BioTrackTHC

For Immediate Release: December 27, 2019
Contact: Kyle Hadyniak, (207) 624-7800
Director of Communications, Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services

AUGUSTA – The Office of Marijuana Policy announced today that it is engaged in contract negotiations with Florida-based Metrc LLC to provide track and trace services to the State of Maine. This arrangement comes after OCP and BioTrackTHC, the original contract awardee, agreed to a mutual termination of their existing contract to provide track and trace services for Maine’s medical and adult use marijuana programs, citing BioTrackTHC’s inability to deliver on the contract.

Despite the termination of this agreement, OCP remains dedicated to ensuring the timely rollout of the adult use marijuana program and does not anticipate major setbacks because of this transition.

“Although unfortunate, the move to terminate the contract was necessary to ensure that the State of Maine can proceed in a timely manner with the rollout of its adult use marijuana program,” said OCP Director Erik Gundersen. “BioTrackTHC worked with OCP to try to meet the contractual, statutory, and regulatory needs of our office. Despite their best efforts, it became clear they could not meet the short- and long-term requirements of our office, at which point we decided that it was best to mutually terminate the contract. We look forward to finalizing a contract with Metrc and continuing our efforts to implement the state’s voter-approved marijuana program.” 

Following a competitive procurement, OCP announced in May that it had issued a contract award to BioTrackTHC for marijuana track and trace services. Contractually, the track and trace portal was scheduled to launch on October 1, 2019.

"BioTrack appreciates the opportunity to have worked in partnership with the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy,” said BioTrackTHC Chief Operating Officer Moe Afaneh. “We will continue to support the Maine industry as a whole through our other products. BioTrack remains committed to serving the cannabis community."

In accordance with Maine procurement regulations, OCP has signed a letter of intent with the runner-up in the original competitive procurement, Metrc LLC. More information on the terms of an agreement between OCP and Metrc will be made available upon the successful execution of a formal contract.

“Our team is ready to get started and support the successful launch of retail sales this spring,” said Metrc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Wells. “We look forward to partnering with the OCP and licensed community to meet this landmark goal in 2020.”

To make the transition as seamless as possible, and to provide program participants time to prepare for the new system, OCP intends to focus on the implementation for the adult use marijuana program first. Following the successful rollout for the adult use marijuana program, OCP will shift its focus to implementing the medical marijuana track and trace program. Additional information will be announced soon regarding this schedule. 

The Mills Administration created OCP within DAFS in February 2019. The Office is responsible for the oversight of all aspects of legalized marijuana, including Maine's existing Medical Use of Marijuana Program.

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