NY Office of Cannabis Management to Adopt Metrc by 2026

NY’s OCM will switch to Metrc’s Seed-to-Sale system by early 2026, aiming to enhance compliance oversight.

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Office of Cannabis Management announced that it will be transitioning form BioTrack to Metrc as its official Seed-to-Sale system to help strengthen oversight regulatory compliance.

Seed-to-Sale keeps track ofa plant, from the time it is planted through harvest, processing, packaging, lab testing and the the sale of completed cannabis product.

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The agency says it will continue to work with Metrc to develop a project timeline, with a target integration go-live in early 2026. Additional information on test environment, inventory tags, and integration timelines will be shared by the agency as it becomes available.

Permitted laboratories are required to send cannabis product laboratory testing data for licensees to Metrc. Licensees are still required to have an electronic, real-time inventory system in accordance with the law.

Office of Cannabis Management says it has completed a full assessment of both BioTrack and Metrc systems and determined that it’s in the states best interest to transition. The agency says it is diligently working to finalize administrative steps to begin to work required to transition to the new system.

Metrc will charge $0.10 per unique identifier per the terms of the existing contract. Furthermore, Metrc will provide plant tags, package tags, and Retail ID QR code at no additional cost. Third-party integrators do not have to pay to transition from the BioTrack.

Licensees who have fully integrated with BioTrack NY Seed-to-Sale system should:

• Log out of BioTrack – NY to discontinue sending information via the API.
• Continue tracking inventory in real time in your electronic inventory tracking system.
• Maintain all past tracking and inventory data in your electronic inventory tracking system.
• Transfer cannabis products between licensees using a paper manifest as in the past.
• Continue to submit inventory/sales reports to the Office via the portal.
• Make all records available to the Office upon request.

The agency says individual plants must be assigned a unique identifier (UID) when they begin vegging. Before that, immature plants can be grouped into immature plant batches, with each batch having its own UID.

According to New York State Office of Cannabis Management:

• Due to the high rate of loss at this stage, cultivators may group immature plants of the same cultivar (strain) into a plant batch and assign it a plant tag and corresponding UID provided by Metrc.
• A plant batch shall contain no more than 100 immature plants.
• Immature plants in a plant batch must be of the same cultivar (strain).
• Each immature plant batch must be physically labeled with a plant tag and corresponding UID. The plant tag shall be kept clear from dirt and debris and be visible and within clear view of an individual standing next to the plant batch.
• For each plant batch, cultivators will record in the System, at a minimum, the location, date of planting, plant count, and cultivar (strain) of the corresponding immature plants.

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