Connecticut Lawmakers Restore 35% THC Cap on Cannabis Flower

Connecticut lawmakers have walked back a brief experiment with uncapped cannabis flower, voting Tuesday to restore the 35% THC limit on adult-use product. That ceiling took effect in October 2025, when the General Assembly raised the previous 30% cap that had been in place since the state’s market launched in 2023.

The reversal lands less than three weeks after lawmakers cleared House Bill 5350, a sweeping cannabis bill that — among many other changes — eliminated the 35% flower cap and the 70% concentrate cap entirely. The original bill barely cleared the Senate on an 18-17 vote, and party leaders had already signaled they would file a follow-up to put the flower cap back before the session adjourned.

That follow-up cleared both chambers a day before the General Assembly’s scheduled close. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, who shepherded the broader cannabis package, said senators across both parties balked at lifting the flower cap. He told the CT Mirror the cap struck him as policy without much substance — natural cannabis flower rarely tests above 35% anyway — but agreed to keep it because the votes were not there to remove it.

What survived in HB 5350

The original bill is one of the most extensive overhauls of state cannabis statute since adult-use sales began. Stripping out the flower-cap repeal still leaves a list of industry-friendly changes that take effect on passage:

• Infused beverages can now contain up to 5 milligrams of THC per container, up from 3 milligrams. Drinks sold inside licensed dispensaries and hybrid retailers can go up to 10 milligrams.
• Edibles gain a margin-of-error allowance of plus-or-minus 10 percent on the existing 5-milligram-per-serving limit, reflecting the inherent variability of laboratory testing.
• The licensed market expands to include topicals, tablets, and capsules — product categories the Department of Consumer Protection had not previously authorized for sale.
• Out-of-state medical patients with valid credentials gain the ability to purchase from Connecticut dispensaries.
• The bill renames “marijuana” as “cannabis” throughout state statute, a technical change that aligns the state’s terminology with neighbors.

What it no longer does, after this week’s vote, is loosen the 35% potency ceiling on flower or the 70% ceiling on concentrates. Cannabis flower testing above 30% will continue to carry a “high-potency” label, and the Department of Consumer Protection retains its authority to enforce both ceilings.

A widening gap with neighboring states

The cap fight matters mostly because Connecticut’s three closest cannabis neighbors — Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island — do not impose flower potency limits. That asymmetry has produced years of complaints from Connecticut operators, who argue customers cross state lines for higher-potency products simply unavailable inside Connecticut.

Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, who managed the bill in the House, told colleagues during the original April debate that Connecticut businesses are at a severe disadvantage against operators in those three states. After the reversal, he acknowledged that the cap keeps Connecticut at a competitive disadvantage but said the legislators tasked with the decision were not comfortable moving to an uncapped system.

The state’s adult-use market has grown steadily since launch but remains smaller, and pricier on a per-milligram basis, than its surrounding markets. Connecticut’s potency-tiered excise tax — calculated by THC content rather than flat retail price — pushes the effective tax burden higher on exactly the products consumers tend to seek across state lines, compounding the competitive gap.

What lawmakers want next

Several senators signaled the cap question is not closed. Sen. Paul Cicarella, R-North Haven, said he hoped the legislature would consider potency limits on edibles or tinctures next year — categories not currently capped beyond the 5-milligram-per-serving rule on edibles.

Public-health concerns drove most of the resistance to lifting the cap. “This is not fun and games. This is life and death,” Sen. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, said during the original Senate debate. Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, expressed reservations about how higher potency could affect mental health, particularly among younger consumers.

Whether the legislature returns to potency reform in 2027 will depend partly on how the state’s market performs against its cap-free neighbors over the next twelve months, and partly on whether the public-health concerns that drove this week’s reversal harden or fade. The fight echoes a broader pattern: state-level cannabis frameworks that diverge sharply from one another, leaving operators to navigate a patchwork of rules that complicates any multi-state strategy. For Connecticut, the 35% rule on flower has now survived a brief, decisive challenge — and producers continue to operate inside one of the tightest potency frameworks in the Northeast.