Minnesota’s seed-to-sale tracking system for its medical cannabis industry will be provided by Metrc, a Florida-based company that has become somewhat synonymous with regulatory compliance in many state markets.
Metrc’s system offers a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag model, where each individual plant and product is traceable through patented RFID technology, allowing for data tracking for each plant, inventory control and cultivation management. The system helps ensure accurate reporting of sales as well as product safety for consumers.
The company’s agreement with Minnesota is its 19th government contract nationwide, it announced March 17.
Deploying an accurate inventory management system also helps to combat the illicit market, according to Metrc.
“As the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program continues to evolve, we are excited to bring our state-of-the-art track-and-trace platform, which will enable state regulators to conveniently and securely track, store and retrieve millions of data points from operators around the state,” Metrc CEO Jeff Wells said in a statement. “Metrc is eager to work side-by-side with the Department of Health and partner with existing operators within the state to create an effective and well-regulated medical marketplace that Minnesota’s regulators, patients and operators can truly trust.”
The announcement comes on the heels of a new law allowing patients enrolled in Minnesota’s medical cannabis program to access flower, which went into effect March 1. Before, the state’s dispensaries could only sell medical cannabis in pill, oil and topical form.
With the addition of Minnesota, Metrc now holds government contracts in every region of the U.S., including implemented systems in Alaska, California and Washington, D.C.
The Minnesota contract came a week after the company secured a contract with New Jersey for its forthcoming adult-use market. While New Jersey has had a legal medical cannabis program since 2010, the partnership with Metrc will be the first time the state has contracted a provider to implement a centralized track-and-trace system, according to the company.
While Metrc did not offer any profit estimates the company stands to gain from providing its system to cannabis operators in those state-legal markets, $12 million was a figure associated with the company’s contract in Oklahoma during an injunction in a class-action lawsuit that was lifted last month.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) and Metrc were co-defendants in the suit (filed last year), with more than 10,000 of the state’s licensed cannabis businesses gaining a restraining order of a track-and-trace rollout through legal representation, arguing a contract with Metrc would create an estimated $12-million tracking system monopoly in the state.
An agreed order issued Feb. 25 allowed Metrc to move forward with providing the tracking system for the state’s medical program.
While the regulatory frameworks are diverse in the 19 states Metrc holds contracts with, the company has indicated that each jurisdiction shares the common goal of ensuring safe and legal cannabis markets.
Dave Newman | Adobe Stock
Bill to Create New Department to Regulate Cannabis Stalls in Arizona
House Bill 2828 aimed to create a new regulatory body to oversee the state’s cannabis market, which is currently governed by the Department of Health Services.
Arizona Speaker of the House Russell “Rusty” Bowers made an unsuccessful push this year to establish a new regulatory body to oversee the state’s cannabis market, which is currently governed by the Department of Health Services.
Bowers, a Republican from Mesa, introduced House Bill 2828 Jan. 10 to create a new department to assume all “authority, powers, duties, and responsibilities of the Department of Health Services relating to the regulation of marijuana,” according to Phoenix New Times.
Bowers intended the legislation to take effect next year, the news outlet reported, but it missed a March 10 deadline for a first reading, which has blocked the bill from being assigned to a committee.
In addition, the last day for the Arizona House to consider any bill was Feb. 18, Phoenix New Times reported. The legislation would now require special permission from the Rules Committee in order to advance.
Bowers has been a vocal opponent of adult-use cannabis legalization, according to Phoenix New Times. He opposed Proposition 205, a failed 2016 ballot initiative that aimed to legalize adult-use cannabis, as well as Prop. 207, which passed in 2020 to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state.
Bowers also sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 2045, which aimed to reduce the potency of cannabis sold in Arizona, and he has sponsored and co-sponsored legislation to add warning labels to cannabis products regarding the health of pregnant women and their unborn babies.
While it is unclear why Bowers filed H.B. 2828 to transfer cannabis regulation away from the Department of Health Services, NORML Political Director Jon Udell and Arizona NORML Executive Director Mike Bobinette told Phoenix New Times that the move may stem from the perceived closeness between the department and Arizona’s cannabis industry.
However, Bowers’ proposal would have automatically transferred all Department of Health Services employees involved in cannabis regulation to the new department, rather than starting from scratch.
“I think it's curious when you try to solve the supposed problem of industry capture by taking all the regulators and giving them a new title to a new department,” Udell told Phoenix New Times. “So far it does nothing and it leads consumers into thinking that something serious has changed."
Steven Frame | Adobe Stock
Kentucky Medical Cannabis Reform Inches Closer With House Passage
State lawmakers approved an amendment to add PTSD to the short list of qualifying conditions in the legislation, which now heads to the Senate.
The ball is back in the Senate’s court for medical cannabis in Kentucky.
House lawmakers cruised to passage of legislation that aims to make Kentucky the 38th state to legalize medical cannabis during a 59-34 vote on March 17.
The legislation, House Bill 136, would allow doctors to prescribe medical cannabis to patients by Jan. 1, 2023, for six qualifying conditions: cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy/seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the bill’s text.
The proposal would prohibit smoking as a form of use, and home cultivation would not be allowed.
In particular, PTSD was added as a floor amendment by Democratic Rep. Rachel Roberts, who was one of three Kentucky lawmakers who introduced an adult-use cannabis proposal last month.
The medical bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Jason Nemes, whose crafting led to the broad bipartisan co-sponsorship of 20 Democrats and 22 Republicans in the House. During the committee process earlier this month, Nemes stressed his opposition to adult-use legalization.
“The best part about this bill is it lets sick people get safe product,” he said before the House Judiciary Committee, which advanced the legislation via a 15-1 vote on March 10. “This is not a wink, wink, nod, nod to get to recreational.”
Eric Crawford, a legalization advocate, testified in support of H.B. 136 before the committee, describing his personal struggles living as a paraplegic following a car accident involving an 1,800-pound cow landing on his head roughly two decades ago, the Herald Leader reported.
“Medical cannabis allows me to be a more productive member of society and gives me a better quality of life,” he said. “It helps me be a better husband, son and friend. There’s not one of you on this committee that would think I’d be better off taking opioids.”
Rather than continue to criminalize sick people under Kentucky’s current laws, Democratic Rep. Al Gentry, a co-sponsor of H.B. 136, encouraged his House colleagues on Thursday to pass the legislation so that people like Crawford could move on and live happy lives, The Associated Pressreported.
Under Kentucky’s current law, a first-time offense for the possession of up to 8 ounces of cannabis carries a maximum penalty of 45 days of incarceration and up to a $250 fine, according to reform organization NORML.
“I know real people that had their lives turned around by these products, and a lot of them are living in the closet or living in secrecy because they feel like they’re a criminal,” Gentry said.
Still, House lawmakers held reservations over the normalization of cannabis under medical legalization as a gateway to adult-use legalization, the AP reported. Republican Rep. Chris Fugate suggested normalization would worsen drug addiction problems in the state.
“The common denominator of 99.9% of the drug addiction problem in America started with marijuana,” said Fugate, who did not offer scientific evidence to back that claim.
With House passage, the legislation now heads to a less-receptive Senate. An earlier version of the bill passed the House in a 65-30 vote in 2020 before stalling in the Senate, which continued to resist consideration of the issue in 2021.
The upper chamber’s pushback came on the heels of a February 2020 Kentucky Health Issues Poll that showed nine out of 10 Kentucky adults favored legalizing cannabis for medical purposes.
The lack of reform has had wide-ranging consequences in the state.
Kentucky ranks second in the nation for the largest racial disparity in cannabis arrests, with Black Kentuckians being 9.4 times more likely to be arrested for possession than white Kentuckians, according to reform group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
In 2019, Kentucky law enforcement officers made more than 4,200 arrests for cannabis, and that was with only 82% of the state’s enforcement agencies reporting their numbers, according to MPP
Headshot courtesy of Top Notch THC
Top Notch THC Co-Owner Kema Ogden Details Lessons Learned in Nevada
Ogden, the first Black woman to own a dispensary in the state, says operating a cannabis business is full of surprises.
Kema Ogden became Nevada’s first Black female dispensary owner in 2014 when she co-founded Global Harmony LLC, the parent company of Top Notch The Health Center (Top Notch THC), in her hometown of Las Vegas.
Through guiding the company to receive medical and adult-use retail licenses, as well as a cultivation license, Ogden has learned a lot about operating a cannabis business, which she says is full of surprises.
“So much is surprising in this industry,” Ogden tells Cannabis Business Times. “I was a business owner before, … and it’s unlike any business you could imagine. And that’s why I feel like, even though you might have business experience, it doesn’t necessarily equate to you being successful at this because it’s so different.”
Ogden, who also serves as Board Secretary for Washington, D.C.-based Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and is on the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board’s Cannabis Advisory Commission, owned a gym and operated a nonprofit in the health and wellness space before her foray into the cannabis industry.
When Nevada legalized medical cannabis through a voter-approved initiative in 2000, Ogden’s passion for health and wellness inspired her to learn as much about cannabis and its medical benefits as she could.
This journey led her to meet her current business partners, and Top Notch THC has become what Ogden calls “the neighborhood dispensary,” which is able to compete with some of the larger, publicly traded cannabis operators in the state.
“We have a local presence,” she says. “We’re the original owners, [and] we’re very community based. We joke around, since we opened, we’re like the Cheers of the industry. We know everybody’s name. Our owners are very involved in the business. I’ve worked the register. I’ve been in there helping customers, and so has my partner. So, because of that, we feel very connected to the community, and we also do a lot of give back and charity work and nonprofit work. I think that’s the biggest component to our success.”
Photos courtesy of Top Notch THC
Top Notch THC holds medical and adult-use cannabis retail licenses, as well as a cultivation license.
The venture hasn’t been without its challenges, however.
“The compliance measures you have to comply with are just so strict,” Ogden says. “There are a lot of things you have to comply with, unlike any other business.”
One of these, she says, is tax code 280E.
“The 280E tax was very surprising—not being able to write off anything to your business and the high taxes,” Ogden says. “Just the cost of business in general is very alarming because you don’t really realize all of the things outside of the business that you need between legal fees, consultants, just things like that that really don’t factor into most businesses—and that’s even before you get open, a lot of the times.”
Ogden says her business’s challenges have changed over time as the industry has evolved, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest obstacle during the past few years. Top Notch THC has experienced staffing issues, like other industries, and has streamlined its hours and operations to remain open while being understaffed.
“When COVID hit, in general, we had to change our whole way of operating at the time,” Ogden says. “The city was shut down and we had to do just curbside and delivery. … You had to change your whole business model for COVID initially.”
The company has continued to thrive even during the pandemic, which Ogden says speaks to the benefits and normalization of cannabis.
“A lot of people are willing to sacrifice other things in order to make sure that they have access to cannabis for whatever reason they need it,” she says. “I think it’s only going to get better, as long as legislative bills pass and things are supported in our government to … [legalize] marijuana on a federal level. That can only help the retail side and what we can do, and it will help prices. … We can stop being taxed so high, and we can then give that savings back to the customer. I think, in turn, that’s just going to keep sales going and it’ll help us alleviate what’s going on in the black market.”
Ogden says that Top Notch THC changed its operations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the company has continued to thrive despite the challenges.
Consumer education is only improving as the industry matures, Ogden adds. Over the years, Top Notch THC’s customers have become more familiar with the different ways to consume cannabis and the various components of the plant.
As an example, the dispensary’s customers are paired with a budtender who works with them one-on-one to explain the different product options and answer questions.
“The education piece or the knowledge from the consumer has definitely improved,” Ogden says. “People know what they want. When this originally rolled out, you had people who were even shying away from coming in because it was so frowned upon initially [with] the stigma. But now, you don’t have all those issues. People know what they want [and] they have no problem coming in.”
Nevada plans to roll out cannabis consumption lounges in the coming months, and Ogden has been helping to shape the forthcoming regulations for lounges as part of her role with the Cannabis Compliance Board’s Cannabis Advisory Commission.
“That has really been a great experience to see that develop and … to see how that’ll roll out and help the industry,” she says. “I think it’s also going to help who can be involved in the industry and give … those with barriers [a chance] to enter into the industry, so that’s exciting.”
Top Notch THC will apply for a license to operate a consumption lounge, although Ogden says there are still many unanswered questions on how the process will work as regulators draft the regulations.
In the longer-term, the company wants to expand its operations in Nevada, and, eventually, into other states.
“That’s what, ultimately, we’ve been looking into: just taking our brand and our success and helping other companies in other states or partnering with people in other states and just opening up our own operations in other states,” Ogden says.
For those just starting out in the industry, Ogden advises them to do their research and know when to bring in others for help.
“Understand that you may need to work and partner with people,” she says. “It’s very difficult to do alone. Put the right team of people together. And I always tell people who are interested [to] stay in your lane. I was not a grower. I didn’t know how to do that part of the business at all, so I brought in people who did, and I stay in my lane. I don’t try to tell them how to grow the product and [how] to make a good cultivation company. I never did that piece, so I teamed up with the right people and I learned as much as I could.”
Ogden also urges entrepreneurs, especially women, not to get easily discouraged when building their business.
“Don’t let people tell you that you can’t do it as a woman [or] as a minority,” she says. “We have to work twice as hard. I think just pushing through, learning as much as you can, arming yourself with as much knowledge as you can about the industry, and finding the right mentors and people to work around and work with to learn from—I think that’s really important."
Federico Magonio | Adobe Stock
Colorado Recalls LivWell Cannabis Flower Over Yeast, Mold
The state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division released an advisory notice over product from one of the state’s largest retailers.
Cannabis flower produced and sold by one of Colorado’s largest vertically integrated retailers was recalled for potential unsafe levels of total yeast and mold.
The recalled cultivar, Gelato Cake, was sold as a pre-weighed half ounce at LivWell Enlightened Health dispensaries across the state between the approximate dates of Dec. 30, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2022, according to a health and safety advisory issued March 11 by Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The harvest batch number for the recalled product is: GELCAK#1F35B10/18/21.0252
“Consumers who have these affected products in their possession should destroy them or return them to the retail store from which they were purchased for proper disposal,” the advisory reads. “Consumers who experience adverse health effects from consuming the product should seek medical attention immediately and report the event to the Marijuana Enforcement Division by submitting a MED Reporting Form.
LivWell has 21 dispensaries throughout Colorado, 19 of which offer adult-use cannabis, Westwordreported.
A LivWell executive said an investigation leading to the recall stemmed from a customer’s inquiry, according to the news outlet.
In a statement provided to Westword, LivWell Vice President of Marketing Chris Mapson said, “LivWell Enlightened Health is committed to delivering exceptional cannabis products to our customers, and we care deeply about the purity of our products. As such, we have strict production policies at our facilities to ensure that the products we make meet the quality assurance testing standards required by Colorado law.
“While we serve thousands of patients and consumers every day, complaints are very rare. In January of this year, we received a customer inquiry about a small amount of cannabis flower. We immediately pulled the entire batch from which this originated and self-reported the incident to the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED).”
Mapson also said molds and other natural organisms are an inherent factor in the production and storage of agricultural products such as cannabis, and that LivWell’s products are tested by state-licensed, independent laboratories to help ensure they meet industry standards.
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