Connecticut House Passes Bill Removing THC Limits on Cannabis

Connecticut’s House of Representatives voted Monday to strip or raise THC limits on several cannabis product categories, sending a bill to the Senate that lays bare just how much the state’s five-year-old legal marijuana market is still a work in progress.

The measure would eliminate THC caps on cannabis flower, plant material, and concentrates entirely. It would also raise the ceiling on infused beverages, create new product categories, and let out-of-state consumers buy from Connecticut dispensaries. Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, managed the bill on the floor and didn’t mince words about why he thinks the current framework is broken.

“What this does is, it modernizes our cannabis and hemp laws to reflect today’s market realities,” Lemar said.

Connecticut legalized recreational cannabis in 2021, clearing the General Assembly on a narrow vote. That was never the end of the debate. Lawmakers have gone back to the statute repeatedly, adding restrictions on promotional discounts, writing rules for THC-infused beverages, and tightening oversight of hemp products. Each return trip has stirred its own fight. This one’s no different.

Lemar’s central argument is regional competitiveness. Connecticut operators don’t just compete against each other. They’re competing against licensed shops in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, states that don’t impose the same THC restrictions on their own licensees. Consumers who can drive 20 minutes to a dispensary across a state line and buy higher-potency products aren’t staying in Connecticut to spend money.

“Make no mistake about it. A Connecticut business in this space is at a severe disadvantage to those that exist in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” Lemar said. “They cannot compete on an even playing field because we have stacked the deck against them.”

The economic stakes are real enough that they’ve pulled in communities that probably didn’t picture themselves as cannabis stakeholders back in 2021. Gold Coast towns in Fairfield County now see cannabis tax receipts flowing into municipal aid that touches school funding and infrastructure. A licensed dispensary that can’t hold its customer base against an unregulated competitor just over the border in Port Chester or Yonkers isn’t just a business problem. It’s a budget problem.

“This is a burgeoning marketplace here in Connecticut, creating a lot of jobs and a lot of investment,” Lemar said. “We’re creating a strong pathway here for an infused beverage marketplace.”

Federal regulations put in place last year added another layer of pressure, Lemar told colleagues, restricting how cannabis businesses can operate and move product across certain channels. The combination of tighter federal rules and stricter state potency caps than neighboring states carry, in his telling, amounts to a compounding disadvantage.

The opposition wasn’t a fringe concern. Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull, argued that the cannabis industry has become a corporate-dominated market and that public health is absorbing the cost. His sharpest line of attack was the decision to eliminate THC concentration caps on flower and concentrates altogether. He said public health professionals who testified in committee were direct about the risks of higher-potency products, particularly for younger users and people with mental health vulnerabilities.

The CT Mirror has tracked the bill’s progression through committee and floor debate. Licensing and regulatory background on Connecticut’s cannabis market is available through the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. Sales figures and market data are published on the state’s open data portal.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where it’ll face a version of the same argument in a different chamber. Supporters will press the competitive disadvantage case. Opponents will press the public health case. Connecticut’s been running that loop since 2021, and the 2026 session doesn’t look like the one that breaks the cycle.

What’s changed is the stakes. The market’s bigger, the tax revenue is baked into municipal budgets, and the neighboring states have had years to build out their own dispensary ecosystems. Lemar’s argument isn’t that Connecticut’s cannabis laws are perfect. It’s that they’re actively costing the state money and costing licensed businesses customers they can’t afford to lose.