Recreational cannabis businesses in Oregon are risking fines and even their licenses if they don’t use the state’s mandatory seed-to-sale tracking system.
Steve Marks, the executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, cautioned both cultivators and retailers Feb. 9, claiming that approximately one in five of the Pacific Northwest state’s 900 license holders are not keeping their tracking records up to date.
The “most egregious” violations include failure to record batches of dried, harvested flower into the system within the required 45 days, and listing plants grown outdoors as still flowering long after they had been harvested.
Oregon cannabis businesses use Franwell’s Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance (METRC) seed-to-sale tracking system, which manages and reports numerous business activities and transactions starting with cultivators and ending with retailers.Cultivators are being blamed for most of the violations, but some retailers have also reportedly broken packaging rules.
Marks also delivered some good news to Oregon’s recreational licensees, pointing out that retail sales have reached more than $3 million USD per week, which translates into about $17,000 of weekly sales per shop, and changes to the state’s testing procedures are getting products to retailers faster.