Guidance for Michigan Marijuana Facilities

The Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) offers guidance to address common issues faced by marijuana facilities regarding certain operational issues, including labeling requirements, testing and retesting status, and strain specificity. 

These requirements are some of the most crucial requirements for cannabis facilities to adhere to in order to ensure that their operations run smoothly and efficiently and in full compliance with the MRA regulations governing these requirements. 

Do you need help navigating all of the rules, regulations, and ordinances? Do you need help guaranteeing you remain in compliance? Request a consultation now.

Since many of the requirements are technical in nature, it’s in any facility’s best interests to establish and maintain appropriate policies and procedures in order to ensure a facility’s ongoing compliance.    

Ensure Proper Labeling of Products Received by a Facility 

All Marijuana Facilities should engage in a complete and thorough review of all marijuana product labels prior to officially accepting any product into their inventory.

It’s the obligation of the retailer and provisioning center to reject any inventory containing mislabeled products are products that aren’t otherwise labeled in full compliance with the MRA’s requirements.

The MRA’s guidance goes on to address the event in which a retailer or provisioning center does, in fact, mistakenly accept a package that isn’t labeled in compliance with the labeling requirements, as outlined in Administrative Rule R. 420.504(1).   

Among the chief labeling requirements outlined as an area of concern by the MRA is the requirement that all labels must be affixed to a physical product and that the full Metrc ID must be visible.

Additionally, the MRA guidance also stresses that labeling regarding the THC levels be expressed accurately, meaning that they cannot be a rounded number or even a projected target number.

The MRA’s guidance also suggested that it would be best practices for facilities to include dosing instructions on package labels.  

Some of the additional labeling requirements as outlined under R. 420.504(1) include, by way of example and not limitation:

• information regarding the date of harvest (for flower),
• the testing facility,
• test date,
• originating facility,
• tag,
• strain name, and
• warning labels.

These are just some of the labeling requirements mandated under the administrative rules, and facilities need to ensure that they are in full compliance with all applicable labeling requirements.

Do you need help navigating all of the rules, regulations, and ordinances? Do you need help guaranteeing you remain in compliance? Request a consultation now.

Delayed Results of Retested Products in Metrc 

The MRA’s guidance also addresses issues related to product testing and retesting upon a failed initial test. 

Specifically, the MRA’s guidance addressed the issue of products that fail initial testing and undergo a retest and potential remediation of the product that initial failed testing.  

It’s important to note that the Administrative Rules allow the retesting of marijuana products that failed initial testing. 

As such, retesting allows licensee to maintain more product and potentially limit the need for destruction of such product.

The MRA’s guidance addressed some confusion among facilities regarding how Metrc tracks and records results for marijuana products that failed initial testing. 

The MRA guidance states that when a testing facility enters the results of a retest, Metrc will not, however, automatically default to the most current test (in this case, the re-test of the product).

Instead, the MRA must provide a verification in order to override the initial test that showed the failing result. 

The MRA’s guidance states that as a safety measure in order to ensure that all products have undergone the necessary tests whenever a product is retested.  

Based on the foregoing, the MRA stated that marijuana facilities should be made aware of the fact that when a product is submitting for retesting, the result of such retesting will not be updated within Metrc immediately upon entry.

Rather, they’ll have to complete the MRA approval and verification process before the results are updated in the state-wide monitoring and tracking system.  

Strain Specificity 

The MRA’s Michigan guidance for marijuana facilities also addresses a common issue facing licensed growers regarding strain specificity and issues related to mixing strains.

Specifically, the guidance offers a reminder to growers that the only time mixed marijuana stains are permitted is under an approved extraction request process. 

Other than such an approved avenue, mixing strains is strictly prohibited. 

The guidance goes on to state that mixing strains and merely calling it “house shake” is also not permitted.  

The MRA’s concern with strain mixing also ties into its concern regarding proper and compliant product labeling since the mixing of strains for any flower (bud, shake, trim) wouldn’t allow for the proper labeling of such mixed strained product. 

As such, any attempted mixing of strains done in a non-compliant manner and any subsequent attempt to label such non-compliantly mixed product, would be in direct violation of the administrative rules. 

The guidance reminds growers that marijuana strains must be appropriately labeled with the harvest batch, testing date, and results, among other labeling requirements as identified in R. 420.504(1).   

The Takeaway

Overall, it’s a good guidance for Michigan marijuana facilities to establish policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the common issues identified and addressed by the MRA regarding labeling requirements, testing and retesting status, and strain specificity. 

Facilities that already have compliance policies and procedures should undertake a thorough review of such materials in order to ensure that they accurately address the issues identified by the MRA.  

Failure to strictly adhere to the compliance requirements regarding, among other requirements, the proper labeling or testing and retesting of product, could result in the imposition of fines and other penalties, as well as potentially jeopardize your license to operate as a licensed marijuana facility. 

As such, strict adherence to the regulatory compliance requirements regarding appropriate labeling and product testing, among other requirements, is of paramount importance when it comes to ensuring that the overall business operations of your marijuana facility are running efficiently and in full compliance with all applicable regulations. 

Do you need help navigating all of the rules, regulations, and ordinances? Do you need help guaranteeing you remain in compliance? Request a consultation now.