Marijuana Business Magazine November December 2018

system is also capable of restrict- ing permissions so staff can’t view a customer’s personal information. Even if these permissions are not in place, the system tracks staff actions and records which staff member views which profile. In Medical Markets, Lean on Seed-to-sale Tracking Systems and State Software In medical markets including Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, seed-to- sale tracking systems – including BioTrackTHC, Franwell’s Metrc and MJ Freeway – can be used in conjunction with state patient registries to monitor purchase limits. In Maryland, Metrc integrates with a patient portal that stores patient information including names, birth- dates and purchase limits, said Jennifer White, a spokeswoman for the Mary- land Medical Cannabis Commission. Here’s how it works: • Patients’ medical ID cards are scanned into Maryland’s registry when they check in at a dispensary. • The state system shows how much product is left to purchase in the patient’s rolling 30-day limit. • When a patient attempts to make a purchase, Metrc queries the state’s system and verifies purchase limits. • If the sale exceeds a patient’s limit, Metrc alerts the retailer and the sale is declined. Maryland has had issues with Metrc, including outages and slowdowns, but when the software works properly, it safeguards retailers from overselling product and patients from consuming too much medicine, said William Askinazi, principal at Potomac Holistics dispensary in Rockville. BioTrackTHC in Illinois and MJ Freeway in Pennsylvania have real- time digital ledgers that track patient limits, too, said Charlie Bachtell, CEO of Chicago-based Cresco Labs, a vertically integrated marijuana company with operations in six states. Some states – Illinois, for example – use regulations as an additional safeguard to prevent looping. MMJ patients in Illinois are required to register with one dispensary, and that’s the only place where they are allowed to purchase cannabis. If patients want to change their registered retailer, they must notify the state. The requirement for patients to register with a single dispensary and the state’s requirement for patients to submit fingerprints and background checks might swing too far in the direction of overregulation, Bachtell said. He’d advocate for regulations that provide checks and balances on operators with fewer barriers to access for patients. “You can’t be a healthy, successful company without a healthy, successful program,” Bachtell said. “And I can say with confidence that no operator in any regulated market wants to be out of compliance.” ◆ Scanning technology can be used during cultivation, distribution and retail, above. Photo by Tuthelens November/December 2018 • Marijuana Business Magazine • 83