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Traceability Woes

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Last June, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) announced that it was ending its contract with BioTrackTHC. The LCB also announced it would be integrating to Denver-based MJ Freeway’s New Leaf Data Systems by Oct. 31, 2017. However, there was an announcement from the LCB in late October that the new rollout would not happen until Jan. 1, 2018. Once again, the rollout deadline passed, with no traceability system update.

In the meantime, a Traceability Contingency Plan was put in place. This plan left producers, retailers and processors to manually create their own spreadsheets, and report inventory to the LCB weekly instead of monthly, as they had done when BioTrackTHC was in use. This self-regulated inventory tracking system created a number of issues.

We elected to push out the launch date to Feb. 1 (code freeze was Jan. 14) to ensure our system is ready and to ensure a smooth transition for our licensees. This additional time will allow licensees to have the necessary time to take the provided training and familiarize themselves with the new system.”

First, with producers and retailers creating and maintaining their own spreadsheets, and having to report weekly as opposed to monthly, it created extra work. In addition to the hassle, having cannabis businesses create and maintain their own spreadsheets is relying on them to police themselves, which could easily create compliance issues. The updated deadline for the software rollout in Washington was Feb. 1, and at the time of this writing, producers, processors and retailers alike, are all waiting anxiously to see if the deadline will be met.

Jeremy Moberg is the founder and CEO of CannaSol Farms and co-founder and representative for Washington Sungrowers Industry Association (WSIA). Moberg has represented the WSIA to the LCB for several workgroups, including the Traceability Workgroup. CULTURE reached out to Moberg to inquire about his opinion on the Traceability Contingency Plan.

“Any review of this process would have to be described as turbulent for the industry and the state at best. The big question now is will [New Leaf Data Systems] be able to launch this on Feb. 1 and if they do not, will that be the end of Leaf’s contract? I sense that the [LCB] is wanting to get this done to avoid the conclusion that this is a failed project,” Moberg explained to CULTURE. “An added benefit of the current system is that private companies’ financial data is not public. I think the failure of the [New Leaf Data Systems] could provide an opportunity for the state to change its enforcement strategy from a reporting based focus to an audit based focus.” Moberg continued to explain that if the launch doesn’t happen on the scheduled date, then the LCB should give up this effort with New Leaf Data Systems and instead focus its enforcement on conducting audits.

At the time of print, the LCB was on track to implement New Leaf Data Systems on time, according to Brian E. Smith, the communications director at the LCB, who confirmed the update to CULTURE in late January.

“This entire project has been under a compressed timeline. Our top concern is for our licensees. We elected to push out the launch date to Feb. 1 (code freeze was Jan. 14) to ensure our system is ready and to ensure a smooth transition for our licensees. This additional time will allow licensees to have the necessary time to take the provided training and familiarize themselves with the new system.”  Smith told CULTURE. “Third-party integrators are benefiting from having additional time as well. In the meantime, the contingency plan is working.”

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