ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York’s legal marijuana market faces a major deadline as the state rolls out a mandatory system to track cannabis products from the farm to the store shelf. The Office of Cannabis Management announced that all licensed cannabis businesses must register with the tracking service Metrc by December 17.
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“Our system is designed to help businesses like yours ensure compliance with state regulations,” the Metrc vendor’s team said in a welcome packet for business owners. “’Track-and-trace technology at its core provides the ultimate transparency in a supply chain.”
Those owners need to complete an online training course before receiving Metrc login credentials. Any business that physically handles the actual product—growers, processors, testing labs, and retail stores—are all subject to the new system that creates a digital history for every plant and product. Provisional and “Processor Type 3 – Branding” licensees who do directly touch the cannabis plant are exempt from the credentialing requirement.
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The state-mandated “seed-to-sale” technology from OCM assigns a unique digital label to each product, with QR codes required. It’s supposed to ensure safety and prevent illegal sales. Growers have to attach a tag with a unique number to each plant, bags or boxes of bulk product get a “Package UID” tag, and individual jars or bags sold to customers will need a “Retail Item ID” QR code.
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Despite that extra time for retailers, they still have to create an account and get credentialed by Wednesday to stay compliant. And while retailers can keep selling their current stock after December 17, they can’t sell anything from new shipments after that date until those items are logged in the system.
Starting Wednesday, products like gummies or vapes need these QR codes before they can be sent to distributors. And distributors will have to make sure everything they send to stores is properly coded by February 28. Store owners don’t have to worry about labeling their older inventory and can keep receiving uncoded items until that February deadline.
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The tags used in the system cost business owners $0.10 each, but the state is offering a one-time supply of tags at no cost. Cultivators can receive 2,500 free plant tags, distributors can get 750 free package tags, and microbusinesses can get 750 free item tags…