Late in the afternoon on November 19th, the Office of Health Care Assurance at the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, as required by Act 241 regarding medical marijuana dispensaries, released the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Seed-To-Sale Tracking System for all dispensary produced marijuana in Hawai‘i. The press release is available here, and the RFP is available here.

The Department of Health expects that the notice of award of contract for the computer software tracking system will be posted by Dec. 23, 2015. Needless to say, this is a rather short turn around for such a procurement process and decision, but well within the Department of Health’s capacity as established by Act 241.

Whereas the RFP is limited to finding a software provider for the medical marijuana tracking system, it does include a number of clues regarding the Department of Health’s state of mind in regard to the upcoming release of the dispensary rules in early January. As the Department of Health has stated that it is taking full advantage of Act 241’s waiver of the normal rule-making procedures, this RFP will be one of our only glimpses into the intentions of the Department prior to the release of the draft rules and dispensary application in January. Dispensary applicants would be well served to carefully analyze the relevant parts of the RFP to ascertain the different aspects for growing, manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of medical marijuana that the Department wants to track. Figuring out how to meet or exceed those standards will likely help applicants as they prepare their license applications over the next several months.

Of particular note for dispensary applicants preparing their applications, the RFP, based on Act 241, requires in general, a few key things:

First, that DoH maintain and control of a computer software tracking system with twenty-four hour access to the data of all dispensaries; and

Second, that the data that dispensaries must provide includes (but is not limited to):

1. The total amount of marijuana in possession of all dispensaries from either seed or immature plant state, including all plants that are derived from cuttings or cloning, until the marijuana, marijuana plants, or manufactured marijuana product is sold or destroyed;

2. The total amount of manufactured marijuana product inventory, including the equivalent physical weight of marijuana that is used to manufacture manufactured marijuana products, purchased by a qualifying patient and primary caregiver from all retail dispensing locations in the State in any fifteen day period;

3. The amount of unused organic material produced by each plant at harvest; and

4. The transport of marijuana and manufactured marijuana products between production centers and retail dispensing locations, including tracking identification issued by the tracking system, the identity of the person transporting the marijuana or manufactured marijuana products, and the means of transport including the make, model, and vehicle identification number of the vehicle used for transport.

Details for each of these types of data, what they may include, and how a dispensary should report and interact with the DoH system are included in Exhibit B, on page 29 of the RFP. These details include sub-sections that delineate specific tracking protocols for different phases of the dispensary business, including: inventory, inspection, distribution, transportation, and point of sale, as well as details on laboratory reporting requirements.

The Hawai‘i Dispensary Alliance will have a more detailed analysis of each of these requirements in our members-only, monthly newsletter coming out at the end of November. Let us know if you have any questions about this RFP, or to find out how you and your organization can become a member of the Alliance and begin receiving our newsletter today!