MJ Freeway marijuana tracking software crashes in Pennsylvania

Just Released! Get realistic market forecasts, state-by-state insights and benchmarks with the new 2024 MJBiz Factbook member program, now with quarterly updates. Make informed decisions.


Medical marijuana dispensaries in Pennsylvania reported that MJ Freeway’s seed-to-sale traceability system went down for more than an hour during a software update earlier this week, resulting in patients being turned away and significant amounts in lost sales.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, dispensaries across the state on Tuesday were unable to conduct sales for “hours” and were forced to shutter early.

In addition:

  • Cultivators were also unable to ship cannabis products to stores because they couldn’t fill out manifests.
  • Shipments that did arrive at the stores couldn’t be sold because dispensary workers couldn’t enter them into the MJ Freeway program.

Denver-based MJ Freeway spokesperson Jeannette Horton told the Inquirer that the Leaf Data Systems program was down sporadically for a total of an hour and a half.

One retailer, Christina Visco, president of TerraVida Holistic Centers, which operates three dispensaries in the Philadelphia area, said she had to turn away hundreds of patients.

A Leaf Data Systems software update in mid-July in Washington state took down the program for days, costing thousands of dollars in lost business for the state’s cannabis business owners.

MJ Freeway and MTech merged earlier this year to form Akerna, which trades on the Nasdaq as KERN.

More information is available here.