Utah Prepares to Develop Medical Cannabis Supply
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]wo state agencies, the Utah Department of Health and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, began taking bids from companies on March 18 for a mandatory electronic verification system and inventory control system for the state’s medical cannabis program. By doing so, Utah officials are on track to begin producing what will be the state’s first batch of medical cannabis.
The state agencies are expected to sign a five-year contract for up to $5 million with the winning bidder. “We really can’t do anything program wide until this is in its place,” Drew Rigby, the agriculture department’s cannabis program manager, told Deseret News. “Our ultimate goal is to get patients product as fast, as efficient, as cheap as possible,” he said. “All of this is building toward that end.”
Andrew Rigby will oversee medical marijuana program for Utah via dept. of agriculture. It’s a new job in Utah but Rigby is not new to the medical cannabis biz. He owned companies in other states but left those to take this job in his home state. Says wants to help Utah patients. pic.twitter.com/b5j7R4HhQe
— cristina flores (@Cristina2News) March 18, 2019
Cannabis plants must be tracked via ID tags once they are eight inches tall, and remain in the tracking system all the way through the supply chain which includes cultivation, processing and distribution.
Last November, Utah voters approved Proposition 2, but only a month later, House Bill 3001, a “compromise” bill, was implemented in its place through the Utah Legislature. Per the modified law, the state agriculture department will issue licenses for cultivation, processing and laboratory testing, and the state health department will issue medical cannabis cards to patients, register medical providers and license medical cannabis “pharmacies.” Pharmacies are essentially dispensaries with a list of restrictions.
A computer system will assist patients to apply for medical cannabis cards. The system will also be used to order medical cannabis from a central fill pharmacy. All records of cultivation, processing and lab testing will be stored on the computer system. The winning software provider is expected to win a contract by May. The tracking and inventory systems must be in place.
