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COA explainer · United States

Colorado: from grow to shelf, what ends up on the label

Play it: the batch moves through Colorado’s workflow on the left, and each required label piece snaps onto the package on the right, color-coded by who adds it.

Sample data · Colorado (MED, 1 CCR 212-3) · for illustration

Published

🏷️ The product label, building live

Front Range · House Cut
Retail Marijuana Flower
Fictional sample label for illustration, not a compliant, printable label.
🌱 Cultivator adds it🔬 Lab / COA adds it🏪 Store adds it🏛️ Regulatory (always required)
The big idea: Colorado has no distributor, the cultivator or products manufacturer arranges testing directly and even samples its own batch (the state lab-tests only for audits). Everything a customer relies on, the potency, the tested-by line, still comes from the independent lab. Colorado’s mark is a red-and-white “!THC” diamond, not California’s triangle.

Sample label for illustration, not a compliant, printable label. Colorado rules (MED, 1 CCR 212-3), current 2026. Educational, not legal advice.

Step by step: Colorado

  1. Step 1: Cultivation facility (Cultivator) The grow tags each plant with a Metrc UID and defines a Harvest/Production Batch. This becomes the label’s batch number, cultivator license, and net weight. Colorado has no distributor tier.
  2. Step 2: Self-sampling (Cultivator) Unlike California, the licensee samples its own batch: two trained “Designated Test Batch Collectors” pull a representative sample under a written Sample Plan. (The MED pulls samples only for audits.)
  3. Step 3: Independent testing facility (Lab) The batch goes to an independent, MED-licensed, ISO/IEC 17025-accredited Testing Facility. Nothing is printed yet.
  4. Step 4: Full compliance panel (Lab) The lab runs potency + contaminants (pesticides, solvents, metals, microbials, mycotoxins, water activity). Results post to Metrc.
  5. Step 5: Results / COA issued (Lab) The lab, and only the lab, issues the results. This unlocks the label’s % Total THC & CBD and the tested-by lab + date.
  6. Step 6: Pass / fail (Regulatory) Pass, the cultivator/MIP may transfer it. A fail is decontaminated/remediated and re-tested before anything can move.
  7. Step 7: Package + label (Cultivator) Child-resistant packaging goes on with the red-and-white “!THC” diamond (min ½″×½″), the potency, and Colorado’s two required warnings.
  8. Step 8: Retail store (Store) The store verifies conforming labeling, adds its own license number and the date of sale, and sells only Metrc-“passed” product.

Frequently asked questions

Who tests cannabis in Colorado?
An independent, MED-licensed testing facility accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 tests Colorado cannabis. It runs potency plus contaminants (pesticides, solvents, metals, microbials, mycotoxins, water activity), posts results to Metrc, and issues the results. Only the lab supplies the label's total THC and CBD percentages and the tested-by line. The state samples only for audits.
Who pulls the sample in Colorado?
The licensee samples its own batch in Colorado. Two trained Designated Test Batch Collectors pull a representative sample under a written Sample Plan and send it to the independent lab; the MED pulls samples only when it audits. There is no distributor tier, so the cultivator or products manufacturer arranges testing directly.
What has to be on a cannabis label in Colorado?
A Colorado label shows the batch or production number, cultivator name and license, and net weight from the grow, the total THC and CBD with the tested-by lab and date from the COA, the store license and date of sale, and the red-and-white "!THC" diamond on child-resistant packaging, plus the two required Colorado warnings.

Keep reading

How to read a cannabis label Terpene glossary Every COA explainer
Educational information only, not medical advice. Terpene and cannabinoid effects are an active area of research and vary by person, product, and dose. Cannabis is for adults 21+ where legal.

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