License Types
The category of cannabis activity a state regulator authorizes a licensee to perform — cultivation, processing, distribution, retail, testing, transportation, or microbusiness — each with its own SOP, recordkeeping, and inspection requirements.
What license types are
A cannabis license type defines what regulated activity a licensee is permitted to perform. Every state runs its own license framework, but the major categories are broadly consistent.
Common license types
- Cultivator — grows cannabis plants. Often sub-divided by canopy size and indoor/outdoor.
- Processor / manufacturer — converts harvested cannabis into finished products: pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, concentrates, topicals.
- Distributor — handles wholesale movement and, in some states, mandatory pre-retail testing coordination (California's model).
- Retailer / dispensary — sells finished product directly to consumers.
- Testing lab — performs the required pre-retail panels and issues COAs. Cannot also hold other license types in most states.
- Transporter — moves regulated product between licensees.
- Microbusiness — a vertically integrated license at small scale, allowing cultivation, processing, and retail under a single license with caps.
Why it matters to compliance
Every license type has its own SOPs, training requirements, recordkeeping rules, inspection cadence, and common violation profile. A retailer's compliance program looks almost nothing like a cultivator's. Verdaxi ships state-and-license-specific checklist templates and SOP libraries so operators don't have to derive the requirements from the rulebook themselves.
Compliance is the entry point. The platform is the destination.
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