Massachusetts CCC inspection checklist for dispensaries

A Cannabis Control Commission inspector can walk into a Massachusetts adult-use retailer at any time without notice, see every area and every record, and expect them immediately (935 CMR 500.301). If the visit finds a problem, you receive a deficiency statement and have ten business days to submit a written plan of correction (935 CMR 500.320). The checklist below follows the obligations an inspector can verify on the spot, with the section of 935 CMR 500.000 each one comes from.

The Commission does not publish its own inspection checklist. This one is built from the regulation text current as of the June 18, 2026 revision. Check the current text before relying on any number here.

What the inspector can do

• Arrive unannounced. Inspection is allowed "at any time without prior notice", and holding a license counts as consent (500.301(1)).
• Get in immediately once they show Commission photo identification (500.301(2)).
• Take evidence: samples, photographs and video, with your help (500.301(3) and (4)).
• Demand records beyond the visit: books, electronic communications, interrogatories and subpoenas (500.302).
• Send a secret shopper to test ID checks and sales limits (500.303). Refusing a lawful sale or a receipt to one can itself lead to action.

Not cooperating is grounds for administrative or disciplinary action (500.301(7)).

The checklist

Inventory and Metrc

• Inventory is kept in real time, with a count every month and a full count every year. Each count record carries the date, the findings, and the name, signature and title of whoever counted (500.105(8)(b) to (d)).
• Every package is tagged and every product and transfer is tracked in the seed-to-sale system (500.105(8)(e) to (g)). In Massachusetts that system is Metrc. Untracked inventory can lead to suspension or revocation.
• What is on your shelves matches what Metrc says you have. See How to reconcile Metrc with your POS inventory.

Security and video

• Cameras cover the sales floor, safes and vaults, every entrance and exit, and the parking area, record 24 hours a day, and stamp date and time (500.110(5)(a)).
• Footage is kept for at least 90 calendar days, and longer when the Commission asks you to preserve it.
• The perimeter alarm, duress or panic alarm and backup alarm work, a failure alerts you within five minutes, and the system runs four hours on backup power (500.110(5)).
• Security equipment is tested at intervals of no more than 30 calendar days, with the tests recorded (500.110(5)(f)).

Age, ID and sales limits

• ID and age are checked at the door and again at the point of sale, and nobody under 21 gets in (500.140(2)).
• No sale happens without valid government-issued ID (500.140(4)(a)).
• Your POS blocks a sale above the daily limit of one ounce of flower, or its equivalent: five grams of THC in concentrate or 500 milligrams of THC in edibles (500.140(3)).
• Sales equipment and data are reviewed monthly for manipulation software, and the review is recorded (500.140(5)).

Packaging and labels

• Product leaves in child-resistant, opaque, plain packaging, or in a resealable child-resistant exit bag reading KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN in at least 10-point type (500.105(6) and 500.140(8)).
• Nothing on the package is designed to appeal to minors.
• Label text is at least 1/16 inch high (500.105(5)(a)).

Waste

• Every disposal is witnessed by an agent and recorded electronically: date, what, how much, how, where, and the agent's name and signature (500.105(12)).
• Waste records go back at least three years.

People and training

• Every employee, owner, executive and volunteer is registered with the Commission as an agent before working (500.030). See CORI requirements for hiring at a Massachusetts dispensary.
• New agents who handle or sell product finish the Responsible Vendor Training basic core curriculum within 90 days of hire (500.105(2)(b)).
• Every agent completes eight hours of training a year, at least four of them Responsible Vendor Training, and training records go back four years (500.105(2)(a)).

Records on request

• You can produce, on request, the records 500.105(9) lists, including inventory, seed-to-sale, personnel, CORI and waste records. Personnel files are kept 12 months after an agent leaves.

After the inspection

1. Deficiency statement. The Commission lists every violation it found and leaves or sends the statement to you (500.310).
2. Plan of correction, within ten business days. For each deficiency: the steps you will take, a timetable and the date you will be in compliance (500.320(1) and (2)).
3. If the plan is rejected, amend and resubmit it within five business days of the notice (500.320(4)).
4. Tell the Commission when every item is done (500.320(6)). An approved plan does not rule out a fine or a further order (500.320(5)).

Where BudLogix fits

BudLogix keeps your SOP library and shows which requirements your published SOPs cover. In Massachusetts it takes a deficiency statement through investigation, a plan of correction and the SOP changes that follow, and records witnessed waste. It files nothing with the Commission on its own; a person does. About Compliance.