Can Metrc Prove Its California Cannabis Compliance Burden Is Worth It?

A new study commissioned by Metrc argues for something cannabis operators rarely get paid directly for: compliance.

Researchers surveyed more than 3,000 cannabis consumers and medical patients across 33 legal U.S. jurisdictions about a product with a state-issued QR code that links to information including lab results, compliance data, licensing information, and recalls.

Nearly 89% said access to the system increased their confidence in their state’s legal cannabis market. Eighty-eight percent said the information would help them distinguish regulated products from unregulated alternatives, while nearly 90% said the QR-code functionality would make them more likely to purchase from a licensed dispensary rather than an illicit source.

The research, conducted by Cannabis Public Policy Consulting (CPPC), offers evidence for an argument regulators and compliance providers have made for years: the infrastructure surrounding the regulated market can create value that consumers actually recognize.

But it also raises a harder question for cannabis businesses.

How much compliance burden is necessary to produce that trust?

Consumers see value in what’s behind the label

The study, Transparency as Value: Past-Month Cannabis Consumer & Patient Responses to QR Code-Enabled Cannabis Product Information, surveyed 3,061 recent cannabis consumers and registered medical patients.

The response was particularly strong around information that distinguishes regulated cannabis from products outside the licensed supply chain.

Ninety-one percent valued state confirmation that a product was compliant. Eighty-nine percent valued access to laboratory results, 88% valued recall notifications, and 86% valued detailed product information, including licensing details and cannabinoid and terpene profiles.

“What stood out to us is that consumers and patients appear to value more than simply having access to expanded product information; they value knowing that the information comes from a trusted regulatory source,” CPPC Principal Investigator Mackenzie Slade said.

Metrc CEO Michael Johnson said the findings demonstrate value from the compliance infrastructure the legal industry has built.

“This research shows consumers place real value on being able to verify a product’s testing, compliance and regulatory oversight,” Johnson said. “When that information is easy to access, it builds trust, supports smart purchasing decisions and strengthens confidence in regulated cannabis markets.”

That consumer-facing benefit, however, exists alongside a very different conversation on the other end of the supply chain.

California growers have been fighting the burden behind track-and-trace

California provides a useful example.

The state’s licensed cannabis businesses use Metrc for track-and-trace, and cultivators have spent years pushing regulators to reconsider one particularly labor-intensive requirement: assigning tags to individual plants.

Origins Council, a coalition representing cannabis-producing regions and independent operators in California, put the complaint plainly in a November 2025 submission to the state’s Cannabis Advisory Committee.

“For several years, we have strongly supported the removal of the current requirement to tag every plant in METRC,” the organization wrote.

Origins Council said tagging each plant “requires tremendous amounts of labor” and generates significant plastic waste “for no discernible regulatory benefit.”

The organization urged the Department of Cannabis Control to move toward batch or virtual tagging.

That position was not a rejection of track-and-trace itself. It challenged whether every step required by the system produces enough regulatory value to justify the resources operators spend complying with it.

The debate extends beyond California. In a March interview, IgniteIt Chief Economic Columnist Rolando García examined Maine’s fight over expanding track-and-trace requirements into its medical caregiver market, including the costs and administrative burdens raised by caregivers and the case regulators and Metrc make for greater oversight.

California policymakers have been wrestling with the same distinction.

Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry told IgniteIt’s AJ Herrington in September that lawmakers had already been looking for ways to reduce the burden on smaller cultivators.

“We have tried to help make regulations a little easier for our small cultivators to tag their plants,” Aguiar-Curry said.

Her comments came in a broader discussion about the economic pressures facing rural cannabis businesses and the balance between enforcement, consumer protection and the viability of licensed operators.

California is now changing the rules

That debate has moved into regulation.

California’s Department of Cannabis Control is currently advancing rules that would allow cannabis plants to be tagged in groups rather than requiring each plant to carry its own identifier.

The change follows AB 8, which removed the statutory requirement that each plant have its own unique identifier.

DCC’s explanation for the proposed regulation is unusually direct about the economics.

The department says group tagging would replace the “time-intensive work” of hand-tagging individual plants, reduce labor and recordkeeping costs, and free resources currently devoted to plant tagging and associated administrative work.

At the same time, regulators say they can make those changes without sacrificing their ability to oversee the market. Inspectors would still be able to compare plants at a licensed facility with quantities recorded in the state’s track-and-trace system.

California is keeping track-and-trace while cutting back requirements that regulators say add labor and administrative costs. Metrc’s new research puts a consumer benefit on the other side of that equation.

What is transparency worth?

The study does not show that consumers value Metrc or RFID tags. It shows they value the result: verified information that helps distinguish legal products from the illicit market.

California’s experience shows that transparency and lighter compliance can coexist. Track-and-trace can remain while costly requirements are stripped back.

California operators, investors, and industry leaders will continue that conversation at IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California 2026, taking place Oct. 7 at Hotel Indigo Downtown Los Angeles. IgniteIt is bringing California’s cannabis industry together in Los Angeles for a full day focused on where the market goes next. Operators, investors, and executives will tackle the issues shaping the business today: cash flow and access to capital, M&A and valuations, retail performance, supply-chain costs, consumer demand, vapes and beverages, genetics and product innovation, and the potential impact of Schedule III.

The program also features conversations with California Treasurer Fiona Ma and STIIIZY President Tak Soto, alongside leaders from Connected Cannabis, Eaze, Catalyst Cannabis, LEEF Brands, Chicago Atlantic, The Artist Tree, and other companies operating across the state.