Is weed legal in Maine?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is legal in Maine. (Title 28-B, §1501: Personal adult use of cannabis and cannabis products)

Maine keeps its recreational rules and its medical rules in separate parts of the statute book, so a figure that holds at a cannabis store may not hold at a dispensary. The section that governs you is the one that matches the counter you are standing at.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Maine, serving patients the program registers. (Title 22, §2421-A: Definitions (Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Act))

The Act's 'medical use' and 'written certification' definitions set no enumerated list of qualifying diagnoses; they rest on a medical provider's own professional opinion that the patient's diagnosis or symptoms are likely to benefit, whatever the diagnosis. Title 22, section 2423-A authorizes a qualifying patient to use harvested cannabis -- full-plant material -- in any form, except that a patient under 18 may not smoke it.

No list of qualifying conditions exists for you to measure yourself against beforehand, so a medical provider's own opinion is the whole gate. Registering is a separate step after that, and it is what moves you onto the larger patient figures further down this page.

Hemp-derived products

Maine permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (Title 7, §2231: Hemp)

A person who manufactures, sells, or serves an ingestible consumer product containing hemp or hemp-derived cannabidiol must be licensed under section 2901-C, Title 22 chapters 551, 562, or 562-A, or Title 28-A, under subsection 4. A 'potentially intoxicating hemp product' -- one without both a below-0.3%-potentially-intoxicating-cannabinoid concentration and a better-than-10-to-1 ratio of nonintoxicating to potentially intoxicating cannabinoids -- must be sold in child-resistant, tamper-evident packaging under subsection 13, except a beverage, salve, or topical product.

The license behind an ingestible hemp product here comes from Maine's food and drink rules rather than from the cannabis regulator, so the shop selling it answers to a different inspector. The state also draws its intoxicating line by ratio as well as by percentage, which puts products on the strict side of it that a plain percentage test would clear.

Home cultivation

Maine allows an adult to grow up to 6 plants at home. (Title 28-B, §1502: Home cultivation of cannabis for personal adult use)

The 6 plants are mature cannabis plants; the same person may also grow up to 12 immature cannabis plants and an unlimited number of seedlings. This section does not apply to medical cultivation. Title 22, section 2423-A(1)(B) separately allows a qualifying patient the same 6 mature, 12 immature, and unlimited seedlings, cultivated by the patient or a designated caregiver; a caregiver may instead cultivate up to 30 mature and 60 immature plants (or a canopy equivalent) under section 2423-A(2)(B).

Maine counts by growth stage, so one plant moves between categories as it grows and your total changes without you planting anything. Watching what is about to flower is part of keeping the count right.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Maine states it: Up to 2 1/2 ounces of cannabis, or 2 1/2 ounces of a combination of cannabis and cannabis concentrate that includes no more than 10 grams of cannabis concentrate. (Title 28-B, §1501: Personal adult use of cannabis and cannabis products)

The same section separately allows possessing all the cannabis produced by a person's own plants, without a stated weight cap, at the residence or cultivation site. A qualifying patient may instead possess up to 8 pounds of harvested cannabis, under Title 22, section 2423-A(1)(A).

On buying, Maine states: A cannabis store may not sell an individual more than 2 1/2 ounces of adult use cannabis, or 2 1/2 ounces of a combination of adult use cannabis and cannabis concentrate that includes no more than 10 grams of cannabis concentrate, in a single transaction. (Title 28-B, §1501: Personal adult use of cannabis and cannabis products)

The same subsection separately caps a purchase of immature cannabis plants or seedlings at 12 per transaction. A registered dispensary or a caregiver operating a caregiver retail store is held to the same 2 1/2-ounce, one-transaction limit for a qualifying patient, under Title 22, sections 2428 and 2423-A(2)(A-1); a caregiver or dispensary may not dispense more than 2 1/2 ounces to an out-of-state visiting qualifying patient in a 15-day period.

The buying figure is drawn per transaction, so it sets what one sale may contain and says nothing about a day on its own. The concentrate allowance sits inside the two and a half ounces rather than beside it, which is the part people get wrong at the counter.

Minimum age

You must be 21 or over to buy without a medical card. (Title 28-B, §1501: Personal adult use of cannabis and cannabis products)

You must be 18 or over to hold a card and buy for yourself. (Title 22, §2423-A: Authorized conduct for the medical use of cannabis)

A qualifying patient who has not attained 18 years of age, or who is enrolled in a preschool or a primary or secondary school, must designate a caregiver, who obtains and administers the cannabis on the patient's behalf.

Maine sets its patient age three years below its store age, so an 18-year-old can hold a card and use a dispensary while the cannabis store next door is shut to them. The card is what opens the medical counter, and turning 21 later adds the other route rather than replacing it.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed recreational dispensary, a licensed medical dispensary and a licensed delivery service. (Title 28-B, §1501: Personal adult use of cannabis and cannabis products)

Title 28-B, section 504 confirms the adult-use-dispensary channel (a licensed 'cannabis store') and, under subsection 9, lets a cannabis store operate a limited delivery service, which is the licensed-delivery channel recorded here. Title 22, section 2428 separately licenses registered dispensaries to serve qualifying patients, and section 2423-A(2)(P) lets a registered caregiver operate one caregiver retail store to sell to qualifying patients -- both counted as the medical-dispensary channel.

The medical entry on that list covers more than one kind of shop, and the smallest is a store that a single registered caregiver runs. Anyone shopping on an ID alone is left with the licensed cannabis store.

The Maine store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

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