We can all celebrate: Legal California marijuana, is now a reality following a successful vote on Proposition 64. Now it’s time for the real work.
Leading up to January 1st, 2018–mark your calendars–the day when legal recreational cannabis will begin being sold in retail locations to persons 21 and over in the state, California has a lot to do in order to make it work. One of those considerations will be Track and Trace systems, which track cannabis from seed to plant to dispensary to sale.
Don’t Get Twitchy
While some might get a little paranoid about such a tracking system, it’s pretty useful for legal regulation, and it’s also pretty cool: you can know the history of your bud, and it allows the consumer to know they’re getting what they’re paying for. If you’ve ever gone down the rabbit hole of wondering where your herb come from and whether or not it’s pesticide free: now you can know for sure.
Track and Trace also helps avoid the high likelihood of product being diverted to the thriving black market in states that do not yet have legalized bud. Sorry, everyone who has ever boasted that their dealer had the “good medical grade shit from California,” since that may no longer be as likely. While many smokers have likely lived under criminalization, this kind of tracking is important; following the rules is crucial as this great experiment commences in order to convince more skeptical states.
This is, understandably, a bureaucratic nightmare if you don’t already know what you’re doing. Other states including New Mexico, Illinois, New York, Hawaii, and Washington have jumped that hurdle by putting their track and trace needs into the hands of someone else, BioTrackTHC, which operates on both business and government levels with an all-in-one package that handles cultivation management, inventory, includes a point of sale system, and gives users analytics on sales trends, inventory, and shipment management.
Tracking Can Be Good For Everyone
They’re pretty smart for it, too. With experience in prescription drug and methamphetamine tracking, they know how to work with the government and law enforcement to keep everything in line, and with the boom in medical and legalized states, there’s definitely a need and many state legislatures are going to want something that’s tried and true. BioTrackTHC is apparently the person for the job, and already holding a government contract in Arcata, California, they’re probably crossing their fingers that the state will give them a tap on the shoulder as well.
California isn’t the only state to legalize recreational this past election day, either: Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada also voted to legalize recreational cannabis use in their states. With more states adopting medical marijuana and now eight states with recreational and many more with decriminalized marijuana, it feels like a tipping point in how the country views the issue into one that is not just a “hippie west coast” thing. Cannabis is increasingly rebranding itself both as a medicine and a legitimate recreational hobby.
One good insight into this was how Florida voted on legalizing medical use in the recent elections: 49 percent voted Trump and 48 percent voted Hillary, while a whopping 71 percent voted to approve Amendment 2, their first comprehensive medical marijuana legislation. It’s incredibly likely that the rest of the country will continue to overwhelmingly follow suit.
With the legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana no longer being such a “niche” issue, we can only presume that track and trace systems and others that streamline the industry will become more in demand. I think we can all hit our bongs, warm up our vapes, eat a cookie, and light a joint to that.
