By Jake Anderson

Unfairly or not, most people think of marijuana as an illegal drug that thrives on the black market. They don’t view it as a highly regulated commodity packaged in one of the most high-tech surveillance systems on the market. But that’s exactly what it is — at least, in four states where it is legal, primarily in Colorado.

There, each recreational and medicinal strain of marijuana bears a barcode and a Radio Frequency ID (RFID). The facilities that house and sell the herb brandish state-of-the-art 24/7 security that tracks the movements of every employee. This “cannabis surveillance state” is in place ostensibly to ensure that states can control the drug from being on the black market; surveillance data allows regulators to know there is a “closed loop” of marijuana and that it is not crossing state lines.

For David Dinenberg, CEO of Kind Financial, the operative term is ‘seed-to-sale tracking,’ which ensures every second of a plant’s life is accounted for as a commodity, from its first seedlings to the hands of the person who purchases it at the dispensary.

This was made possible in 2011 when Colorado passed the first state law mandating marijuana surveillance. Subsequently, this birthed the Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting and Compliance (METRC), a government-referenced system owned by software company Franwell, which also operates in Alaska, Maryland, and Oregon.

What is left unsaid — and is probably unanswerable — is how far the surveillance extends. Are state agents literally watching patients and customers as they leave the dispensaries and go about their days?

Regardless, though this surveillance architecture is mandatory from the state’s perspective, others view it differently.

In an interview with the Anti-Media, Expect Resistance owner and activist, Sara Killbride-Johnson, expressed skepticism with regard to the use of mass surveillance with the implementation of cannabis sales:

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Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets Surveillance measures are always implemented because of people’s fear. You give up a freedom you feel you don’t need in exchange for protection, which you do. Even when it doesn’t help us personally, it’s true. Like convenience stores.

She continued: