Distributor

Distributor is a California-specific middle-tier license between cultivators/manufacturers and retailers — a legacy of the 2015 MCRSA alcohol-industry three-tier model. A Type 11 Distributor license authorizes transport between licensees, arrangement of regulatory compliance testing (batch sampling and chain of custody), quality assurance review of packaging and labeling, storage, and (historically) tax collection. A Type 13 Transport-Only license permits transport between cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution premises but not retail. All distribution must use licensee-owned or leased vehicles with GPS tracking, dedicated drivers aged 21+, written trip manifests, and full Metrc entries. Type 11 licensees must carry at least $1 million per-occurrence general liability insurance. The mandatory distributor layer is a key reason product costs cascade higher in California than in vertically-integrated states. Most other states do not require an independent distributor tier; Illinois offers a similar "Transporter" license, and New York allows processors to self-distribute their own products. → See also: Manufacturer, Cultivator, METRC, COA