Building Technology To Protect The Cannabis Supply Chain

Since 2010, when I first started doing legalization work in Colorado, few big technology companies have been willing to openly step up to the plate and service licensed cannabis businesses. That encouraged my company, Metrc, and others on a panel with me at the recent PBC Conference, to build new technology to address those needs. And one of the things we’ve learned in our past decade of experience is: the supply chain is not resilient.

“Supply chain, specifically the regulation and compliance, is a gigantic source of risk for this industry. But it’s not the only risk. Our modern-day supply chains are a mess. We’ve got port congestion, staffing shortages, trucking delays, and COVID-related challenges,” said Ashley Metcalf, Associate Professor of Operations at Ohio University. “You can never eliminate risk, especially in this industry, but the best way to manage it is to use technology and automation.”

More specifically, in the cannabis industry, inventory controls or inventory tracking are the central theme for regulations. For the regulators tasked with accounting for the industry, being able to access information on the state’s entire regulated market in one, digital system gives them a single source of truth. And for licensed business owners who need to maintain compliance, it helps make state regulators more transparent and provide the necessary information and tools needed to stay on track.

For instance, the ability to recall a product that has been deemed a public health and safety hazard is extremely important for both state officials and licensed cannabis businesses. We saw this firsthand during the vaping crisis in 2019. At the same time, it’s important for regulations to be flexible enough to not stifle innovation or make day-to-day operations onerous for new businesses.

“Integrations are critical to operators looking to work across state lines, by and large, because there are different industry systems and different rules in every single state. The configuration of all those tools and being able to work well with one another gives us a sense of data integrity,” said Travis Steffen, CEO of “all-in-one” cannabis business management solution GrowFlow.

Additionally, consumers are becoming more cognizant of supply chain dynamics and public health concerns. As a result, they’re asking more of brands.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly aware and want more transparency of what they’re putting in, and on, their bodies,” said Jessica Billingsley, CEO of publicly traded cannabis tech company Akerna.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that COVID emergency measures offered a prime opportunity for cities and states to adjust their supply chains and expand consumer choice. Almost overnight, states started to adopt regulations for the delivery of cannabis. This expanded the point of sale from a brick-and-mortar store to a doorstep.

While some may still be looking for an “Apple of weed” or “the Uber for cannabis,” early entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry – and especially in the cannabis tech space – know that day may never come. Instead, they have seized that opportunity to create their own tools for the trade. And today these innovators are living through some of the best industrial case studies in modern history.

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