Now legalized in some form in 32 states and the District of Columbia, marijuana is continuing its transition from a niche business in a handful of states to a national industry. Because the federal government still considers marijuana, or cannabis, to be a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), individual states have taken the lead in creating a legal, regulated marketplace for cannabis production and use. To that end, each state may have different goals in regulating the legal marketplace for cannabis, and businesses hoping to operate in or provide services for the newly legalized industry must understand the patchwork of compliance requirements they will face. This column surveys some of the ways states have chosen to regulate the environmental impacts of cannabis legalization in an effort to understand which issues have been prime targets for regulation, where some regulatory inconsistencies between the states exist, and what may be growing targets for regulation in the future.

How States Regulate Cannabis Waste

Perhaps the most universal target of regulation among the legalizing states is the cannabis waste lifecycle. Most states impose specific requirements for the management and disposal of solid cannabis waste. Those requirements include rendering the waste unusable by blending it with noncannabis waste. Many states specify that the resulting blended waste must consist of at least 50 percent noncannabis waste, e.g., 1 Colo. Code Regs. § 212-2.307(E)(1), while other states simply require that the cannabis waste be both unusable and unrecognizable, see e.g., 28 Pa. Code Section 1151.40(b). Nonconsumable, solid wastes with which to blend cannabis waste include paper, plastic, cardboard, food, soil and other wastes, e.g., 3 Alaska Admin. Code tit. 3, Section 306.740(d).