The state’s medical marijuana industry is slowly adapting to the seed-to-sale tracking and tagging system that was implemented earlier this year following a nearly year-long court battle.
In February, an Oklahoma County district court lifted the restraining order that blocked the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority from implementing the system.
The order was signed by District Judge Natalie Mai and effectively ended the restraining order that prevented OMMA from implementing the seed-to-sale tracking and tagging system in the state. The tracking was introduced as part of House Bill 2612.
HB 2612, known as a medical marijuana “unity bill” provided medical marijuana users in the state with a number of protections such as “No employer may refuse to hire, discipline, discharge or otherwise penalize an applicant or employee solely on the basis of such applicant’s or employee’s status as a medical marijuana licensee.”
Alongside measures like these, the bill also addressed implementing a seed-to sale tracking system.
The system put in place for implementing a seed-to-sale tracking system is Metrc. Metrc states that their role is to “combine advanced software, radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, a dedicated customer-support team, and a secure database to track and trace cannabis from seed, growth, harvest, and processing to testing, transport, and sale.”
As the winning bidder to provide software and licensing, Metrc works with OMMA as a way to keep track of marijuana within the state.
When agencies like OMMA seek services like those provided by Metrc they follow the state guidelines by identifying potential companies through procurement solicitation opportunities posted on the OMES website, as well as on individual state agency websites.
Additionally, state government solicits and awards statewide contracts for a broad range of goods and services available to all state government entities, as highlighted by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services of Oklahoma.
New challenges
From its origins Metrc, and the establishment of a seed-to-sale system brought new challenges for many in the industry as growers, processors and dispensaries shared many concerns.
There was a range in responses from the cannabis community as many felt the need for a seed-to-sale system, in light of the current market being coined as the “wild west of weed” through many publications.
Oklahoma’s medical marijuana market is markedly different than many other weed friendly states. Oklahoma currently has 2,447 licensed dispensaries, in comparison to the 502 retail licenses in Colorado as of January 2022. Despite Oklahoma’s market being for medical purposes only, there are 374,077 licensed patients throughout the state.
The rise of issues and concerns over illegal market activity, and the presences of similar programs in other markets showcased a need for some form of oversight or regulation to take place. As Oklahoma looked to implement seed-to-sale regulations many individuals sought to address how these changes might impact this emerging industry.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority public information officer, Porsha Riley spoke about this concern.
“It was one of those situations where several cannabis programs across the country implement seed-to-sale systems like this long before product reaches the hands of the consumers,” Riley said. “With the growth this state saw with medical marijuana they really needed a seed-to-sale tracking system to help keep up with that product.”
The concept of this seed-to-sale system assigns a tag to each plant from the minute they are old enough to have it attached to the moment it reaches the consumers hand in store. Growers, processors and dispensaries now have to take on the task of not only tagging the flower and /or product, they are now also faced with a number of other administrative tasks as the role of seed-to-sale in the industry settles in.
Shop owner Robert Cox of Friendly Market in Norman spoke about his experience transitioning to Metrc being marked by “a lot more time looking at computers trying to figure things out.”
Technical issues
While inventory looks different at each store, some challenges dispensaries like Friendly Market face are issues with point of sales syncing onto the Metrc website. This process is supposed to be simple as it uploads automatically after each sale, but various technical issues have arisen as point-of-sale systems try to integrate line items into Metrc. Things like characters in the title of a product line can lead to a reporting discrepancy through Metrc.
Proper Cannabis manager Stephanie Perry had first-hand experience with these issues, also noting just a generalized dip in computer performance.
“The main thing that I have noticed is that it has slowed down my point of sales system,” Perry said.
As computer limitations pop up owners have been able to navigate these system errors more efficiently as time goes on. One of the more notable outcomes of the seed-to-sale transition has been the amount of time it has taken for product to move. Failure to enter products into the system properly can lead to lengthy holds on the product, which in turn makes the sales or distribution of the product delayed.
Delays aren’t just a concern for the business, they are a concern for the consumer as well. Norman Flight Club shop owner Billy Bahnam spoke about his experience with Metrc compared to other states.
“I have a lot of friends in Michigan,” Bahnam said. “I have friends in California. They are all in this industry… Metrc there is different. It is easy. They don’t have to wait.”
One thing unique about Oklahoma’s pivot to enforcing a seed-to-sale system is the fact that its implementation is years into legal medicinal marijuana, this policy now retroactively trying to target and identify illegal activity within the state by seeking to address an issue long ignored. OMMA highlighted this by stating that they have been able to identify bad characters in the industry through this seed-to-sale system.
“It has really helped us identify a lot of that illegal product that’s been in our market,” Riley said. “It’s definitely been a contributing factor to ensure that patients are getting safe product and that this market is operating both legally, free market, and safely.”
Effects of Metric
While there has been a noticeable change within the cannabis industry the effects of Metrc have not caused a drop in dispensary business. In the city of Norman there were 60 licensed dispensaries as of 2022, compared to the 46 in 2021.
While some dispensaries faced challenges with Metrc and compliancy, others noted there was little change. One thing that notably made this switch easier for some and harder than others was volume.
As product moves from grower to processor to dispensary, a new tag is needed as the plant moves to become a product in store. This is a process many within the industry feel frustrated by 45 cents for each plant tag, the 25 cent product tag, in addition to the online Metrc system fee of $40 per month. The more product a storefront or business is moving, the more labor is needed for the process of tagging as they make sure Metrc compliancy is met.
Larger dispensaries struggle to navigate this change due to volume, and smaller dispensaries struggle to navigate the costs. Many shop owners like Bahnam felt it was unfair to be placed in the position of complying by signing up for Metrc or shutting down.
“You never see something where you’ll get forced to sign a contract that you don’t want to sign,” Bahnam said. “And if you do not sign it, it will log you out from Metrc, and you will not be able to receive a new product. You can’t run your business, or do anything unless you sign it.”
This is not the only change the marijuana is anticipating, it is simply just a step towards more regulation and oversight in the medical marijuana industry. One new thing that has emerged since Metrc has been implemented, is OMMA’s partnership with NCS Analytics to provide a dashboard of information relating to marijuana businesses in the state. This webpage is updated regularly with information about total number of active license by type, product sales in the state by category, number of plants and harvests.
With Metrc now a fixture in the medical marijuana, each part of the industry has worked to embrace the seed-to-sale system within the state. Perry summed up the experience for many by stating “It did add a little bit extra (work), but it’s not too bad.”
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