Compliance – the dirty word that everyone dreads. For businesses in the Nevada Marijuana Industry, compliance has become an even bigger headache as the crackdown and punishments for running an establishment in a non-compliant manner are increasing. A great example of this is the recent shutdown of 4 of the 9 testing labs in our State, an event no one wants to go through.
Determining the help you need
The good news is, other industries have faced similar struggles and come out on top! A few years ago, we worked with the Nevada Cancer Registry who was facing a tough situation: their lack of compliance had put a huge black mark on the entire State. Not only had it created a massive backlog of vital data to be sorted but they also had no Registrar to help get them out of this tough situation. While the Cancer Registry team had an “idea” of what their problems were, they had no concrete evidence, and didn’t understand that fixing just one element might negatively impact other areas, causing an even bigger headache.
How to create solutions that work for your business
Once we came on board, the first step (arguably the most important) was to do a thorough analysis of the current environment – this allowed us to validate and identify the actual causes of their compliance mishaps. By identifying the true problems, we were able to create a solution that would fix issues like getting employees trained and submitting reports on time, all while ensuring that no additional problems would pop-up. Having a comprehensive strategic plan in place gave the best solution in the quickest amount of time, leaving a sustainable business model in place. Going forward, the Nevada Cancer Registry, if following our model of employee training, timely and accurate reporting, and effectively utilizing the new electronic system, would never have to deal with these compliance issues again.
Making a “Mistake” into a bigger win
With the plan in place, and full buy-in from all parties involved, we quickly brought the entire Cancer Registry into compliance, and helped train their internal staff on the processes and procedures needed to keep them running effectively and efficiently. This provided a foundation for the Registry that was sustainable and had the resources within to train and onboard new employees as needed, saving them valuable time, money, and allowing them to focus on the important things: the data . As a bonus, the massive backlog of data was cleared and a cutting edge new electronic system was implemented. Once these components were in place, the “black mark” was immediately removed as evidenced by achieving Gold Standard, the highest award possible for a Cancer Registry. In fact, by implementing an electronic system based on artificial intelligence, Nevada took its place as one of the pioneering Cancer Registries in the USA.
The bottom line: while compliance is a large issue that needs to be taken seriously, it can also be a much-needed kick in the butt to truly tighten up policies, procedures and goals to become the strongest, most sustainable company possible.
If you’re a Marijuana producer who’s interested in learning more about compliance, connect with us on LinkedIn and Facebook !