Facing a Colorado cannabis license, inspection, or compliance issue?
Former government investigator · Former Colorado Deputy District Attorney
You run the license. We handle the regulators. Licensing, inspections, investigations, and enforcement defense for Colorado marijuana businesses — built on the inside view of a former government investigator and former Colorado Deputy District Attorney.
Charles E. Liken Jr., Esq. — On the Legal Front Lines · Government Investigator, Denver Human Services · Investigator, Allegheny County District Attorney's Office · Licensed Colorado Attorney · Colorado Deputy District Attorney · Colorado Court-Appointed Child and Family Investigator
Every marijuana business in Colorado answers to two governments at once: the state Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), which licenses and inspects the industry, and the local city or county, which decides whether marijuana businesses may operate at all and under what added rules. A license application, a routine inspection, an employee badge issue, or a single compliance complaint can turn into a show-cause hearing, a suspended license, or a criminal referral faster than most business owners expect — and most business attorneys have never sat on the other side of that table.
Attorney Liken has. Before he represented clients, he built cases against people and companies as a government fraud investigator and later made charging decisions as a Colorado Deputy District Attorney. He knows how an investigative file gets built, what an inspector is actually looking for, and how a regulator decides whether to escalate. That perspective now works for you instead of against you.
Civil and criminal fraud investigations for Denver Human Services — surveillance, interviews, evidence, and sworn testimony.
Charging decisions, plea strategy, and trial work for the State of Colorado — the same kind of judgment call a regulator makes on your file.
20+ years in Colorado practice, now applied to the state's newest regulated industry.
The Marijuana Enforcement Division's stated mission is to "promote public safety and reduce public harm by regulating the Colorado commercial marijuana industry" through licensing, field inspections, investigations, and testing oversight. We work across all of it, on both the medical and retail (adult-use) sides:
Colorado's MED issues licenses on both a business level and an individual level — business owner licenses for anyone with a qualifying ownership stake, and employee (badge) licenses for anyone who works in a licensed marijuana business. Which combination you need depends on your role, your ownership percentage, and whether you're pursuing medical, retail, or both. We map this out before you file anything.
MED has stated that eligible regulated marijuana businesses will move to a unified application process starting July 1, 2026. We track MED's rule and guidance updates so your application is filed under the correct process the first time, not the one that was current last year.
Not automatically — but background is scrutinized closely for both business-owner and employee licenses. Having sat on the government's side of exactly these eligibility calls, Attorney Liken can tell you early whether an issue is disqualifying, explainable, or worth addressing before you file rather than after a denial.
Ownership and financial-interest changes in a licensed marijuana business generally require prior notice to and approval from MED — moving money or equity first and telling the regulator later is one of the most common (and most avoidable) compliance problems we see.
Cooperate, document what's asked and what's found, and call us before you sign anything characterizing the visit. MED's investigations team conducts field inspections specifically to verify compliance with state law and rules — how the business responds in the room often matters as much as the underlying facts.
Depending on severity, a violation can lead to a fine, a compliance plan, a show-cause hearing, or license suspension/revocation in serious or repeat cases. Timelines to respond are typically short. We've built cases from the government side and know what a strong, credible response actually looks like from the outside.
No — inventory-tracking mismatches are common and are frequently explainable (miscounts, timing of entries, transfer errors). The danger isn't the discrepancy itself; it's an unexplained one left to speak for itself in an investigative file. We help you get ahead of the explanation.
It can, in cases involving diversion, fraud, or knowing false statements to the regulator. Attorney Liken's background as both an investigator and a Deputy District Attorney making charging decisions means he can spot early which files carry that risk — and how to keep an administrative compliance issue from becoming a criminal one.
No. Colorado law lets each city and county decide for itself whether to allow licensed marijuana businesses at all, and if so, under what local rules — zoning, hours, distance from schools, caps on the number of licenses, and more. State legality does not override a local ban or a local rule you haven't checked.
Sometimes, sometimes not — it depends on the specific local ordinance and how it's written. This is exactly the kind of two-government (state-plus-local) question we review before it becomes a renewal-time surprise.
Yes — these are newer, more specialized license categories layered on top of the standard retail and medical framework, and local opt-in is even less uniform for them. We confirm current eligibility and local approval before you build a business model around either one.
Marijuana remains a Schedule I substance federally, so most federally-chartered banks still won't touch cannabis money, and Section 280E of the federal tax code disallows many ordinary business deductions for marijuana businesses. We coordinate with your accountant on the legal side of structuring around both problems — we don't file your taxes, but we make sure your entity and contracts don't make the tax problem worse.
Colorado restricts marijuana advertising that appeals to minors, makes health claims, or runs in media with a substantial underage audience, on top of the truth-in-advertising rules every business already has to follow. We review campaigns, packaging, and websites before launch — a pulled ad after a complaint costs far more than a five-minute review before one.
Employment rules inside the cannabis industry are genuinely unsettled and fact-specific, and they intersect with badge-eligibility rules on top of ordinary Colorado employment law. This is a "call before you act" situation, not a form-letter one.
A short consultation before you sign a lease, hire anyone, or file an application. Structuring, licensing strategy, and local-jurisdiction checks are dramatically cheaper to get right at the start than to fix afterward.
Book a confidential consultation with Attorney Liken about your license, your inspection, or the business you're about to start.
Free 20-Min Call with Attorney Liken