Cannabis regulators in 29 states and Washington, D.C., issued nearly 2,500 violations in 2024, resulting in $10.8 million in fines, according to a recent analysis by Connecticut-based Cannabiz Media.
Michigan accounted for over a third of enforcement actions in 2024, with 928 notices – about 37% of the national total.
California was next with 458 violations, followed by Washington with 283 and Missouri with 268.
Together, those four states made up 78% of all violations.
Cannabiz Media has tracked violation data since 2015 and categorized more than 10,000 violations over the past two years.
Data was collected from official online sources and through information requests.
Not all regulators provide data so the analysis is not a complete picture of violations in 2024.
States focus on categories
Violations marked for specific enforcement between 2014 and 2024 were placed into categories by Cannabiz Media.
Overall, nearly half of the violations over those 10 years were related to business operations or recordkeeping.
Fewer violations were for packaging, point-of-sale infractions or underage sales.
Almost 15% of the violations were unclassified.
But states with a large number of violations skewed those numbers.
States seemed to focus on a specific category or two, said Ed Keating, Cannabiz Media’s co-founder and chief data officer.
“Just as every state devises its own licensing scheme, the same is true for enforcement and inspections,” he said.
For example, California had more violations for recordkeeping and operations while Missouri mostly just targeted operations.
The bulk of Washington’s enforcement for 2024 was for point-of-sale infractions.
Violations for underage sales were sparse in 2024. In the top four states for violations, only Washington recorded any.
States like Oregon and Colorado track this type of infraction via sting operations. In fact, Oregon led the nation in 2024 with 62 underage purchase violations.
Keating believes some of the selective enforcement is driven by budgets or the priorities set forth in the state regulations.
Fines issued
While fines serve as deterrents for operators, not all violations came with monetary penalties.
Regulators fined operators in just over one-third (849) of the violations with Michigan assigning the bulk – about $3.72 million – across 568 violations, averaging $6,549 per incident.
The total fines assessed for enforcement actions in 2024 was $10.8 million.
The national average for cannabis business violation fines was roughly $12,700.
Florida issued the largest single penalty: a record $2.43 million to Ayr Wellness for the sale of unapproved “seeded flower.”
Multistate marijuana operators lead the pack
With hundreds of licenses across the country, marijuana multistate operators (MSOs) accounted for most of the violations reported in 2024, according to available data.
Cresco Labs, which operates in six states, received the most violations among companies tracked by Cannabiz Media, with 39 issued last year.
Other well-known MSOs also received double-digit violations in 2024, including Curaleaf with 24 and Trulieve with 19. Green Thumb Industries was cited 18 times.
Andrew Long can be reached at andrew.long@mjbizdaily.com.
