The Blockchain and Marijuana: Revolutionizing a Revolution 

Every other industry is finally opening their eyes to the blockchain, it would appear Marijuana is doing the same. It would appear that an integrated blockchain solution might be the answer to of few of the more difficult questions that legalization begs, and IBM wants to lead the charge. 

With Canada planning on legalizing Marijuana next year, and several states to follow in America, the realities of the enforcing the drug are starting to come to light. In Canada, marijuana will be handled similarly to tobacco and liquor - leaving regulation in the province's hands. This in itself is a huge question mark - how are all of these different provinces going to come out with a cohesive system? When British Colombia asked for suggestions how to tackle the interesting problem, IBM answered. 

IBM sent BC a 4-page brief in which they proposed a blockchain solution to solve a few different problems:

1. Traceability and Visibility across the value chain: legally sourced product, speed & flexibility of the supply chain drives demand for real time tracking 

2. Fraud & Transparency : Government wants to know the crop is legally grown and by whom 

3. Redundant & Incomplete Data: Current systems based on silos, with different organizations having different or incomplete data 

4. High Friction/Volume Enterprise Integration: Potential High Volumes equates to high cash transaction, Blockchain track each transaction and keeps it simple

By having one distributed ledger, governments can quickly see the improved outcomes of greater visibility, which will lead to a better optimized system, reducing costs and delivering those savings to the consumer. Speaking of benefits to the consumer, it will be much easier to identify poor or mislabeled product with the blockchain tracking the seed from its sowing to its sale. 

It's not like complex system design and architecture would even be necessary. All participants within the trusted network will have access to their own copy of the BlockChain ledger and no net new information system or complex interfaces are need to be created as the network serves as the master source.

 The Blockchain shared ledger is updated and validated in real time with each network participant. This enables equal visibility of activities and reveals where an asset/product is at any point in time, who owns it and what condition or state it is in. This type of transparency would bring a new level of visibility and control to the provincial regulators and provide assurance to the multitude of cautious stakeholders regarding the way the management of a cannabis supply chain is rolled out within British Columbia.  

Here's what IBM wrote in regards to how their Blockchain Solution will benefit the industry:

" BC Government: Blockchain can help the Provincial Government take control of sourcing, selling and pricing of products, therefore can reduce or eliminate black market sales completely. 

Producers: Blockchain can assist producers with real-time inventory management, greater projections of supply and demand, and also elicit trends of consumption through data analytics. 

Retailers: Although the Government of BC hasn't confirmed its what end user distribution model will be used, we anticipate that it is likely that government itself will play a role in that process.

 An interconnected Blockchain network can assist retailers identify supply/demand gaps ways to mitigate those gaps, providing feedback mechanisms to producers, and use data to create predictive insights " 

All in all, it looks like IBM has a good handle of the unique circumstances marijuana legalization implies. Only time will tell what happens to the industry from here, and we as consumers can only hope our governments make responsible choices in their investment in blockchain tech. 

Thanks for the read! Comment and let's continue the discussion!