If you are at least 21, you can grow cannabis at home in Massachusetts: up to six plants for yourself, with a hard ceiling of 12 plants per household no matter how many adults live there. The plants have to be in a locked space, hidden from public view, and inside your primary residence. Those are the core rules. Everything else, from how much dried flower you can keep to whether your landlord can shut you down, follows from there.
How Many Plants You Can Grow
One adult 21 or older can cultivate up to six marijuana plants for personal use inside their primary residence. When two or more qualifying adults share a home, the household cap is 12 plants total.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 7 – Personal Use of Marijuana Three roommates who each want six plants cannot stack their allowances. The property maxes out at a dozen.
The statute spells out only the age requirement. There is no state residency requirement in the text, and the Mass.gov guidance on home cultivation lists only the age threshold.2Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Recreational Marijuana No one under 21 can possess, cultivate, or receive marijuana under any circumstance, and no parent or guardian can authorize it. Transferring cannabis to a minor is a separate violation.3General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 2 – Limitations
Going over the limit triggers penalties. Growing more than six but no more than 12 plants as an individual is a civil matter: a fine of up to $100 and forfeiture of the excess, with no criminal charge for the overage itself.4General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 13 – Penalties Exceeding 12 plants is more serious and can be treated as unlicensed manufacturing rather than a personal-use overage.
Where You Can Keep the Plants
Plants have to be in an area equipped with a lock or other security device, and they cannot be visible from any public place without binoculars, aircraft, or other optical aids.2Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Recreational Marijuana A front yard, open porch, or unfenced patio fails both tests.
The lock requirement is literal. A deadbolted room, a locked closet, or a grow tent with a padlock will do. A room divider or an unlocked shed will not. The point is to keep minors and unauthorized people out of the space.
The visibility rule is what trips up outdoor growers. If a passerby on the sidewalk can see your plants, you are not compliant. A tall fence or a solid enclosure solves it. Most home growers in the state keep things indoors to satisfy both rules at once.
What You Can Keep and Carry After Harvest
Possession limits change depending on where the marijuana is.
- Inside your home: up to 10 ounces, plus any additional marijuana produced by plants you cultivated on the premises. Anything over one ounce must be secured with a lock.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 7 – Personal Use of Marijuana
- Outside your home: up to one ounce on your person, with no more than five grams of that in concentrate form.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 7 – Personal Use of Marijuana
Carrying more than one ounce but not more than two ounces outside your residence is a civil infraction: a fine of up to $100 and forfeiture of the excess, with no criminal record. Failing to lock up more than one ounce at home carries the same $100 civil penalty.4General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 13 – Penalties
Giving Away What You Grow
You can give up to one ounce to another adult 21 or older, with no more than five grams in concentrate form, as long as no money or anything of value changes hands and the transfer is not advertised or promoted to the public.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 7 – Personal Use of Marijuana
The advertising piece is what gets people in trouble. Posting on social media that you are giving away homegrown cannabis, or putting up a sign at a farmers market, turns a private gift into a public promotion. The law covers person-to-person generosity, not “gifting” schemes that route around licensed retail.
Making Concentrates at Home
You can use heat, pressure, or alcohol-based extraction. You cannot use any volatile liquid or gas with a flashpoint below 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which rules out butane, propane, hexane, and similar solvents.3General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 2 – Limitations Rosin presses, bubble bags, and ethanol washes stay on the table. The restriction applies whether or not you hold a medical card; only licensed marijuana product manufacturers in commercial facilities can use volatile solvents.
If You Are a Registered Medical Patient
Medical patients operate under a more generous ceiling. A qualifying patient can grow up to 12 flowering plants and 12 vegetative plants, excluding clones, without a special permit. Patients who need more than that can apply for a Hardship Cultivation Registration, which allows enough plants to maintain a 60-day supply. The Cannabis Control Commission reviews those applications within 30 calendar days.5Cornell Law School. 935 CMR 501.027 – Hardship Cultivation Registration
If you grow under both authorities in the same house, the medical limits cover the medical portion, but everything shares one physical space and one household. Keep clear records of which plants belong to which grower under which authority.
If You Rent
State legalization does not override your lease. Property owners can prohibit the production, processing, and display of marijuana on property they own, occupy, or manage.3General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 2 – Limitations If your lease says no growing, that is enforceable, and violating it gives your landlord grounds for eviction.
Consumption is treated differently. A lease cannot prohibit you from consuming marijuana through non-smoking methods, such as edibles, tinctures, or topicals, inside your rental unit, unless allowing it would cause the landlord to violate federal law.3General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 2 – Limitations Landlords can ban smoking marijuana the same way they ban smoking tobacco. Cultivation is a more intrusive use of the property than quiet consumption, so landlords get broader authority there.
Read your lease carefully before you set anything up. Even without a cannabis clause, provisions about alterations, moisture, or electrical modifications can apply to a grow room.
Federally Assisted Housing: Don’t
Marijuana is still a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, and growing it is “manufacture” federally. For most homeowners, this stays theoretical; federal authorities have shown little interest in prosecuting small, state-compliant home grows. For anyone in federally assisted housing, it is not theoretical at all.
HUD requires owners of federally assisted housing to adopt policies allowing termination of tenancy for any household where a member uses or manufactures marijuana, regardless of state law. Owners receiving federal housing subsidies cannot affirmatively permit marijuana use or cultivation. Growing cannabis in public housing or in a unit covered by a Section 8 voucher can lead to eviction, denial of future housing assistance, or both. A Massachusetts medical card does not change that.6U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Use of Marijuana in Multifamily Assisted Properties If you live in any form of federally assisted housing, home cultivation is off the table until federal law changes.