does not yet hold a record for any location here. The state publishes its list in a form this site cannot yet read.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.