12 Years Later, WA State Still Can’t Track Pot Production Cycle

It's been almost 12 years since I-502 legalized recreational pot in WA state, but a recent audit shows the tracking oversight system to govern it still doesn't work.

  The system that's supposed to 'follow it' from growth to sale is broken

The only system in WA state government that doesn't seem broken is the Auditor's Office. Year after year, they crank out their legally-mandated reports and audits. Year after year, they point out the flaws and issues with nearly every face of WA state government---but rarely, if ever, is anything done about it.

Pat McCarthy's office just released an audit on the tracking processes that are supposed to oversee the state's pot system. From growth, to harvest, to production, to sale, it's broken.

Pot growers, processors, and vendors have to regularly report ALL their activity to the state, then that data is supposed to be fed into this tracking system.

According to MyNorthwest.com:

"According to the audit, the current cannabis tracking system doesn’t efficiently track how cannabis is produced, processed or sold. The Office of the Washington State Auditor claimed the system is intended to help identify risks of illegal or unsafe practices within the cannabis business from farm to store."

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This oversight system is supposed to, in part, protect consumers from potential issues with the product as well, but apparently does not. It's also supposed to account for all the pot grown, harvested, processed and sold, but does not do it in a timely or accurate manner.

The system is also full of errors, many of the human kind. In 2022, misplaced decimal points in the State Report of annual pot sales showed the state made $8 billion dollars, when in fact it was actually $1.3 billion.

The state is using a computer system from a company called BioTrack that is supposed to provide a "seed to sale" oversight process, but the Auditor's report indicates it isn't working properly. Lots of gaps, delays, oversights and the afore-mentioned errors.

Several other states, including Colorado, are using similar systems without many reported issues. WA state claims it won't be able to introduce a more state-of-the-art robust tracking system until at least 2031.