Compliance with new seed-to-sale track-and-trace requirements can be costly, but cannabis operators in New York may be able to seek at least partial assistance covering the bill.
As part of a pending state budget deal negotiated by state Assemblymember Landon Dais, a Bronx Democrat, $10 million would be set aside for “track-and-trace enforcement,” the Albany Times Union reported.
And part of that money will be made available to operators concerned about the cost of compliance, Dais later explained.
“We are subsidizing that cost so that that burden is no longer on the business,” Dais told Cultivated News last week.
Can New York cannabis operators get help with seed-to-sale tracking?
As of Tuesday, New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul were still haggling over the state budget, currently two months overdue.
But for operators in the state’s $1.7 billion and growing annual cannabis market, bills for track-and-trace compliance are already coming due.
Several years delayed, track-and-trace requirements in the New York market finally went live earlier this year after a tortuous rollout.
The state initially selected Florida-based BioTrack as its preferred vendor in 2022, but that company was later bought out by competitor Metrc.
One controversy was the perceived high cost of complying with Metrc’s “package tag” requirements. Each tag costs 10 cents.
Operators in the state complained that both the cost and the labor required to scan them created another burden.
While industry advocates welcomed the promise of $10 million to help pay for Metrc compliance, they also called for more to be done.
New York cannabis operators are still fighting Metrc Retail ID requirement
“This funding cannot be viewed as a substitute for addressing the core concerns surrounding the Retail ID requirement itself,” Jason Ambrosino, founder of licensed processor and manufacturer Veterans Holdings, said in a statement.
“The biggest burden on operators is the significant labor and operational costs tied to implementing and managing a Retail ID system that was imposed without a formal rulemaking process or meaningful public input.”
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“We continue to believe the Retail ID requirement should ultimately be terminated in New York State.”
Through the end of April, New York adult-use cannabis sales totaled $553.6 million, according to data presented to the state Cannabis Control Board.
