ALC-Medical Marijuana Oversight Subcommittee

Roll call this a LC marijuana medical marijuana oversight committee. Together. Represented by do you have been fine I do not thank you. Okay we're gonna get right to it because we need to be out of here before ten. And so Mr Doorly. You're up. You're gonna review the rules the ABC. Early Chandler director of alcoholic beverage control we have some rules present these are rules that were as issued we're asked to issue and create for the medical marijuana commission by the Supreme Court and when one of the decisions from court decisions came down in the car performs manner and so these rules set out the guidelines for rule making as well as hearings and motions to be heard in front of the Commission it is a matter of what we try to do is bear the mystery procedures act to put it in the rules so that the entities and licensees applicants would be aware of the policies in the procedures and the steps to go forward so would not be going back and forth between the APA statute and the medical marijuana rules. Representative for questions you have a question for Mr all I'm sorry I hit the button accidentally okay. there anyone that wishes to question Director Chandler. Seeing none on the motion to review the rules of the I have a motion and second service center Ferguson. Thank you. All right Well this chamber. I do have one quick question I don't know if you can answer not director but regarding the software issue yes I have had the some entities talking about in terms of the tracking of. How many fines have if you can answer this question has in B. C. maybe issued some of the entities of dispensaries you'd be the can you tell whether it's because of the software or is not so could you talk about a little bit so I can't give you a definitive answer at this point on that without reviewing additional documentation what we do is when we get a report of a violation from enforcement or law enforcement agency if it's a some type of theft violation it may come from a Settlement goes to the entity with the option to pay the fine They request a hearing that provides them with an opportunity address at that hearing to come in and provide evidence as to whether or not this year their defense essentially their defense to the US allegations that have been set out against them if they have come in and established with it my confidence that it is a software issue then we have been looking at that and trying to dismiss issue warnings or handle it in a different manner or reduce the final based on anything that we can establish is confidently based upon a software issue so we have started looking at those but this evidence they present to allow them an opportunity to to per demonstrate to us that it is a software and not a training issue as of staff or inability to use their software correctly. can have a follow up Mr. The can you tell me or do you have any idea how many incidences we've had there was regarding software issues. Or an entity calamity with software issue I guess that's the better question I would say that at least seventy five percent of our offers that go out we get some indication response or statement that they believe it is a software glitch or issue and it depending on the violation if it is an inventory violation oftentimes their responses that it is a software issue and that's when we generally have the hearings and walk through as to whether it's just an employee that has made an error versus an actual software glitch where there may be some type of duplication or reduction based on a glitch in the system. We don't have any. Numbers as to how many times as I have not kept track of the numbers on those issues that something I could go back and look at our violations and and ascertain but I don't have the documents is it possible. Some point in time you guys can take a look at that absolutely okay thank you thank you Mr. Senator Chesterfield thank you Mr hearing good morning hour morning. Doorly I will you be available on the at the end of this meeting in case or questions that arise for you as a result of the testimony going forward today absolutely right thank you Mr all in one quick. A question. We know about the Kerfuffle if you will. As far as one of the sites is concerned this one's gonna lose there's any others get their what role you guys plan to bring that to some kind of reasonable conclusion are you referring to the lawsuit that's currently in place it isn't currently under a state percent to a spring court has issued a stay and so at this point time we're not taking any action on that And till the US Supreme Court in finalizes their ruling and here's the matter thank you thank you Mr. Okay. C. saying no other questions were dismissed. Now Adam D. we're going we have discussions regarding bio track software concerns of Bill pass school your first step. Mister Pascua NO you're not for people and so if you would introduce yourself and who you represent and then pass the microphone to your left. Morning I'm bill Pascrell I'm here on behalf of the Arkansas cannabis industry association I'm here to kind of set the tone and let these three a gentleman who are in the field to the dispensary folks and one cultivator talk to you about their experiences with the software the or stems program that bio track runs for the state to my left is robin reminder he is with harvest cannabis in Conway and then call maiden who is with natural state medicinals down white hall there a cultivator and then Adam now the nado with dealt cannabis from West Memphis my remarks are gonna be brief there basically what I've said to you before the ACA is agnostic when it comes to who provides software for seed to sale tracking in Arkansas I have the privilege of talking to colleagues around the country frequently from other states that sell marijuana and I can tell you from those conversations there is no perfect software system out there there is no perfect provider. with that said I do continue to get complaints occasionally from our members about customer service about communication and sometimes about training so I think there's still room for improvement with the existing The company that provides the software they're working to to improve they've offered to do some training with our members in the coming weeks we are today at ten o'clock will be our last training session with ABC that we've done around the state we've had for this will be the fourth and we're working with their folks to better understand the or stem system what they're looking for how to enter information into the system so that we have fewer violations I would say to your question represent Ferguson about seventy percent of the violations I have seen and I've looked at those through. May I think the last report I got from door lady there they're generally software related violations and we have other violations and other things at times but the the vast majority of them are are dealing with some kind of coding error software error so so I will finish with that and hand the Mike over to Mr Amman and let him talk to you about his experience with his dispensary in Conway. A good morning and thank you for hearing us today again robin remind I'm the executive director of the harvest cannabis in Conway Arkansas it's a family business my parents own it and we have a pretty extensive experience with bio track both the artist and system and I attract core which is the product that is used at the point of sale by some of the dispensaries and state. We use it since twenty nineteen so about three years and I'd say our learning curve has been fairly steep but study. you know we've we've experienced quite a few issues related to our students and or by a track and the following the kind of three different categories is a the first when our kind of user error that's our own in experience with the product our own sort of just the press of business you make mistakes just incorrectly using the software so we've experienced a lot of that some of it is are you know our hardware we had a server crash in twenty twenty which is initially deleted I would say a hundred percent of our of our customer data for you know six months and that was a huge setback we learned a lot of things result of those user errors the second category are you know truly issues with the software that require the input of by attracts help desk that's a call phone number you reach a person on the other line you can sort of help you sort through the software issues not for those issues would have to start with the assumption that no one in any business like say help desk you don't like calling them you do not like talking to them so if you start with that you know and then you also add to that that these issues usually manifests on a very busy day we're either short staffed or we're fully staffed but everyone is fully occupied so you have to sort of step away from that busy day and figure out this very critical software issue and you know sometimes help desk folks are not moving with the same sense of urgency that maybe you need them to move however all things being equal you know I can't really complain too much too much about they helped us they've been available and responsive and have helped us resolve the issues almost all the time. and then some of the problems are just sort of unknown no one really knows what the issue is whether it's our stems which is the statewide system required track core which we use sometimes they just don't communicate and you might be down for the and when they don't communicate you cannot can you cannot proceed with any transaction you literally have to stop what you're doing to figure that out and sometimes it happens probably every two to three weeks and it might be for as little as five minutes it might be is for as long as you know a full hour or more than that and it's really no great answer for why that occurs in fact we just this past weekend we had an outage I think it lasted for several hours it was a failure to communicate between our systems by try core and it resulted in twelve different anomalies an anomaly is essentially a product is either is recognized on one system but not wrecked product sale is recognized in one system but is not recognized in the other and so you have to go in after the fact and kind of do some clean up and that's an adjustment and then that usually triggers some sort of investigation by the state as to why we made those adjustments so insert those of three categories. Yes the center. Would you explore this question no one what are staying that's the support system correct so so when you step back that the entire system is built on the concept of tracking every single gram or seed product from seed all the way to sail and so there is an infrastructure infrastructure that sits on top of the entire industry it's called our senses what the state contracts with by a track for that system or systems is the way the state can look and see where every single gram of product is at any point in its life cycle up to the point that is sold out into the public that is distinct from the point of sale system that each of the operators use or the cultivation inventory system that the cultivators cultivators use those are contracts between the operator whether it's a dispensary or cultivator and by attracts so there's very distinct things but those two systems have to communicate what I put into my inventory at harvest has to match and be identical to what the state season are stones and so there's constant communication back and forth it's real time and at any point that real time link is severed for any reason then you cannot complete a transaction or if you do complete a transaction there's going to be discrepancies between the two that then require either you know further investigation some type of adjustment that you make manually into your system in order to do that you have to be very very on top of your audit process you have to constantly be aware of you know where you are in that sale whether they were communicating and and the system is pretty good at telling you when they're not communicating and so you can kind of go you know pens down so you figure that out but it's not always the case so it did does that explain kind of where everything says. So to to go back because of the three categories of our issues that we've experienced but on the whole aye aye Mr Haskell just mentioned I think you know no system is perfect we have our complaints but I don't think there's replacing it or seeking out a new provider would really improve the situation I think we have three years of institutional knowledge and that's very valuable to us and so switching to some other platform I think would be a step back and we'd be hard pressed to improve our situation in a in a in a short time Notwithstanding our experience I've heard all the same complaints that that you've heard that that bills heard in so I'd knowledge that not everyone is happy and so if that is the case and it seems like we should endeavor at the very least to try to to improve the relationship and if you're going to improve the relationship I think there are a couple of things that really need to be understood on the front and before we go about that process in in in the number one thing that I want to leave you with from our perspective is no matter what happens when the state contracts with bio track for the arson system when we contracted by track for for our individual point of sale system If there's ever anything that's wrong the only party that suffers or the operators we are the ones that will either get fined because we have not been able to figure out what the situation was. If we you know can't complete the sale because there's an outage because the you know that the systems are communicating we are the ones that suffer from all sales and having to shut down things like that so if there's one thing that I could share with you as you you know think about this relationship and how to improve it it's just always keep in mind that we are the we are truly the end user the ones that will suffer so I just if you can keep that in the back of your mind as you're you know report giving other questions I'd be happy to answer them but otherwise you'll for. I have one Senator I have one question you mentioned that your system it crashed yes Sir okay and you do that you have. Back up probably offsite backup right at the time we did not and we've learned a lot from that experience it it really crippled us for several days we thought that the hard drive that were using was sufficient for what we expected to be the pace of business and we were wrong by a factor of ten and very quickly that hard drive just was not adequate we have since upgraded to a much more commercial strength hard drive that is then as a sort of managed IT services contract that's that's on top of it to constantly check for vulnerabilities to do off site warehousing or data and things like that to me or some of the hard drive so that should be experienced another outage we will have to go through the same process again again that was a tough lesson to learn but you know it happens I can just imagine. I took that lesson was represented Ferguson. Thank you Mr. Of Mr. Rehman yes Sir okay. I want to follow up on something the chairman said when you system crashed but he was you assisted me was on you guys sing it not with the state or the state in your system was not talking to one another that's you passing that's correct okay in the other questions have the harvest the cameras have you guys ever been fine yes Sir. Was your fault. I guess that depends on who you ask there Sir there's certainly been instances in the past where there's really no question that the rules says but it said and we varied from the rule whether it was because of intentional conduct or unintentional contact or just you know not paying attention or just the press of business we do you know we're we're by no means the leader in the state in terms of volume but we do fourteen thousand transactions every month and we have to track every single product down to the ground and if any at any point this fourteen thousand transactions you're off by even a Graham that can generate a fine and so you you have to have extremely good. business practices to to make sure you don't have any fines and I cannot say that we have always had the practices we have now I think we've gotten to a good place but we have not always been there and it is taken you know three years to figure out what the what the right behavior is and I think that's pretty much for every aspect of our business we truly entrepreneurs truly kind of developing the business as we go so it was the fault of your company in in some instances I will acknowledge that it was our fault I think in other instances our position remains that the interpretation of the rule was was was too intense was never in it And anything did everything to the software That is a very difficult question to answer to put to put the blame of an issue entirely upon the software would not be fair to the software would not be fair to the user let me ask you this way did you guys appeal we've never appeal to find a circuit. Thank you resolutions represent purpose in fact if I follow up from the industry perspective most of our folks have been hesitant to appeal because it takes a lot of time and energy after by you know hire lawyers some of them have started appealing the appeals process I think is help Improved communication between ABC and our folks hits we've had these trainings this year in the last three months and I appreciate a B. C. for doing that I think it's going to make a big difference going forward with how Our licensees understand the system what is expected of them and get them trained there are instances there's no doubt because I've talked all them where it was a software issue and Doorly has been relatively kind I can't say in every case but she's been fairly for the most part when those appeals when those are brought to our attention and when appeals are made but there are instances where folks have been fine for Software she's. Senator Chesterfield thank you Mr chair I guess I'm concerned when I say you guys are the ones that separates the patients that suffer. When you cannot get the product to the individuals who need it the most is indeed the patients that are suffering and I keep hearing the bio track is doing this we're not doing this you get here today it is like a big complying up. So we're in lies the issue it's not by a track is not you per se is not the state we're in lies the issue is precluding the individuals who really matter and to me those are the patients were in last the problem. That I think that's a fair comment that you know for. All the patients also suffer if the outage for prevents us from completing transactions that's not always the case sometimes It the transaction self is not accurately reported and so that might generate a fine the patient would never know that it happened however we would be the ones that would pay the fine so I think we can I think we're both on the same page about where the true harm lies as far as where the and again I don't want to give you the impression that this is a committee on combinar I'm trying to give you a realistic impression of what our experiences to I knowledge that our experiences not been the same as every other operator and others perhaps have had a tougher go out it whether it's because where they are maybe I I have no explanation for it as far as where the truth lies unfortunately this is such a complex highly regulated area that the idea that there is a single point of failure that you can point to and say this is the problem I don't think that you're going to find that here I think again. Fourteen thousand transactions every single product tracked down to the Graham. There are so many points of failure along that process from seed to sale the idea that it is one thing I think isn't realistic I think. There are certainly cases where the software's failed or do you just can't explain what the issue is and they're doing the perhaps they're doing the best they can I don't know I know that we do the best we can and when their unexplained software failures. I don't know like I don't really know what the answer to that is Okay saying no more questions for Mr room on. I'll. If you would give them an give your name for the record my name is Kyle meeting I'm with natural state medicinals bookmark form closer to you so as our chairman where everyone can hear. The better that's good in. thank you for this time this morning I don't have a lot to add twelve Strymon said however I will Give you an example of some of the subpar customer service that we have had in the past It would be generous to say at a at times one out of twenty calls will get answered by an individual that will actually be able to set up an appointment a lot of times at least in the past that has been that your call and it will go straight to the voicemail you to leave a voicemail and hopefully they get back to you at times it would be a day or time to be a couple weeks I have also experienced Instances where I would have a tax working on a problem that they were supposed to be fixing I have a teamviewer in which allows them to get onto our system and go through the problem apply to fix and during the course of that the tech would drop off and I wouldn't be able to get a hold of them they would simply for lack of better word Costa. this is been quite frustrating as you can imagine you know if we have an appointment set up and we take time out of our day to allow them to work on our system it's frustrating when that fix is not applied as quickly as possible. The software has its own lack of functions but that is going to be an issue with any software there's no perfect software out there is Mr long said but we have. Committee reports that we have in our software that we are really unable to utilize I don't know if this is something that is still something apart while trains working on or if it is just something that you know if something's available in other states that we do not have available. But that is something that we would like to see improved. there's a lack of data retrieval in certain inventory converter inventory forensics reports if you trying to go back. Further than about a year oftentimes it will crash the software because you're trying to pull information that the software cannot access for whatever reason. We have seen improvements in the software however we have also been told that we have certain updates coming that have not come to fruition yet I've just actually sent an email out to individuals by track yesterday asking for follow up on that we had something that was supposed to be implemented in September we have not seen that come into play as of yet. another issue is while there is training that by track says that they offer we. Really I think it should been offered on the front and we basically had to train ourselves up on how to use this and how to figure out all the conversions and all the different movements in the software They have videos on their site however these videos are outdated they really need to bring them up to the most current version and. We would hope that they would be more in depth it's really just a glance across the surface of what the software can do and what should do. and on top of that I have a a manual in the on the website however we feel that is outdated and should be updated. Really those are the only issues that have at the moment so that I can share with you but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Representative speaks. Thank you Mr chair. If you would pull your mark phone or closer aren't hard to here okay thanks. The you keep talking about the a is this the state that you're talking about the I. T. works for this state or that would be by a track that I'm referring to is the company that implements of software so they are the ones who. Down the tech the software okay thank you yes. Representive Ferguson you have a quick. Question I have a quick question. Thank you mentioned something about a technician not showing up. Was it the technician was with bio track that with the state of that's correct with the fire truck were you down in terms of you your facility for any period that we were not down as far as the software goes we were we had a problem with a particular item in the software that needed correction but it didn't affect day to day functionality of other issues okay thank you. Thank you saying no other questions Mr Milo if you would give your name state your name for the record a good morning my name is Adam Maldonado I am the assistant manager at delta cannabis company in West Memphis Arkansas. I'm here today to provide you information about a catastrophic event caused by power surge in and around West Memphis Arkansas also provide the subcommittee with an overview of the problems and challenges we've experienced as a result of the seed to sale tracking program including problems at the point of sale incorrect inventory tracking notice go sales and poor and unreliable customer service On August twenty six I was working in our store and I'm sure the lights begin to flicker and that continued until we lost power Approximately forty five minutes after the power failure the server that was connected to bio track began to shut down completely prior to this incident we were under the assumption or the impression that by a track backed up our inventory day and in the event we would lose power we could use that back up to help get us back online This was not true. In fact a after the power was restored to the store we could not connect to by a tractor and therefore could not making sales and had to send sick patients home without their medication around one thirty that day we discovered that by a track had not backed up any inventory data for over a year we made several attempts to get back online and retrieve the data only to confirm that bio track data was either not backed up or all that was in the hard drive was corrupt and unusable we tended to resolve our concerns with by attracts assistance but later in the afternoon this was a Friday by attractive customer service completely ghosted us. we submitted several requests for help to buy a tractor in the field to get a response from them again until Sunday because our files are corrupted and we could not get any help on how to proceed forward we had to remain closed for the entirety of the weekend and then we had to rebuild all of our inventory from scratch including all of our patient data as well causing us to lose approximately run hundred thousand dollars in revenue. what's harder for us to figure out a qualifying is what we you know we may have lost in revenue from future sales of people who chose to go elsewhere for that weekend And then stayed with that dispensary for the future as assistant store manager I've also noticed Daily inventory problems with bio track software I've repeatedly personally experienced borrower tracks software incorrectly tracking patient allotments The random and unexplained changes in inventory weight And disappearance and reappearance of inventory for example believe Mr Rehman mentioned failure to connect to a R. stems during the middle of a patient transaction and what happens on the back end is that will create a retail customer sale that the ducks from a patient's allotment and deduct from the inventory but then it creates a phantom sale and item which then creates more problems so. A the most recent example of one of these issues occurred on December second when there was a disconnect from A. R. stems which calls to us as well as other dispensaries around the state as far as I'm aware to go offline for a project two hours because this to have to deploy additional additional manpower to fix all of the inventory issues that recalls from bio track I would be happy to provide any additional details or answer any questions if you need thank you. Senator rash you have a question. Thank you you stated it bio track didn't back up their data for a year word were you able to get that information confirm pro. Thank you for the question please and I didn't hear the last part who who supplied to that information that you can verify that from my understanding I believe that one was from I attract attracted me to the head back to per year the is that the that the hard drive had not backed up yes correct thank you restricted. To Crawford. Thank you Mr chair my question is who requires you to use filed track. In the state. The state of I believe that. By track runs the or students program for the state each of the dispensaries can choose whatever POS system they prefer if they don't deal with I'm sorry twenty six I'm sorry your point of sale system when you go to the register and rang out that interfaces with or stems that is up to the individual dispensary the vast majority of our folks I think use about tracks system their POS system but there are others that down and we often hear complaints about non about track POS systems having difficulty talking to our stamps. Okay follow up please. Quickly. What other other than bile track what other software is available to the state. By track is the contractor for the state to run the R. stem system the big system it is up to the individual dispensary to choose what point of sale system they use which has to interface with that okay thank you. Senator Chesterfield thank you Mr chair I'm hearing more concerned from the good day farm in pine bluff and the delta cannabis in West Memphis is any of that because of. A lack of good I. T. in your area. Or is it simply that you're not being responded to. I thank you should be sent Chesterfield there is a differing levels of sophistication by company as to the training and that resources they have actually put into it so we do see some folks that probably make more mistakes than others I likely have not invested as much in training as others and then good day as you know they're kind of the the big the leader in the field and and and terms of sales in Arkansas now from cultivator standpoint so there they run more volume through so that that may be why you're hearing from them they're their their volume is much greater than some of the others. But but there's varying levels of sophistication when it comes in training when it comes to each licensee in the ability to upload the data. Is predicated on the amount of of IT infrastructure in the area is that correct. We don't have The gigabyte capability in some places that we do and others that's where I'm trying to get to because if you're therefore people in pine bluff will really needed and can't get it West Memphis is more difficult again I'm understanding but Conway is fine or more fine than the individuals on this end of the table with every correct it's tough to say I I take the information that is being passed from our point of sale system to the arson system is not heavy in terms of the the actual fights that are being transmitted across the internet however it is completely true that access to high speed internet in an uninterrupted manner is very important because again our students which is the state seed to sale tracking system must communicate down to the second with our point of sale system so that they are a mirror image of one another the sale is completed at our store in mentor is removed from our from our records there must be a message that is transmitted to the state in real time that removes it from the state system because it's not just the state's inventory that must be tracked it's also that individual patients allotment that must be adjusted so that that patient cannot purchase two and a half ounces from my store in the go next door to his store and purchase another two and a half ounces all has to sort of tie out in real time so access to high speed internet is very important in uninterrupted high speed internet is very important whether the information is that you know a lot of information I don't think that's the case. Last question on this issue. Biotech has a contract I think it's a seven year contract is that correct. And one is that contract expire. Memory serves me twenty twenty three. I'm saying no. The end of it. Twenty four twenty fourth November twenty twenty four sold or leased they they still have time. To get. Get it together so that we don't continue here bye bye track. Are we going to continue to I guess we'll ask by a check whether or not we're going to continue to hear from them but this contract lasts through twenty twenty four December November she said November twenty twenty four thank you Mr and and sent Chesterfield I'll continue to have communication with bio track and ask them to continue to step up their training from there and and they've indicated a willingness to do that. Members all reminded everyone that we have to be out of here about ten o'clock and so. Please keep your questions. To a minimum and you're not next representing Wardlaw if. Thank you Mr is it out of order if we brought the health department and ABC to the table for my question I have a question about the contract in hu Mans a contract and I think the state would answer my question better than the individual can where you get this done chapter what is Sir and then I'll bring them in real quick real quickly before we got about transaction that's fine. Representative Ferguson I'll be very Mr chairman. this past co I would get back. A the entities don't have used by a trick. Wrecked not for the point of sale they do for the city of the R. stands everything has to go into the state's state system to track they can use another software system but this software system has to be able to talk to the state correct which is operated by by a trick correct okay you're right thank you. Seeing no other questions you're dismissed thanks thank you. Doorly thank you and we is someone from the health department here. Here we go. Doorly I got a real quick question what I read a scan type. Who is who is the state's program providers that are on or do you use a different network do I what items are I could carry who who issued the ABC's internet or broadband router is that all on or do you have a another. Of broadband system so for our I. T. works to use office of information and services are and the FAA and then we also work in conjunction with the I. S. okay your. If you would state your goals for the record. Because concentrate Arkansas Department. Amarchand general counsel for the department of health thank you really channel director of ABC representative Wardlaw thank thank you Mr so who who and where does the bile track reside does it have resided health department or does it reside at ABC. Currently the contract resides with the health department we have communicated with them that when the contract is up in twenty twenty four ABC will have the funding available now that marijuana smoke marijuana industry is often operational we will take over and bidding out and going forward with the contract in after it expires so so. We remember of lieutenant governor now turning General Griffin silo effect over DHS and it seems like that's where we're at here is we have a solid over to health department salary B. C. and not the communication that we need how hard would it be to move all of the oversight to ABC are all the oversight to the health department so that all of this is in the same silo. Thank you represent Wardlaw I think we do a B. C. and eighty H. we do communicate we have weekly weekly does weekly calls that we Review issues that are of of that are that for both of us on both of our regulatory authority under Amendment ninety eight Amendment ninety eight says that eighty H. will do patient registry cards lately standards testing standards and so when it comes to actual bio track usage we use the patient portal that's what generally we use the seed to sale stuff it comes to the tracking seed to sale that's ABC because of the way it works way were split I don't see silo but we have very specific authority under Amendment ninety eight I don't know that you can take. All of that all of that regulatory capability and put it into into one but we do to your question we do communicate with ABC very very regularly I think you're you're still limited by what Amendment ninety eight says she'll do what and that's what the people told us as as as delineated in and split that out it it makes sense to me that you guys do the cards you guys look at that side. It just seems that the authority of who's over the contract and who can man fixing some of the issues with the contract is being kind of open air and I was asking around yesterday and everyone said knowledge the other with the other ones and now it's the other one and that that is a side effect by the way and and that's very concerning to me that we were getting those answers why we were asking so it does make me feel a little better that A. B. C.'s gonna pull that contract in twenty twenty four I think that's probably a good fix for what we were finding through looking through this issue. Represent we agree total and that's what A. B. when ABC stepped up to say they would take that we we agree with them that would probably be the best when it comes the contract and see sale system thank you thank you Mr. Okay seeing no other questions you're dismissed. moving to Adam ET of. Call reporting regarding bio track software. We would ask you to come up at this time. Please identify yourself for the record and you may proceed after that good morning thank you my name is more fun on the VP of bio track. I would like to start by thanking this committee for giving me the opportunity to address this this body here today I want to go ahead and begin by addressing what Mr Maldonado was talking about there was a document circulated in this was complaint number one on that document specifically with the incident where they had the server crashing the corruption we just wanted to clarify that the corruption and the backups that he was referring to the system automatically backs up the local commercial system separate from A. R. stands they were using an unapproved way up backing it up off to a different drive when they have the power surge the data was corrupted now what Mr Maldonado stated was correct that on Friday these activities happened my team was not as responsive as they should have been on Friday night and by Sunday morning the situation was escalated to me that's when I started working directly with Keith who is the I. T. provider for delta's organization I started working with him directly he asked me to review the corrupted Drug drive as well we took it and we escalated internally two different engineers to try to. See if there's a way to recover some of the data but there was corruption that data that he's referring to is separate from the data within a R. stems we did an emergency migration and we spun them up inside of our hosted Amazon servers to help get them back up online as quickly as possible once we do that we can initiate what's called the synchronization between their local system and A. R. stems that will now pull the information that has already been reported to stems into their local system now what that sink does not bring back in is local information that they would have stored within their system themselves no it's about patience their label set up receipts set up how their products were priced now setting up pricing on the products is not the same thing as saying that the inventory had to be rebuilt you literally click synchronization and it pulls down everything that the state has visibility into at that given moment all the inventory the rooms the sales activity from inception all that is captured in record. During the situation I continue to work with Keith the gentleman who is the I. T. provider for delta through Sunday Monday and Tuesday as I was working with him we identified that the staff on site was trying to What they thought was like helping the situation they started making adjustments to inventory that created a knock on effect for additional things instead of trying to address the problem they're trying to do a quick little workaround which creates some additional facts all that is to say that by the time identified that and made the recommendation to keep that says Hey they should stop this behavior to alleviate these problems we were back on the road to recovery and by the time we wrapped up Monday everything was back in working order the way it was expected to be and by Tuesday morning they were operating back as normal again I take responsibility we are far from being perfect there's always potential for issues to occur for problems to happen we're constantly looking to improve what we're doing how we're doing how we're communicating with the market providing additional training looking for opportunities to improve best practices within these facilities so we're always looking for that type of feedback I know that we are short on time so if you bear with me I'm just going to try to move through some of these items that were listed in this document we provided in this document I'm not sure if the entire committee has seen this well we provided a graph of our uptime now this shows you that we are nearly near hundred percent warranty ninety nine percent plus range some of those gaps in time are due to pre approved maintenance windows through ABC four updates maintenance on the system additional activity that needs to happen there are some times where these things are outside of our control the A. R. stems is hosted on an Arkansas dot gov website meaning if something happens to that Arkansas dot gov website it becomes an accessible even though with the A. R. stem system in the background is still there and running they just can't reach you because that dot gov website is inaccessible for something outside of our control. that doesn't mean that we don't have random outages or situations that occur anytime does occur we look for feedback from the permittee's themselves to let us know if they are having an issue specifically going back to the delta team Keith again anytime there's any sort of situation he instantly sends me a text message I'm very responsive to him what will get on the phone at times we've had him fail over to a secondary internet provider that has resolved the issue at times and that the use reader as well as another internet provider we saw that happen recently a week ago or so where they switch to the different provider and that seemed to resolve their issue so there is maybe some infrastructure challenges at play with who the internet providers they are using from time to time. There's a statement here about miscalculation by patient limits there is a report that ABC has access to where you can plug in a patient ID number it'll show you every single sale where it happened what the product was how much is deducted from the patient limit if there's any questions about that we're more than happy to do an analysis to look into if there was some sort of miscalculation but we have not seen that happen or anytime we've investigated we haven't seen that scenario. there's a number of statements in here about changing weeks infantryman's changing unexpectedly were more than happy to investigate these if they have a specific example or facility that can points in the right direction we can do some analysis but these are kind of fake for us to kind of try to speak to there's a statement here about by a truck inventory rounds down fractional weights this is a little bit out of context another point of sale provider was pushing data incorrectly into a R. stems so for example if a permittee was make an adjustment for three and a half grams this other point of sale system was reporting it as four grams so I have a gram times ten fifteen twenty times it begins to add up this is a scenario of where they push that information in and that was kind of the the information that was recorded in stems which created a discrepancy between what they physically had versus what was reported to Stephens. The there's a tool within the commercial bio track system so not the A. R. stems but they have a tool in there for synchronization so if a sale is seen captured inside of a R. stems but not their local system they can use the cell synchronization and what this does is the local system communicates to a R. stands and says Hey show me the differences and if there is a sale on stems it'll try to pull it back in to automatically keep both systems matching in real time I I spoke with the robin yesterday we're going to do some follow up with his managers to make sure they understand how to use that tool so any future situations like that they can help themselves and quickly address the situation there's another statement in here about us not being accessible on the weekends or after hours our standards support hours or essentially ten to seven Monday through Sunday essentially eastern standard time now above and beyond that that's for scheduled support we also have support that is available to one AM eastern on Monday through Friday to address any escalations in the after hours activities that are need to happen as well as before the ten AM clock we actually have support the begins to come online at eight AM just are proactively looking at any requests that have come in the previous day or things that need to be quickly addressed with customers we also publish on our website a number phone numbers and email contact information for licensees to be able to reach out to us it is also on the actual log in screen of a R. stems with an email and a phone number if they didn't see it on our website. there's a statement in here about the manifest indicating the state of Washington we generated an example it clearly says the state of Arkansas this was something very very old that probably goes back a number of years inability to transfer certain types of inventory again the to kind of a vague statement there's a certain work flow what inventory can be transferred based off of the type of permittee they are in the type of action they're trying to doing that is with the approval of a BC in terms of how that work flow was created so more than happy to work with this individual permittee if there's a specific example we need to look into. and I know we're down the time I just wanna thank this committee again for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of you I'm more than happy to answer any questions. Senator Rice you're recognized yes and I will have to click over to another committee but can you briefly give me of let your own you state the state the system has some type of interruption you have waited document when that happens reason I'm asking if the states that poltrona and things do happen. I don't people find. I have I have a very distasteful thing when state doesn't do their job we don't sometime in in we expect citizenry to live under one Senate rules and and we excuse ourselves sometime the other thing is can you substantiate what the gentleman said is it Bhadrak did not back up a secondary back up for like a year. So in regards to the back up Sir the system generated the backups your backups were corrupted due to the power surge so the files actually exist on their from their perspective from a non technical lands you see the file exist on the driver's or looking at it on the screen but when you try to unpack that back up if you will to restore the data there was corruption in various different tables we attempted ourselves to try to figure out if we could slice out part of the corruption so we can lease put back some of it with them simply just not possible. Okay any other part of the question. I'm I'm sorry the for the other part can you document when this it's the state is it fault of their system either going down or something that's not linking the can you substantiate anyway to show us who's at fault on these interruptions yes we can we can take a look at that review our log Sir we have for a large that are costly tracking the system if it's up if it's available if the API which is the part of the software that the different point of sale systems used to actually communicate back and forth with a R. stems we can we can take that as an as an action item to get to that information Sir okay that's all the time we'll take a look because time thank you. Senator just feel you're recognized. Here December second seems to be. A very very important day as far as the difficulty is concerned could you speak to what happened on December second. On December second I believe that there was a situation and and it again it was the gentleman Keith from delta he shot me a message right away we quickly jumped on the system to see what was going on it seems like that there was some sort of high load affecting the system we quickly took action and resolve the situation I can go back and check my my communication let you know exactly how much that window was but it was fairly short in time thank you Mr. Senator Hickey you're recognized yes from here thank you just one question one of the gentleman and you address some of it with the weights and the grams but he mentions something called the phantom transaction goes transactions have you been met being made aware of that before today or before this report so I was not aware that he had it goes transaction it can happen essentially what occurs is the submit a transaction to the state the system really cares about the patient ID and less so about the name so submitted up to a R. stems recorded and then in the downstream to recording their local point of sale system there could have been some sort of interruption that communication it records a sale but it puts retail customers holding please to identify that something has occurred with the sale that needs further investigation okay so whenever whenever his references goes transaction or phantom transaction or whatever that may be that's not necessarily just saying that there was a transaction that took place out there and there was an individual involved because from my standpoint as simple as may be things like that always lead me to think about will you know do we have a security issue or this for that. And if I understand you correctly with what you just said what they could possibly be would be somebody that was there who may not have been approved that they came in and and to the store is that what you're saying if not you're gonna have to you're going to break that down a little sure simple for me sure so when the sale is submitted the system cares about the patient ID so we know who to deduct against their limit that sale went up to a R. stems and in the downstream back into their local system there could have been some interruption it still retains that patient ID is the one the sale distributed to it just didn't of put their name on it. Because it's really track and against the patient ID itself so it's not that that the sale is just created self out of no where it's related to a transaction but something happens that transaction the need to just that's helped thank you Sir you're welcome. Okay seeing no other questions you are dismissed thank you Sir we appreciate everyone who came today and we are now adjourn.