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Y502K: Traceability Update – 2/28/2018

February 28, 2018

Twenty eight days have passed since Leaf went live on the Feb. 1st and the new traceability system is neither fully functional nor sustainable. We wanted to give a little update on Y502K: Traceability.  If you are a member, please go to The Cannabis Alliance Google Group to get the full detailed notes.  If you are not a member yet, and appreciate the work The Alliance does, you can sign up here.  For everyone else on our newsletter, here are the cliff notes:

(I) The Cannabis Alliance spoke with the Governor’s Office Policy Advisor to Public Safety on 02/26 and 02/27 for a combined total of an hour.  

  • The Cannabis Alliance has been asking the WSLCB for the better part of a year, to make traceability a record keeping internalized, yet fully auditable, process.  We have repeated this ask to the Governor’s Office and legislature as well.
  • Reiterated that the industry agrees that we need a platform for integrators to work with, that’s independent of the state yet works in tandem with the state’s needs. This is to help assure that regardless of the State’s vendor this never happens again.
  • Reiterated that the industry agrees that the LEAF contract should not be renewed.

(II) The Cannabis Alliance attended the WSLCB Traceability Workgroup (02/27) which we have had representatives at every month since April when the workgroup began.

The Alliance vocalized the extreme chaos that licensees have been facing this month

  • Revenues down 35-75%
  • Communication concerns from LEAF/WSLCB
  • Licensees don’t know if workarounds are legal
  • Traceability challenges
  • We have ask to extend the contingency plan to March 31st so that licensees have ample time to upload to LEAF.

From the WSLCB:

  • This is a compliance reporting system, NOT an inventory system.  Licensees and integrators need to understand and make this change in their business practices regarding how they utilize LEAF.
  • The WSLCB decided to go live knowing there were defects.
  • The WSLCB are working on compiling a list of known issues and timelines for fixes to distribute to licensees (recommendation from The Cannabis Alliance)
  • When the WSLCB is emailing licensees, they are only getting a 50% open rate.  Please make sure you have the right email address on file and that you are opening all WSLCB communication.  To make sure you have the right email address on file, check these sources.
  • The WSLCB has full confidence in the LEAF system:
    • It is scalable
    • There is no personal information in LEAF’s system
    • LEAF is being responsive to LCB needs
    • All state systems are targeted by hackers
  • The WSLCB has approved all the LEAF workarounds.  We will have a link to that site, or directions ASAP.
  • The WSLCB NEEDS you to report your issues, ONCE.  Multiple tickets from the same person doesn’t help and bogs down the system.  But if you don’t report issues to LEAF, the WSLCB doesn’t know they need to work on it.  Report issues to:
  • The WSLCB/LEAF are looking to refine the support process, including but not limited to:
    • When you call LEAF, if your issues is anything other than something a generic call center can answer, they will have a different protocol than what they have been using since Feb 1, as its obviously not working
    • Integrator and licensee notification: what’s being fixed, where to find the release notes, how much time to find it.
    • Integrators need to give “real” information: what screen, what browser, what was result,
    • Scheduled releases

(III) The Cannabis Alliance encouraged the WSLCB to create, and then attended, a LEAF/WSLCB/Integrator Webinar and Q&A.

  • We collected a list of all our integrator member questions (and solutions if they had them) ahead of time and sent them to LEAF and the WSLCB.
  • You can see LEAF/WSLCB’s responses here.

(IV) The Cannabis Alliance has organized a face to face between integrators and the WSLCB to take place soon.  

  • We invited the other associations at the WSLCB traceability workgroup to have a traceability integrator representative there.
  • Following this meeting will be a meeting with just integrators discussing a middleware solution to stabilize the industry and remove licensee’s dependence on the state to maintain traceability.

(V) The Cannabis Alliance is creating a workforce made up of integrators, a licensee from each integrator, LEAF and WSLCB to help triage issues, so that we can quickly identify who owns the issue (LEAF or a third party integrator).

  • We have reviewed our members and asked our integrators to identify possible matches for this workgroup.  If you were selected, you’ll be contact by the end of the week and asked to participate.
  • Participants will have access to a training area and will be asked to perform tasks through their integrator.

Please know The Cannabis Alliance is holding the WSLCB accountable for the traceability transition, and we have the ear of both the legislature and the Governor’s office as we explain how damaging this disruption has been for our industry.

Together we are stronger,

 

Danielle Rosellison, President of the Board

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