Article: Marijuana supply chain: Why ‘seed-to-sale’ rules are key to New York legalization debate

All we say in response to this article is pick your tech solutions provider very carefully. We can’t say names but we suggest that both public and private in NY don’t want what has happened in other states to happen to them.. a specific type of gridlock

 

The Democrat & Chronicle reports…

Why marjiuana testing is key to legal supply chain

States that have legalized recreational marijuana have instituted third-party testing requirements to protect consumer safety.

But the scope and nature of testing laws vary widely from state to state. The differences can have major implications for who can enter and succeed in the recreational marijuana supply chain, Cornell’s Toth said.

Reasonable third-party testing requirements are necessary to protect consumers, Fair said. But testing, like any step along the supply chain, costs money. And if those costs are too high, third-party testing requirements can be prohibitive to smaller operations looking to break into the marijuana industry, he said.

“If it becomes this ridiculous overregulation, the only people who can conform to that are those who have lots of money to do so,” Fair said. “It just ends up pushing out the small guy.”

As testing requirements have increased and more states move towards legalization, testing itself has become a lucrative business. In the cannabis market, for example, a market research firm projected the third-party testing industry would reach $1.4 billion in value by 2021.

In states like California, Florida and Massachusetts, where recreational marijuana supply chains already exist, the state requires growers to submit representative samples from each batch of harvested marijuana for testing. If the sample fails to meet state standards, the entire batch is prohibited from sale.

But what amount of product constitutes a “batch” can have a substantial impact on the cost incurred by marijuana processors, Toth noted. This problem has already arisen in the CBD industry, he said.

“Testing is a big problem for the CBD market right now. Depending on how you interpret [the regulations], it might require testing a plant per acre,” Toth said. “If you’re testing so many acres, it can get expensive.”

But by raising the cost of production, testing has had an unfortunate side effect, the experts said.

One of the hoped-for benefits of legalization is the end of the underground market for marijuana, which isn’t subject to safety testing or taxes. But too much regulation means the underground market may continue to flourish, even in the presence of a legal market.

Even in states where recreational marijuana is legal, underground supply chains persist as cultivators and consumers try to avoid the higher prices associated with taxes, testing and regulation.

“The standards of production are really high and the taxes are really high,” Toth said. “So the producers will produce, the good quality stuff will end up on the legal market, and their bad quality stuff might end up on the black market.”

Even if New York institutes a legal marijuana supply chain, it will face competition from existing illegal supply chains, Toth said.

Read the full article investigating a range of issues in the NY market at

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/07/02/marijuana-supply-chain-crucial-new-york-legalization/5321735002/

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