New York suspends cannabis track-and-trace deadline amid Metrc, Biotrack deal
New York marijuana regulators temporarily delayed the launch of track-and-trace requirements for its $1.5 billion market late on Tuesday.
The state Office of Cannabis Management’s abrupt pause followed news of a “strategic partnership” between BioTrack, New York’s selected provider for seed-to-sale tracking, and Metrc, Biotrack’s erstwhile main competitor.
Metrc and Biotrack are the two main providers of track-and-trace systems to state regulators, who rely on the information about product flow to crack down on the illicit market.
According a Tuesday announcement, a new entity, called BT Government Inc., will take over “BioTrack’s government-facing operations and will operate independently from Metrc and BioTrack.”
BT Government will be led by Moe Afaneh, BioTrack’s chief operating officer, the announcement said.
Further details, such as terms of the deal, were not disclosed.
What that means for the states that use BioTrack software for seed-to-sale tracking was not immediately clear.
It’s also not clear if this means that Biotrack software will be replaced by Metrc, as some affected licensees surmise.
That’s in part because it appears the announcement caught regulators flat-flooted.
New York cultivators and certain other licensees were originally supposed to comply with seed-to-sale tracking requirements starting Aug. 1.
Other license-holders, such as retailers, were due to comply later this fall.
That’s now on pause so OCM can “make a full assessment” and “determine” what that means for licensees “and communicate next steps,” the agency said in a bulletin on Tuesday.
Uncertainty whether New York licensees were required to purchase individual tags for every product – a so-called “sublot” tag, which critics said would increase costs to unsustainable levels – contributed to an overall feeling among some licensees that the state simply was not ready.
That included Mack Hueber, president of the Empire Cannabis Manufacturers Alliance (ECMA), who said last week that operators were “confused and panicked.”
In comments to MJBizDaily on Wednesday, Hueber welcomed news of the pause, “as the system was clearly not ready for the planned launch and operators were extremely concerned about the costs related to its system,” he said.
“If this news means that METRC’s software will replace BioTrack in New York, that is a positive development and could help alleviate the most consequential of ECMA’s concerns,” he added.
Chris Roberts can be reached at chris.roberts@mjbizdaily.com.