In our last post, we examined some of the basic principles underlying the marijuana supply chain, from growing, to processing, to product design, distribution and retail sales.

Regardless of which link in the cannabusiness supply chain one chooses to undertake, as the legal cannabis industry grows and matures, one fact has become abundantly clear: the regulatory framework that states choose to adopt will have a fundamental effect on how the industry in that state will develop.

States are legislative laboratories, where different systems are implemented, examined and (hopefully) improved upon. As more and more states begin to experiment with different ways to implement legalization frameworks, we have begun to see how state regulations can influence and form supply chains.

For example, Colorado’s Amendment 64 tasks state regulators with preventing black market weed from entering the supply chain. The amendment accounts for the likely eventuality that, simply because existing cannabis supply chains now have the option to operate legally and above board, not all of them will choose to do so, rather deciding to accept the risks of running afoul of state regulations and criminal laws in exchange for avoiding government taxes on their profits.

So, since we know that there will still be black-market cannabis available in legal markets, regulators had to think of a way to prevent ill-begotten cannabis from being used in legitimate cannabusiness.