Update: Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman Matthew Erickson at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, said: “The patient look up was down for a couple hours, but other functionality was not impacted. Provisioning centers are required to validate that the patient has an active card and the sale does not exceed daily and monthly purchasing limits.”

LANSING, MI -- Michigan medical marijuana dispensaries were unable to complete sales Tuesday, Feb. 18, due to a malfunction with the statewide tracking and monitoring computer system.

The “patient lookup is down,” Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman Matthew Erickson confirmed Tuesday night. “We are working with Metrc to remedy the problem.”

The problem doesn’t appear to have impacted recreational marijuana sales.

Metrc is the name of the state-mandated software program used to track marijuana products, as well as to verify registered patients and caregivers. The system also ensures the patients and caregivers don’t exceed their 2.5-ounce-per-day purchase limit. Registered patients are additionally restricted to no more than 10 ounces of marijuana purchase per month.

It’s unclear what caused the issue or when it will be corrected, but some medical patients reported receiving text notices that stores they shop at were no longer making sales until the issue is corrected.

The Marijuana Regulatory Agency said an update on the situation is likely to be available Wednesday morning.

As of Jan. 31, Michigan had 267,068 registered medical marijuana patients 36,136 caregivers.

The Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Agency pays $35,000 per year to license Metrc software, according to the contract available that state’s website. The Lakeland, Florida-based company also charges each licensee $40 per month, in addition to 45 cents per radio-frequency ID (RFID) tag for plants and 25 cents per packaging tag for products.

There were 255,792 plants accounted for in the Metrc system in January, according to Marijuana Regulatory Agency reports.

-- Gus Burns is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact him with questions, tips or comments at fburns@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, @GusBurns. Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana.

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