You Must Have Adequate Seed-To-Sale Tracking Documentation
Video Transcribed: Tulsa Business Cannabis Attorney Isaiah Brydie coming at you with another video. And this video is going to be my very bird’s eye view of what to expect if your company receives a communication that you’re going to be inspected by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.
So, first thing, don’t panic. From what I’ve seen, the inspectors with the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority are pretty fair and reasonable people. Also, they’re usually going to be looking at certain items that I personally classify as best business practices, to begin with.
So make sure that you have adequate documentation of all of the transactions that your business has been doing, making sure that you’ve been conducting your monthly reportings by the 15th, just doing the overall look and analysis of the company.
So what are some of the items that I generally see businesses receive a violation for if they have an inspection? The first item is actually going to be a failure to conduct your monthly reports by the 15th. Maybe you missed a month, maybe you have been systematically doing reportings on the 16th or the 17th or the 21st over and over and over again. Those are going to be some items that I see that can tend to be a little problematic for a business owner.
As a general matter, having a monthly report filing on file, even if it’s late, is going to be a better thing to happen than not having a monthly reporting done at all. But ideally, you would have your monthly reports completed by the 15th of each month. You don’t have to wait until the 15th to file your monthly reports. You just have to have your monthly reportings to OMMA filed by the 15th.
The second item that I generally see a business receiving a violation for is not having adequate seed-to-sale tracking documentation in place. So maybe you have multiple different batch numbers listed out for the same products between your shipping manifest, your laboratory testings, and then your internal seed-to-sale tracking software.
Unless you have some way of drawing a straight line between those multiple batch numbers or harvest batch or production batch numbers, the inspectors are going to have a little bit of an issue when it comes to your seed-to-sale reporting.
So making sure number one, or trying to the best of your ability to have a uniform harvest batch or production batch number between your internal seed to sale tracking software, the batch number listed on your testing labs, and then also having that same batch number on your shipping manifests are going to be really good on showing your due diligence as a business owner when it comes to seed to sale tracking.
One of the other items that I see, I see a lot of different things. One of the other items that I see businesses receiving violations for when it comes to monthly reportings, I’m sorry, when it comes to OMMA inspections is going to be behind waste.
So maybe you are disposing of cannabis flour along with root boles, fan leaves, things of that nature. Maybe you have open containers as waste containers that aren’t labeled as containing cannabis or cannabis product waste. Maybe you just don’t claim you don’t have any waste at all. And there are a couple of different frameworks where you can have that be the case.
But normally, I do see some issues behind waste. They are generally on a case-by-case basis. So you could have two businesses right next to one another and they have different issues, but both of those issues coming down to waste.
So making sure that you really understand the rules behind cannabis waste, what is cannabis waste that you can dispose of, what is not cannabis waste that you can dispose of, what cannabis waste you need to have a waste disposal business come and dispose of for you, how you can dispose of cannabis waste, and then the rules around those items are generally things that you need to clean up as a business owner.
Also, I see a lot of issues when it comes to the storage of cannabis and cannabis products at the business location. Generally, I would recommend that you have a locked and secure storage area in your business. And then along with that, you also store cannabis in hard containers that are labeled and then have those containers, those hard containers, stored in your storage area. So maybe you have a locked closet or maybe you have a safe. Those are items that I generally see as being really sufficient when it comes to an inspection.
Next, coming down to the packaging. If you have an opaque package that you are either transporting or receiving cannabis or cannabis products in, particularly flour, you need to stop using that probably yesterday. Any container that contains cannabis or cannabis products is required to be opaque, meaning that you cannot see through it.
I think that the going item that I see that is excellent when it comes to inspections and when it comes to compliance is going to be the black pound or half-pound vacuum seal bags. And then there are also some items that you need to have on the outside of that vacuum seal bag.
And then lastly, the item that I see that is an issue is going to be behind your shipping manifest. So maybe you don’t have a shipping manifest. Maybe you are not putting down sufficient information in the shipping manifest.
Maybe you don’t have the delivering business and the receiving business both signing and dating on the shipping manifest. Maybe you’re transporting and you have a transportation agent license, but you don’t put down the transportation agent license information.
Maybe you don’t have a unit of measurement for what products are being delivered. So you have seven pounds of White Widow. Well, I’m sorry, maybe you have seven as a unit, but no unit of measurement. So you have seven of what? Seven pounds, seven ounces?
So making sure that you sufficiently fill out and complete your shipping manifest, give a copy of that shipping manifest to the receiving business and then retain a copy of the shipping manifest for the delivering business, and then couple that with the testing labs that you have for that same production or harvest batch and then logging that in your company records, which you’re required to keep for seven years. All of those are going to be really good items to have on hand or to have cleaned up or to have inline if you receive a notice of an inspection.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to my law office at the contact information listed. My name is Isaiah Brydie, I am an Oklahoma marijuana lawyer who is here to help you with any of your Oklahoma Cannabis business legal needs.