Oklahoma Watch: Seed-to-sale tracking for medical marijuana in question | Marijuana in Oklahoma

Metrc was not named in the original lawsuit. The company successfully argued at a June 1 hearing that it should be included as a party to the trial as the injunction compromised its state treaty. The next hearing is scheduled for June 29 in Okmulgee County.

LeeAnn Wiebe, CEO of Apothecary Extracts in Beggs, said their stores are all ready to go on the Metrc system by April. Apothecary Extracts has a grow operation, a production facility and a pharmacy.

She said Metrc’s cost of the license and RFID tags was less than 1% of what it spent on its Oklahoma business. She spends a lot more testing cannabis, with an estimated $ 2 million in testing costs this year compared to $ 20,000 for Metrc tags.

“Every time you have a new system it can be overwhelming or awkward, and it’s a bit scary because you don’t know,” said Wiebe, who owned a Colorado cannabis company that used Metrc. “But shortly after implementation, everyone could see the value of transparency and everyone was using the same system.”

Wiebe said that part of the reluctance to use the Metrc system might be because the current system is easy to manipulate.

“Based on working with hundreds of breeders at this point and our challenge to get license verifications, test results or lot information, we cannot work with 9 out of 10 locations because they cannot provide us with that information,” she said. “I think most people who don’t want Metrc don’t want it because it removes those loopholes or the ability to easily get unregulated products to market.”