Fuel and Cannabis in the News

Uganda Fuel Adulteration Down to 0.5%

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has revealed that the country’s fuel marking and quality monitoring programme has led to a drastic reduction in fuel adulteration, from 30% in 2015 to less than 0.5% this year. As a comparison, worldwide best practices range from 0.5- 2.5%.

The programme, which is provided by SICPA, ensures that all fuel meant for local consumption is properly marked at border points. In addition, it provides the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and UNBS with mobile testing laboratories for spot sampling and immediate fraud detection, at the same time confirming fuel quality and tax compliance.

With the mobile testing laboratories, the monthly monitoring coverage of fuel stations in Uganda has increased from 30% to a current average of 80%, despite an increased number of outlets. Whereas compliance with fuel quality standards stood as low as 32% in 2007, today it has reached 99%.

As a result of this increase in compliance, the volume of legally imported petroleum products has increased exponentially to 2 billion litres in 2023 (ie. an increase of about 35%). This is attributed to both the effectiveness of the technology and general economic growth.

Despite this successful fuel integrity programme, in Uganda’s eastern region there is still a significant informal market, with the UNBS warning the public in that region to stop buying fuel sold in jerrycans and bottles outside of the established supply chain, as this will likely be fraudulent and adulterated.

Metrc Expands Focus to Cannabis Companies

Cannabis seed-to-sale tracking provider Metrc, whose primary customers are US state governments, has expanded its focus to the 39,000 licensed cannabis companies that, more often than not, are obligated to use track and trace software, reports MJBizDaily.

This shift is in response to users complaining about software outages and slow service, and a clunky user interface.

‘What we’re doing now, and what I’m very proud of, is an emphasis on usability for the licensees,’ said Metrc CEO Michael Johnson, referring to state-licensed cannabis businesses.

Since 2020, Metrc has grown its state government contracts from 16 to 23. It’s two main rivals are BioTrack, with nine government contracts, and MJ Freeway, with two.

Johnson attributes the company’s growth to being solely focused on track and trace, rather than also having a point-of- sale system or marketing tools. ‘This is it – we do track and trace, and we do it for cannabis,’ he said.

As part of its business model, Metrc sells plastic radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, which track products with electronic chips, to licensed operators, a practice that is currently up for debate in states such as California – which may stop the use of single-use plastic tags on each plant – and Colorado – which may remove the requirement for Metrc tags to contain RFID chips.

BioTrack also aims to serve both state government customers and cannabis companies using its system. But it does so with an expanded suite of products and services, such as medical cannabis patient registries and a point-of-sale system.

‘We cook all of that in the same pot, so there’s a constant kind of feedback loop to achieve the goals of compliance and transparency for the state,’ said BioTrack CEO Moe Afaneh.

Not every legal cannabis jurisdiction, however, has a contract with a commercial seed-to-sale software company such as Metrc, BioTrack or MJ Freeway.

Washington, for example, developed an in-house programme called the Cannabis Central Reporting System following complaints about its previous contracts with software providers.

Arizona’s Department of Health Services, meanwhile, did not sign a contract with a track and trace software company. Instead, retailers are required to have their own track and trace systems, so that if issues arise – such as potential cases of diversion to the illicit market – there is some accountability.

Demitri Downing, CEO of the Arizona Marijuana Industry Trade Association, rejected the notion that a statewide track and trace system would benefit the industry. He told MJBizDaily that further regulation and policing of industry players seemed like regressing to pre- legalisation policy.

Michael Johnson is happy that the Metrc software is working exactly the way it was designed to, but stressed that it still relies on people to follow the law and on regulators to enforce it.

The systems themselves are not ‘a forcing mechanism to make you follow every rule and regulation,’ said Johnson. In Montana, for example, a cannabis testing lab was shut down after its owners complained producers were approving larger-than- legal batches of marijuana through the Metrc system.

‘It’s a tool for compliance, but it’s not going to force you to do things that you otherwise wouldn’t do,’ he said.

New York is Only State with No Cannabis Track and Trace

Larry Levy, founder and CEO of Lucid Green, a New York-based tech company producing inventory management software for the cannabis world, has raised his concern that New York is the only US state to have launched an adult use cannabis programme without a track and trace system, which he says is like ‘putting the cart before the horse’.

Chris Alexander, Executive Director of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management, has contradicted Levy’s statement, explaining that a state tracking system actually is in place, in the form of bi- weekly reports required of cultivators and processors about products coming in and going out.

The problem is that the company that won the state’s contract – BioTrack – is prevented from implementing its seed-to- sale process because of pending litigation that challenges who is being awarded licenses to sell recreational cannabis in New York. Operators, meanwhile, are free to choose their own tracking systems as long as their data will eventually synchronise with BioTrack’s system.

Lucid Green remains focused on its related but different Universal Product Code (UPC) platform technology, which could eventually be integrated with BioTrack’s seed-to-sale tracking platform. However, Lucid Green, itself, did not compete for the contract for New York’s medical tracking (already in place) or the contract for recreational tracking.