Marijuana Business Magazine November December 2018

To verify an ID’s authenticity, employees should be trained to: • Refer to a domestic and international ID guidebook. • Inspect ID markings with a magnification device known as a jeweler’s loupe. • Use a black-light bulb that illumi- nates holograms and ID markings. Technology should always be used to confirm the authenticity of IDs, too. One Colorado retail executive said her staff uses its point-of-sale provider Flowhub’s NUG app to scan each customer’s ID, confirm he/she is of legal age and that the ID is authentic. Another retail executive in California said his store uses a Honeywell-brand ID scanner and software plug-in that reads bar-code data on government- issued IDs. To protect consumer privacy, any personal information stored by these scanners should be purged on a regular basis, the California retail executive said. To be in compliance, however, retailers should consider retaining the birthdates on every ID scanned, because some regulatory agencies will later ask to see whether you confirmed customers’ ages. Require Same-day Return Customers to Provide Earlier Receipts To safeguard against looping, one retail executive’s Colorado store requires customers to show same- day sales receipts if the computer recognizes an ID as having been scanned earlier that day. “Our focus is on maintaining compliance with (purchase limits), as directed by state and local authorities,” she said. “A customer is welcome to make multiple visits to one or more stores at any time, as long as they remain under their total limit for the day.” The executive said the store ensures compliance by: • Training staff to remind customers at the point of sale to keep their receipts if they plan to visit the dispensary or one of its other loca- tions in the same day. • Using Flowhub’s NUG app to scan IDs.The app alerts staff if the ID has been scanned that day at the dispensary or one of its other locations. • Requiring staff to ask return customers to see a same-day sales receipt. If return customers cannot present a receipt, they are turned away and no sale is made. • Allowing return customers with a same-day sales receipt to make a purchase provided the quantity complies with purchase limits. Identify Point-of-sale Systems That Provide Safeguards Point-of-sale (POS) systems can provide another layer of protection that prevents looping. Most POS systems can create a customer profile with few or no identifying details for recreational consumers who show a valid government ID.They can calculate sales limits and also alert sales associates when customers attempt to purchase more than they are allowed. Here are ways POS systems can help keep you in compliance with sales limits: • BioTrackTHC’s POS system assigns every customer or patient a nonidentifying, 16-digit number when a driver’s license or patient ID card is scanned.The 16-digit number creates a consumer profile without storing any personally identifying information, unless customers have given the retailer consent to store names and other details for loyalty and rewards pro- grams. If a customer reaches the daily purchase limit and returns to make an additional purchase the same calendar day, the system flags the transaction, blocks it from being processed and does not allow a sales associate to override Mobile check-in apps can verify age, check for expired IDs and add customers to the queue. Photo Courtesy of FlowHub 80 • Marijuana Business Magazine • November/December 2018

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