Chain of Custody
An unbroken, documented record of who possessed, handled, and transferred a specific cannabis product or sample at every point from cultivation to final sale — required to be reconstructable from records during an inspection.
What chain of custody means in cannabis
Chain of custody is the documented record that proves a specific cannabis product moved through every step of its lifecycle with full accountability — who handled it, when, where, and under what authority. In regulated cannabis, the track-and-trace system (METRC, BioTrack, etc.) is the primary instrument for proving chain of custody, but it's not the only one.
What inspectors actually look for
- Receiving records — manifest, signature, time-stamped acceptance
- Internal moves — production lots, transfers between rooms, repackaging events
- Quality holds — quarantine SOPs followed when product fails inspection, with destruction or release recorded
- Sale or transfer out — manifest, COA linkage, METRC discharge
- Waste destruction — two-person witness, video footage where required, METRC destruction record
A break anywhere in the chain — a missing signature, an unexplained inventory variance, an internal move with no operator on record — is a violation.
Why it matters to compliance
Chain of custody is where individual operational SOPs converge. Receiving SOPs, production SOPs, waste SOPs, transfer SOPs — they each contribute one segment of the chain. Verdaxi's SOP manager, audit trail, and document vault together produce the reconstructable record inspectors expect to see.
Compliance is the entry point. The platform is the destination.
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