The New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) has hit pause on the integration of its BioTrack Seed-to-Sale (STS) system, just days after cannabis operators were expected to be fully onboard.
The reason is that OCM recently learned that BioTrack entered into a partnership with Metrc earlier this month. The development triggered concerns about potential "system implications for both the agency and licensees," according to a statement released by OCM. Until those implications are sorted, all integration deadlines and activities are suspended.
The Office says it hopes to wrap up its review and issue a determination by the end of August. In the meantime, operators still need to comply with New York's real-time inventory tracking requirements under 9 NYCRR § 125.8. That means continuing to track inventory electronically, logging out of the BioTrack–NY system to stop sending API data (for those operators who already integrated BioTrack in their facility), reverting to paper manifests for transfers, and keeping reports up to date through the OCM portal.
Whether businesses will be compensated for already purchased tags or integration costs remains unknown, the OCM said..
For operators, the lack of clarity adds another layer of uncertainty to an already complex rollout. Lucas Seymour, CEO of Hudson Cannabis, told News10 that the pause leaves growers in the dark: "We are wondering what the status is. We do know that it's paused, but we do not have very much information other than that, which is really unfortunate, because that's a really important part of the industry, stopping the flow of illegal products from other states, it's a challenge we all face, and track and trace it's a tool to help with that."
Seymour also noted that integration isn't as simple as tagging plants: "It's not just us putting tags on plants. It's a lot of third party integration that have to happen with different software and different systems that we use." His company had already purchased tags before the deadline, but now isn't sure they'll be usable. "We are just going to wait for more information," he said.
