Medical marijuana patients have complained about difficulty buying a variety of medical products since recreational sales started almost a year ago. Some dispensaries are now placing the blame partly on state rules related to the computer system that tracks marijuana inventory.

“It became a bit more of a headache and a bit more of work process” to keep appropriate inventory on both the medical and recreational sides, said Luis Pedro, director of operations at INSA in Easthampton.

The Republican/MassLive.com reported in August that some medical marijuana patients could not access the variety of products they were used to at dispensaries that had begun selling recreational marijuana. Although dispensaries are required to reserve a percentage of inventory for patients — who can buy marijuana tax-free and in higher doses — state law does not require that they are offered the same variety as recreational consumers.

Stores appear to have different policies regarding whether a product can be moved from the recreational menu to the medical menu.

One challenge flagged by some dispensaries relates to a computer system called METRC, which dispensaries are required to use to track their marijuana inventory from seed to sale.

Some of the earliest dispensaries to open, like INSA and New England Treatment Access, which has stores in Northampton and Brookline, bought an adult-use license for METRC and initially sold to both medical and recreational customers under that license. State law requires a physical and electronic separation of medical and recreational products, but the software lets companies maintain a single inventory, then record a product as either recreational or medical when it is sold.

However, when the Cannabis Control Commission approved regulations for co-located dispensaries, which went into effect in April, the commission required dispensaries to buy separate licenses for medical and recreational sales. So managers must decide in advance which products they are designating for medical and for recreational sales.

While it is still possible to move products from one side to the other, it takes several minutes and dispensary owners say there are some restrictions.

The issue of dual licenses came up at NETA, which set up its computer system before the regulations came out. The Cannabis Control Commission issued NETA a notice of deficiency in July for not separating its medical and recreational products in its computer system.

Documents show that NETA worked with the commission to transition to the dual license system, and the company implemented an extensive plan regarding things like staff training, menu creation, changing how products are allocated, and updating computer systems and apps.

“The dual license change represents a big shift for NETA and given how established our systems were prior to learning of the requirement for dual licenses, we appreciate any consideration you will give us in making the transition smoothly and without disruption to our patients and clients,” NETA operations manager Adam Freed wrote to a commission investigator in an email obtained through a public records request.

NETA President Amanda Rositano said in an interview that the company believed it was complying with state laws, and after hearing from the commission, immediately worked to come into compliance.

But Rositano said the new way of operating makes it harder to ensure full patient access, because the company now has to decide earlier in the process — rather than at the point of sale — which products should be sold as medical versus recreational.

“We did feel and we do feel that one inventory system provides advantages for patient access,” Rositano said.

Pedro, of INSA, had a similar experience switching from one license to two. The company hired a new inventory staffer. Like most dispensaries, INSA keeps more inventory on the recreational side because products sell more quickly.

INSA will still switch a product from one menu to another if a patient requests it, Pedro said, but there is a 13-step process to do that, which takes around six minutes.

“Sometimes it takes longer to service our customers than just pulling it off the shelf,” he said.

Other dispensaries say it is not a big problem. Theory Wellness CEO Brandon Pollock said a couple of times a week, a patient will ask for a product off the recreational menu, and staff will ask the customer to wait 10 minutes while they move the product.

“We haven’t seen any issues with doing it, it just takes a little bit of time,” Pollock said.

Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steve Hoffman said he personally supports allowing one inventory, separated at the point of sale, so companies would no longer have to designate their products as medical or adult use — other than the required reserved medical inventory — until someone buys them.

“I don’t know that we’ve cracked this one, but we’re aware of it and concerned with it and will try to work with medical companies to make sure METRC’s not the obstacle,” Hoffman said. “If they are, we’ll get METRC to change.”

Nichole Snow, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, said the problem is not with the database system, but with dispensaries that do not make all recreational products available to medical patients.

“The fault is when a business doesn’t make their menu symmetrical and they have to continue to rely on product transfers,” Snow said.

More broadly, it is not clear how widespread patient access problems are.

Cannabis Control Commissioner Jennifer Flanagan said she has heard concerns from patients about inadequate patient supply at a couple of dispensaries. She believes the problem is related to individual dispensaries’ operations rather than regulations.

“My concern is that making sure the policies allow for the removal from the adult use side to the medical side if the patient comes in,” Flanagan said.

The Republican/MassLive.com submitted a public records request to the commission seeking all notices of deficiencies issued to collocated dispensaries related to patient access to medical marijuana. The commission provided notices sent to five dispensaries. However, most of the deficiencies did not directly relate to patient access or reserved medical inventory.

One problem flagged at INSA stemmed from an instance when the medical sale system went down and medical patients were kept waiting in line for 15 to 20 minutes, while recreational customers were served at other sale stations.

Pedro said that was a combination of a surprise inspection as the medical sale system experienced an outage and “a little bit of exaggeration in terms of how many people were in line and how long the delay was.” Pedro said the waiting patients received a discount.

Alternative Therapies Group was cited for improperly reserving some products for medical patients who worked for the company’s cultivation plant. A manager said the product would be sold if another patient asked for it.

The commission did not provide records of any ongoing investigations.

Hoffman said the commission is continuing to investigate complaints and make sure companies set aside the required medical inventory. “We’ll look into any complaint we’ve gotten,” he said. “I can’t tell you there are no violations. But I will tell you any time we hear about one … we’ll take appropriate action.”