Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
An Australian company that is opening up shop in Grand Junction wants to get into the marijuana business.
That company, Source Certain, is based in Perth, located on Australia's west coast.
It's primarily in the business of tracking the sources of food, helping local officials in that down-under nation track food fraud.
Operating under the name TSW Analytical, that company wants to do the same for Colorado's marijuana supply, to help the state ensure that what's sold in dispensaries isn't coming from illegal sources, such as drug cartels.
"There is a legal part of that supply chain and an illegal part," said Cameron Scadding, the very young-looking chief executive officer of the Australian company. "Our key objective is to make sure that stuff that's in the marketplace hasn't come from that illegal black market."
The company is one of six new businesses approved under the Rural Jump-Start Tax Credit Program created by the Colorado Legislature last year at the behest of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership and others in the Grand Valley.
Altogether, the companies are expected to bring dozens of new jobs, with the hope that they will attract other companies that will come to support them.
Under the program, companies and new startups that don't compete with existing businesses can qualify for major tax credits for themselves and their employees.
It's what Scadding's Grand Junction-based business partner, Glenn McClelland, used to persuade Scadding to open a forensic laboratory here, rather than Denver or elsewhere in the nation. That, of course, and the state's recent passage of legalized recreational marijuana, which the two men see as a huge business opportunity.
"We have found this state to be very receptive to ideas relative to improvements that can be made," McClelland said.
The two hope to persuade the state, and other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, that its unique forensic method for tracking agricultural products is needed to ensure the integrity of the budding industry.
Currently, Colorado along with Oregon and Alaska, which recently joined the ranks of states to legalize the weed, use a Florida-based company known as Franwell to track the state's marijuana supply.
It's method, which it calls Metrc, is designed to use tags placed in plants from licensed marijuana grow operations in the state. That method allows marijuana products when they reach retail stores to be traced back to their source.
The method is designed to allow the state to ensure those plants aren't coming from somewhere else and are complying with all state regulations on the growing of pot, such as the use of pesticides and other additives.
Jim Burack, director of the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, said the system is designed to track retail and medical marijuana from seed to sale, doing so in near real time. The division is a branch of the Colorado Department of Revenue, which has regulatory authority over the industry.
Burack says the method using RFID, or radio-frequency identification tags, works well.
"Licensees input data on a daily basis so that the Marijuana Enforcement Division can monitor the inventory as the marijuana moves through the various growth stages and then to harvest," he said. "It is an effective system that is ensuring that we are effectively and efficiently regulating the production of marijuana in Colorado. It is an effective tool that is helping to ensure public safety."
Burack added that the tracking system isn't the only way it monitors the industry. Each store or dispensary also is required to have surveillance cameras on them all the time, and keep detailed records of their inventories.
Still, while Burack said the state isn't looking for a new vendor to track marijuana, he's not ruling it out.
"MED and the Department of Revenue recognize this is a dynamic industry with a rapidly evolving market, and we are constantly monitoring changes in the industry and new technologies," he said. "That allows us to ensure that we're effectively fulfilling our mission to regulate the industry. Where there are opportunities for us to enhance the regulatory scheme and make recommendations, we're aware of that."
TSW isn't the only new company trying to break into the marijuana business.
Last month, the online industry publication Marijuana Business Daily reported that Microsoft signed onto a joint venture with Los Angeles-based Kind Financial, which provides banking and cannabis tracking to state governments.
But with TSW's method, tags aren't necessary, allowing its labs to track any marijuana if it ends up outside of the seed-to-sale system, said Scadding, who is a forensic chemist by trade.
"We can take the marijuana plant and verify where is has come from," he said. "There's no trackers added. We analyze the product itself, we determine a fingerprint for the product and we make sure that we know where it's coming from. You have to effectively map all the (growing) locations. From there, you can verify wherever it goes."
Scadding and McClelland said they hope to have their laboratory up and running soon.
In the meantime, they are working with the forensics department at Colorado Mesa University, where the new company hopes to hire graduates from its forensics unit.
In fact, that's one of the points behind the Jump-Start program, and why a state college or university has to be tied into it.
The program isn't just about bringing new businesses into town, but also to give college students actual work experience in their chosen fields, and, ultimately, some real jobs when they graduate.
CMU President Tim Foster said he can't get enough of those business-university tie-ins because it not only enhances the effectiveness of his school, but also helps the local community's economy.
"Whether they go to work for them or not, the experience they get in a research or internship capacity just makes them so much more marketable," Foster said. "We'd always like to do more of this. It takes some effort by the businesses, so you have to have one that has a commitment to the community. It's a two-way street."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Forensic Lab Takes Aim At Marijuana Industry
Author: Charles Ashby
Contact: 970-242-5050
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Daily Sentinel
That company, Source Certain, is based in Perth, located on Australia's west coast.
It's primarily in the business of tracking the sources of food, helping local officials in that down-under nation track food fraud.
Operating under the name TSW Analytical, that company wants to do the same for Colorado's marijuana supply, to help the state ensure that what's sold in dispensaries isn't coming from illegal sources, such as drug cartels.
"There is a legal part of that supply chain and an illegal part," said Cameron Scadding, the very young-looking chief executive officer of the Australian company. "Our key objective is to make sure that stuff that's in the marketplace hasn't come from that illegal black market."
The company is one of six new businesses approved under the Rural Jump-Start Tax Credit Program created by the Colorado Legislature last year at the behest of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership and others in the Grand Valley.
Altogether, the companies are expected to bring dozens of new jobs, with the hope that they will attract other companies that will come to support them.
Under the program, companies and new startups that don't compete with existing businesses can qualify for major tax credits for themselves and their employees.
It's what Scadding's Grand Junction-based business partner, Glenn McClelland, used to persuade Scadding to open a forensic laboratory here, rather than Denver or elsewhere in the nation. That, of course, and the state's recent passage of legalized recreational marijuana, which the two men see as a huge business opportunity.
"We have found this state to be very receptive to ideas relative to improvements that can be made," McClelland said.
The two hope to persuade the state, and other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, that its unique forensic method for tracking agricultural products is needed to ensure the integrity of the budding industry.
Currently, Colorado along with Oregon and Alaska, which recently joined the ranks of states to legalize the weed, use a Florida-based company known as Franwell to track the state's marijuana supply.
It's method, which it calls Metrc, is designed to use tags placed in plants from licensed marijuana grow operations in the state. That method allows marijuana products when they reach retail stores to be traced back to their source.
The method is designed to allow the state to ensure those plants aren't coming from somewhere else and are complying with all state regulations on the growing of pot, such as the use of pesticides and other additives.
Jim Burack, director of the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, said the system is designed to track retail and medical marijuana from seed to sale, doing so in near real time. The division is a branch of the Colorado Department of Revenue, which has regulatory authority over the industry.
Burack says the method using RFID, or radio-frequency identification tags, works well.
"Licensees input data on a daily basis so that the Marijuana Enforcement Division can monitor the inventory as the marijuana moves through the various growth stages and then to harvest," he said. "It is an effective system that is ensuring that we are effectively and efficiently regulating the production of marijuana in Colorado. It is an effective tool that is helping to ensure public safety."
Burack added that the tracking system isn't the only way it monitors the industry. Each store or dispensary also is required to have surveillance cameras on them all the time, and keep detailed records of their inventories.
Still, while Burack said the state isn't looking for a new vendor to track marijuana, he's not ruling it out.
"MED and the Department of Revenue recognize this is a dynamic industry with a rapidly evolving market, and we are constantly monitoring changes in the industry and new technologies," he said. "That allows us to ensure that we're effectively fulfilling our mission to regulate the industry. Where there are opportunities for us to enhance the regulatory scheme and make recommendations, we're aware of that."
TSW isn't the only new company trying to break into the marijuana business.
Last month, the online industry publication Marijuana Business Daily reported that Microsoft signed onto a joint venture with Los Angeles-based Kind Financial, which provides banking and cannabis tracking to state governments.
But with TSW's method, tags aren't necessary, allowing its labs to track any marijuana if it ends up outside of the seed-to-sale system, said Scadding, who is a forensic chemist by trade.
"We can take the marijuana plant and verify where is has come from," he said. "There's no trackers added. We analyze the product itself, we determine a fingerprint for the product and we make sure that we know where it's coming from. You have to effectively map all the (growing) locations. From there, you can verify wherever it goes."
Scadding and McClelland said they hope to have their laboratory up and running soon.
In the meantime, they are working with the forensics department at Colorado Mesa University, where the new company hopes to hire graduates from its forensics unit.
In fact, that's one of the points behind the Jump-Start program, and why a state college or university has to be tied into it.
The program isn't just about bringing new businesses into town, but also to give college students actual work experience in their chosen fields, and, ultimately, some real jobs when they graduate.
CMU President Tim Foster said he can't get enough of those business-university tie-ins because it not only enhances the effectiveness of his school, but also helps the local community's economy.
"Whether they go to work for them or not, the experience they get in a research or internship capacity just makes them so much more marketable," Foster said. "We'd always like to do more of this. It takes some effort by the businesses, so you have to have one that has a commitment to the community. It's a two-way street."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Forensic Lab Takes Aim At Marijuana Industry
Author: Charles Ashby
Contact: 970-242-5050
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Daily Sentinel