Washington state extends contingency plan for marijuana tracking

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Washington state’s new seed-to-sale marijuana tracking system is up and running, but complications with the program have spurred regulators to extend a traceability contingency plan through March.

“Since some licensees have had difficulties inputting their plant inventories into Leaf Data Systems, this allowance is being granted,” the state’s Liquor and Control Board said in a news release.

The state’s traceability contract with Florida-based BioTrackTHC ceased last year, and regulators switched over to Denver-based MJ Freeway’s Leaf Data Systems on Nov. 1, 2017.

But Leaf Data wasn’t ready to go live at that point, so the state rolled out a contingency reporting plan that allowed licensees to manually upload traceability data.

Even with the stopgap measure, Washington state’s cannabis operators have experienced difficulties with the transition to Leaf Data.

Hiccups with integrating Leaf Data have cost business owners thousand of dollars in employee hours and lost sales and also raised concerns about diversion risks.