In Missouri’s medical cannabis market, track-and-trace service provider Metrc will no longer levy tag fees on every plant grown by licensed operators in the state.
An appellate court handed down the ruling in late January, capping a lawsuit first filed by Metrc in 2019.
At issue was Metrc’s tag fee—a cost assessed against cannabis growers and other business owners to use the track-and-trace software mandated by state regulations. In other words, according to the lawsuit’s back-and-forth over the past few years, licensed cannabis businesses were forced to pay to use a service they were already being forced to use.
When the program was set up—and when Missouri originally decided to go with Metrc over competitor BioTrack THC—Metrc levied a $40 monthly charge for the software itself, and $0.45 for each plant tag and $0.25 cents for each package tag.
Those tag fees are now history.
Licensed businesses will continue to cover shipping and handling for those tags, however, and Metrc is setting new limits on the number of tags that may be ordered—limits meant to “match with the defined needs of each licensed business operating in Metrc.”
From Metrc’s Feb. 1 bulletin announcing the change:
Due to the differing tag needs of each business based upon license type, there will be maximum settings per license type.
• Cultivators: Plant Tags: Max 7,500 o Package Tags: Max 2,000
• Product Manufacturers: Package Tags: Max 2,500
• Testing: Package Tags: Max 100
• Dispensary: Package Tags: Max 150
