The state of California is proposing to spend at least $10 million on contract resources during the next three years in order to stand up new IT systems that will support regulation of California's medical marijuana industry, according to state budget documents.
The newly created Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation will work with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and other state entities to build systems for licensing cultivators and tracking and tracing the movement of cannabis in the state from "seed to sale."
The state has a little more than a year and a half to complete the job. Legislation requires the licensing system to be functional by 2018.
The Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the new marijuana regulation bureau, explained in a budget document this month that the department "will need to pursue contracted resources to support configuration and testing of the IT solution, the development of reports and correspondence, and to address other requirements as necessary due to the short timeframe provided to get the system up and running."
Work will include interfaces for sharing licensing data between the bureau and Department of Food and Agriculture and the creation of a Web portal where law enforcement can access the licensing data.
Multiple IT systems might be built. According to state records, the Department of Food and Agriculture has done preliminary market research that suggests a single off-the-shelf software solution does not meet all the state's needs and requirements.
Gov. Jerry Brown last year signed into law legislation that called for the first statewide licensing and operating rules for marijuana growers and retail outlets since the state legalized medical marijuana 20 years ago.
One component of the regulatory effort is a database system known as “track and trace” — one that can give state taxing and public health officials, and law enforcement the ability to follow a marijuana plant from a seed to the packaged product at a dispensary.
Samantha Young contributed to this story.
