This software problem happened before. And it occurred again affecting not just the patients, but the sellers as well.

Medical marijuana patients in Pennsylvania were not given access to cannabis-based treatments or medications last September 17. According to some reports, the issues stemmed from a malfunction in the program used to monitor medical cannabis sales.

Pennsylvania medical marijuana law requires dispensaries to use MJ Freeway, a tracking system made specifically for marijuana-related transactions. However, the software suffered from periodical hitches.

This incident resulted in the denial of cannabis products to medical marijuana patients. With the tracking monitor down, merchants were not able to make their purchases as the lack of monitoring prevented them from finalizing transactions.

The malfunction also caused producers and suppliers to lose business, as shipments to dispensaries were not processed. Growers and shippers had no way to log into the system, preventing them from going through the correct procedures.

TerraVida Holistic Centers president Christina Visco said that the incident resulted in the firm “[turning] away literally hundreds of patients” on the day of the glitch. Visco also remarked that “the system was down all morning, came back up for a couple of hours, then crashed again.”

During one of her interviews, MJ Freeway spokesperson Jeannette Horton said that the slowdown “felt longer because it was intermittent.” The representative added that the service provider was “very apologetic” for the problems experienced by consumers, sellers, and producers alike.

Under the state’s marijuana laws, Pennsylvania holds an exclusive agreement with Colorado-based company MJ Freeway, amounting to $11 million. This contract ties the state with the company’s products and services.

In discussing the tracking program, the software is “prone to chronic glitches” since Pennsylvania signed an exclusive $10 million contract with them. As mentioned earlier, the incident was not the first time an issue with MJ Freeway occurred. In 2018, medical marijuana retailers also suffered from a sales shut down due to similar problems with the tracker.

Aside from issues in Pennsylvania, the software also caused hindrances for Washington-based consumers, sellers, and producers. Washington also has a contract to track medical marijuana with the same company.

The program was hacked in 2017, resulting in the stoppage of operations of around a thousand retailers in over 20 states. Co-founder Amy Poinsett rushed to the company’s defense saying that there have been improvements with its products since the hack. Poinsett added that the firm was able to identify vulnerabilities, which have been “fortified” with “additional layers of security.”