What to know about Seed to Sale tracking in Oklahoma
Oklahoma has had a legal medical cannabis program for just a few years. However the market is already one of the largest in the United States, and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) claims the state is the largest producer of cannabis in the entire country.
However up until now, the state hasn’t had any standardized way to track the 8,000 grow facilities and 2,000 dispensaries that are operating in Oklahoma currently. On May 26th however the state will be implementing its seed to sale program.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics seized 54,000 plants from an illegal grow operation in April, and untagged product ending up on the black market has been a consistent issue for state authorities.
Oklahoma to implement Metrc
The OMMA chose to implement Metrc two years ago but was held up by a lawsuit, limiting businesses that have used Metrc until now to just a few. While some businesses have been using Metrc for a year already, the majority of the state’s cannabis businesses will be completely changing how they operate.
Despite the adjustment that businesses will need to make, Metrc will make the industry as a whole much more transparent and easier to track for the benefit of the consumer.
Greener Group consultant Justin Jones was the first to tag plants with Metrc ever in 2013 when it was first implemented in Colorado. He believes Metrc is essential for the continuation of the medical cannabis industry in Oklahoma.
“Metrc may be able to help Oklahoma draw a line in the sand between the legit businesses and the private market operators. It could be too late, but will be an excellent tool to track all of the cannabis ‘falling off the back of the truck’. There’s speculation that Oklahoma is supplying most of the illicit markets on the east coast and south east.” said Jones. “Some are calling it the new Humbolt.”
Jones continues, “Oklahoma allowed lax licensing and virtually no oversight for medical marijuana licensing. Everyone and their uncle could have gotten a license if they wanted one. There’s a 4 year over-supply sitting in inventory. Metrc tracking could bring these issues to the forefront.”
Currently, Oklahoma medical cannabis businesses must submit a monthly written report to the OMMA detailing various factors of their business operations, plant counts and more. Metrc will give OMMA the ability to track everything digitally in real-time to see how much cannabis is being produced and distributed across the state.
Executive Director of OMMA, Adria Berry, believes that the new system overall will benefits consumers and help protect legal businesses.
"Oklahomans will see a difference because we will be able to identify that black market product easier. If it's not tagged and moving through the electronic process, then it's not a legal product that should be moving through Oklahoma," Berry said.
She also said that, “from the moment it is big enough to hold a tag…until it’s harvested and lab-tested, sold to a dispensary and eventually sold to a consumer,” all cannabis and cannabis products will be tracked.
On May 27th, Berry says OMMA will gather a list of all licensees not registered with Metrc. The agency will then begin filing administrative actions that could include revoking licenses.