When you’re using medicinal cannabis, it’s important to trust in the quality of the product from your local dispensary. As cannabis has become legal for medicinal use in more states like Maryland, many organizations have arisen to help protect consumers with regulations to ensure quality standards. One of the most trusted regulatory systems for medicinal cannabis is called Metrc.
Metrc stands for Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance. It’s a cloud-based system that helps states adhere to public health statutes and other laws governing medicinal or recreational cannabis. Dispensaries that use Metrc, like CULTA, can offer patients and caregivers the assurance that their cannabis meets all quality standards.
Metrc also helps states secure their local cannabis marketplaces, whether medicinal or recreational, against illegal practices. This helps strengthen communities against cannabis abuse or criminal activity associated with unregulated, blackmarket drug trades.
Whether you’re a current patient or are thinking about visiting a doctor for certification, understanding Metrc and its importance can help you make more informed decisions as a consumer. Let’s learn more about what Metrc is and why it’s so important in today’s cannabis commerce.
What Metrc does
In the grand scheme of things, legal cannabis use is still very new in the United States. California became the first state to legalize cannabis for medicinal use in 1996. Since then, many states have adopted legislation to allow legal medicinal cannabis programs for patients, or have legalized cannabis for recreational use for all adults.
Prior to legalization, cannabis was often cultivated using illegal labor practices and distributed without any quality control or liability. As the legal industry grew, there was a need for infrastructure to support compliance to the new laws and provide assurance to consumers and business owners alike.
Metrc is a “seed to sale” model that supports professionals in the cannabis industry at all levels. They monitor the supply chain and create detailed histories to track cannabis plants, test products for quality, and ensure that cannabis is distributed only to licensed dispensaries. Metrc ensures that legally-grown medicinal cannabis only makes its way into the hands of patients.
Metrc also provides a variety of data management services for cannabis-related businesses, such as dispensaries. This helps the cannabis industry run more smoothly, so businesses can deliver higher quality products and services to patients.
How Metrc helps patients
Metrc currently serves over 150,000 growers, testing facilities, dispensaries, state regulators, and law enforcement agencies across 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. They work closely with local law enforcement agencies, public health authorities, testing facilities, and more.
In states and territories where cannabis is legal, businesses like dispensaries are required to account for their entire inventory at all times from receiving to final sale. This is to prevent any cannabis products from being marketed, sold, or used in any manner that may violate local laws. These regulations can create a significant hurdle for business owners because of all the data involved. Metrc provides software solutions that make this easy.
As a result, they help safeguard the marketplace for patients. When the cannabis industry is operating in optimal conditions, patients and their caregivers have better access to high quality products to help alleviate their approved medical conditions. Metrc also helps patients by preventing potential opportunities for fraud.
They also work closely with testing facilities, using a sophisticated track-and-trace system for all cannabis plants. If any public health agency reports contamination or other issues that require a recall for cannabis plants or cannabis products, Metrc provides the tools for issuing recalls. In 2019, they supported numerous states with a massive vaping recall where some products may have exposed consumers to harmful chemicals.
To date, Metrc has tracked $15 billion in cannabis sales and assisted over 15,000 cannabis businesses. They’ve led to the development of a safe, centralized cannabis marketplace for medicinal and recreational cannabis. Patients and recreational users alike can trust dispensaries that use Metrc’s services.
Let Metrc put your mind at ease
If you or someone you love is a medicinal cannabis patient, the last thing you need is more stress. Cannabis consumers deserve to feel confident in the products they use. As with any product, cannabis should be high quality and live up to consumer expectations. For patients using medicinal cannabis to alleviate chronic pain, seizure disorders, or PTSD, it’s vital to trust your products.
Thankfully, dispensaries and vertically integrated brands that use Metrc, like CULTA, can assure their patients that their cannabis meets all legal standards. Metrc helps the cannabis industry meet or exceed regulations for sourcing, growing, and harvesting cannabis plants, as well as the production and sales of cannabis products.
Whether you’re visiting a medical cannabis dispensary for the first time or have been a patient for years, trust Metrc services to help. Make sure your local dispensary or other cannabis-related businesses use Metrc to adhere to your state’s regulatory requirements. It truly makes a difference for cannabis patients.
