Colorado and Washington were first, and each took their own unique paths when developing regulations. When Oregon legalized recreational Marijuana, the program was more like CO than WA. WA just seemed to do things "differently".
When Washington decided to change their CTS (Cannabis Tracking System) from BioTrackTHC, again they decided to ignore what other states were doing. They did not like the idea of requiring specific RFID tags or labels. While I understand not wanting to dictate how licensees run their businesses, I don't understand how you expect to have true traceability if you don't enforce how product is tracked. The first rule of data is: garbage in, garbage out. Instead of telling licensees how to track Cannabis, you leave them to their own devises, which is bound to result in inconsistencies and inaccurate reporting.
The demand to leave tagging an open ended affair forced Franwell to pull their proposal (even though Metrc was originally selected as the CTS replacement). So instead of Metrc, Washington State ended up going with MJFreeway. MJFreeway was the first seed-to-sale tracking system I learned about, but since that time, issues have plagued the company. To top it off, the BioTrackTHC contract has expired, but MJFreeway isn't ready. So now there is no traceability system in Washington State for the time being. I guess inconsistencies and inaccurate data are no big deal . . . especially when you're running with NO data.
Love it or hate it, Metrc is the standard for state traceability systems at the moment. Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, Maryland, Nevada, Michigan . . . and now California . . . the grand price of legalized recreational Marijuana! Sure there's some downside: a user interface that feels like it was built a decade ago, an API with many missing capabilities, RFID tag requirements, and on and on. But the system is relatively stable, and they have experience to not only provide a platform, but to help states build compliance programs with a baseline, workable system.
I feel sorry for all the Washington State licensees who are struggling right now. The state did you no favors by avoiding the need to tag your Marijuana!
