Field Guides
What the QR code on a New York cannabis package tells you — and what it doesn't
By SŌMA 10 min read
Turn over a package bought in a New York dispensary and you will usually find a QR code. Since 1 March 2026, every unit a distributor sends to a dispensary must carry a Metrc Retail Item ID — a QR code of its own — and since 1 April its package must also show a passing test status in Metrc. Scan it and you get a short record of what the product is, who made it and how its batch tested.
That record is useful, and easy to read too much into. This guide explains how to scan it, what each line means, who wrote it, and what it cannot tell you.
Why the code is there
New York tracks cannabis from plant to sale in Metrc, which the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) has chosen as its seed-to-sale system of record. A Retail Item ID is Metrc's code for a single unit: in Metrc's words, “a unique digital identifier in the form of a QR code assigned to each unit” of a finished package. New York's label rules already required “a scannable bar code or QR code linked to a downloadable certificate of analysis”; OCM says the Retail ID code satisfies that requirement.
The requirement came in stages:
- 17 December 2025 — in Metrc's schedule, units leaving a processor for a distributor must carry Retail Item IDs (Metrc bulletin of 27 February 2026). From the same day, OCM requires a Package UID on every package a distributor sends to a dispensary (OCM bulletin of 23 March 2026).
- 1 March 2026 — every unit of finished product a dispensary receives must carry a Retail Item ID QR code (OCM bulletin of 24 February 2026).
- 1 April 2026 — units sent from a distributor to a dispensary must carry the code and have a “TestPassed” or “RetestPassed” status in Metrc (OCM bulletin of 23 March 2026).
Stock a dispensary received before 1 April 2026 may still be sold, up to its labelled expiration date, without a Retail Item ID or a test status in Metrc. An older package can therefore reach you with no Retail ID at all.
How to scan it
- 1.Open your phone's camera, point it at the code and open the link it offers. Metrc describes consumers scanning a Retail ID with a phone camera; the record opens as a web page.
- 2.If the package carries two codes, scan both. Some packages keep an earlier code that leads to the lab certificate, with the Metrc code added as a second label.
- 3.Scan before you pay if you can: ask to see the package.
- 4.Keep a screenshot of the page, so you can set it beside the jar at home.
Check the shop as well
A licensed dispensary displays OCM's Dispensary Verification Tool in its storefront: a QR code that leads to OCM's list of licensed adult-use dispensaries. Every regulated adult-use product also carries New York's universal symbol.
What the page shows, line by line
SŌMA opened a New York Retail ID page on 10 October 2026, as a buyer would. It begins with a short statement that the product is regulated by OCM, and a line that reads “Cannabis product and brand information is not provided by the Office of Cannabis Management”. Under it come the product overview, the lab's status, tables of cannabinoids and terpenes, the package details and a few links. The table below uses the page's own labels. Not every page has every line: what appears depends on what was entered, what the lab measured, and what the business that set up the product chose to show.
| Line on the page | What it means | Entered by |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The product's name, as the item was set up in Metrc. | The business that created the package |
| Type | The strain name given to the item. It may be a cultivar's name, or only a broad type such as “Hybrid”. | The business that created the package |
| Manufactured By, Facility, Facility License | The licensed business the record names, with its OCM licence number. It can be a different company from the brand on the front of the package. | The business that created the package |
| UID, Package Tag, Batch ID | Metrc identifiers for the package and, where shown, its batch. They let New York trace the product's history and let OCM recall a specific product if it needs to. The QR code on your unit is the unit's own; the package and the batch are shared with other units. | The business that created the package |
| Net Weight | The weight of product in the unit, as entered. | The business that created the package |
| Packaged On | The day the package was made, as entered. It dates the package, not the harvest or the test. | The business that created the package |
| Harvest Date | The harvest the package came from, as entered: usually a date, but on some records a harvest name, which may contain a date or list several harvests. Not every page shows one. | The business that created the package |
| Expiration Date | Shown only where the business that set up the product chose to show it. | The business that created the package |
| Tested Date, Tested By, Laboratory License | The test date the record gives, and the laboratory that tested the batch, with its licence. | The lab |
| Lab Test Status | “TestPassed” and “RetestPassed” are the two passing statuses New York requires before a unit is sent to a dispensary. The status does not say why a batch was tested again. A package a dispensary received before 1 April 2026 may show no status. | Metrc, from the lab's results |
| Cannabinoids | Percentages measured in the lab's sample: Total THC and Total CBD, then THCa, Δ9 THC and the others on lines of their own. Total THC counts THCA as well as THC (see below). | The lab |
| Terpenes | The aromatic compounds the lab measured. A record may have none, though OCM requires terpene testing of every final product. | The lab |
| COA | A link to the lab's full report, the certificate of analysis: potency, and pass or fail results for contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and microbes. | The lab |
| Recall notice | Metrc builds recall data into Retail ID, so a recalled product can show as recalled when it is scanned. OCM also posts the recalls it knows of on its recalls page. | Metrc and OCM |
As the producer filed it
Most of what the page shows was entered in Metrc by the licensed business that created the package — usually the producer. Metrc's product sheet for Retail ID tells brands and manufacturers to set up their products and packages in Metrc and generate the codes themselves, and OCM tells licensees to enter brand information “exactly as it appears on the product packaging”. The test results and the certificate come from the testing laboratory, which uploads them to Metrc. For some stock already in distributors' hands when the rules arrived, the distributor repackaged it and applied the code.
That is why SŌMA calls it the Metrc Retail ID record, as the producer filed it, and never “the state's record”. The system is the one OCM chose; the entries are the producer's. The page itself says that product and brand information is not provided by OCM.
What the record does not tell you
Whether the flower is good
A passing status means the lab's sample met New York's testing requirements: its cannabinoids were measured, and contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and microbes came in under the limits OCM sets. It says nothing about how the flower was grown, dried and cured, how it smells, or how it has been kept since; for those, see why freshness matters.
How the jar is today
The certificate describes a sample collected from the batch for testing, not the unit in your hand, and cannabis changes after it is tested. OCM's own label guide says a certificate “will not be accurate forever” and points to the expiration date on an unopened package. When the test date falls well before the packaged date, the results describe the batch as it was then.
What the strain really is
The strain on the record is the name that was entered. Some New York records SŌMA has read give only a broad type — “Hybrid”, “Indica” or “Sativa”. OCM's account of what a certificate covers names cannabinoids, microorganisms, heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, water activity and foreign materials; it names no test of strain. A name on a record is a label, not a measurement; see why the same strain can feel different.
Not every code opens a record
- A unit a dispensary received before 1 April 2026 may have no Retail Item ID.
- A code can lead to the certificate on another website instead of a Metrc page: the label rules allow either.
- A Retail ID page can lack its certificate, when the lab's PDF has not been linked to it.
None of these means, on its own, that anything is wrong. Ask the shop for the certificate: OCM says every regulated product has a QR code or link to its lab results.
Which THC a number is
The record and the certificate report total THC. New York defines it as THC plus THCA multiplied by 0.877, and labels on flower and other inhaled products must print total THC as a percentage. THCA is THC's acid form, and 0.877 is the ratio of the two molecules' weights: 314.5 for THC to 358.5 for THCA.
A shop's menu is the shop's own listing, and the record does not tell you which measure its THC figure is. If it is THCA alone, it is not the same number as total THC: a flower measured at 25% THCA and 0.5% THC has a total THC of about 22.4% (25 × 0.877 + 0.5). The page also lists THCa and Δ9 THC on their own lines, so a menu figure for THCA can be set against the THCa line rather than against total THC. Before comparing, find out which measure each figure is — and see why the THC percentage is a poor guide.
What to do with it
- 1.Read the packaged date (“Packaged On”). It is the nearest the record comes to the age of your jar — see why freshness matters.
- 2.Set the test date against it (“Tested Date”). A long gap means the results describe the batch as it was when it was sampled.
- 3.Check the status. It should read “TestPassed” or “RetestPassed”. A package that fails testing is given a “TestFailed” status, and OCM says a product sold in a regulated dispensary should never show a failed test on its certificate. A package a dispensary received before 1 April 2026 may show no status at all; that alone is not a problem. If you see anything else, ask the shop, or report it to OCM.
- 4.Note the lab and open the certificate. It should carry the cannabinoid results and sections for heavy metals, pesticides and microbial impurities, each marked pass or fail.
- 5.Compare it with the label. The label carries the brand, the processor and its licence number, a lot number or code (the Retail ID QR code can serve), the total THC and the expiration date. Where the record shows the same thing, the two should agree; if they do not, ask the shop which is right.
- 6.Store it as the label says. New York's expiration date assumes an unopened package kept in the storage conditions on the label; see how to store cannabis.
Sources
- Office of Cannabis Management, Final reminder: February 28 deadline for Retail Item ID transfers, Seed-to-Sale bulletin, 24 February 2026.
- Office of Cannabis Management, Final reminder: March 31 deadline for Metrc transfer requirements, Seed-to-Sale bulletin, 23 March 2026.
- Office of Cannabis Management, Action required: update item brand information in Metrc by August 8, bulletin, 9 July 2026.
- Office of Cannabis Management, Seed-to-Sale FAQs: “Am I required to use the Retail ID QR Code on cannabis product packaging?”
- Office of Cannabis Management, 9 NYCRR Parts 128 and 129, adult-use packaging, labeling, marketing and advertising, as adopted: § 128.1(i) and (ac), § 128.5(a) and (b).
- Office of Cannabis Management, How to read an adult-use cannabis label in New York, fact sheet.
- Office of Cannabis Management, How to read a lab certificate of analysis for your cannabis product, fact sheet.
- Office of Cannabis Management, Cannabis testing limits, revision of 9 February 2026: “Terpenoids”.
- Office of Cannabis Management, Consumers, Dispensary location verification, Recalls and Report an incident.
- Metrc, NY_IB_0007: Retail Item ID and electronic sampling for New York distributors, 16 January 2026.
- Metrc, NY_IB_0010: Retail Item ID important updates, 27 February 2026.
- Metrc, NY_IB_0011: Retail Item ID important updates and key dates, 26 March 2026.
- Metrc, NY_IB_0012: Finished Goods and Retail Item ID best practices, 23 March 2026.
- Metrc, NY_IB_0022: Remediating a package in Metrc, 30 July 2026.
- Metrc, Welcome to Metrc: processors webinar, New York, slides.
- Metrc, Metrc Retail ID, product sheet.
- Metrc, CA-IB-2025-004: Metrc Retail ID enhancements, 18 June 2025, figure 1 (an example Retail ID page).
- Metrc, NV_IB_0087: Product labeling functionality in Metrc, 28 October 2024.
- PubChem, tetrahydrocannabinol, CID 16078 and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, CID 98523: molecular weights.
- A New York Metrc Retail ID page, opened by SŌMA on 10 October 2026 and kept in our private archive; and the Retail ID records SŌMA has read, for what New York records carry. Neither is linked here: they name producers.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an app to scan the QR code on a New York cannabis package?
No. Metrc describes consumers scanning a Retail ID with a phone's camera, and the record opens as a web page. Some packages carry a second code that leads to the lab certificate.
Who writes the information the QR code shows?
The product details — name, strain, dates — are entered in Metrc by the licensed business that created the package, usually the producer and sometimes a distributor that repackaged it; the test results and the certificate are uploaded by the testing laboratory. SŌMA calls it the Metrc Retail ID record, as the producer filed it.
Does a passing test status mean the cannabis is good?
No. It means the lab's sample met New York's testing requirements: cannabinoids measured, contaminants under OCM's limits. It says nothing about the cure, the aroma or how the product has been kept since it was tested. See why freshness matters.
Why does the THC on a menu differ from the certificate?
They may be different measures. New York's total THC is THC plus THCA × 0.877, so a figure for THCA alone is a different number; the Retail ID page lists THCa on a line of its own. A menu is the shop's own listing: check which measure it shows before comparing. See why the THC percentage is a poor guide.
What if the QR code does not open a record?
Stock received before 1 April 2026 may have no Retail Item ID, and some codes lead to the certificate on another website rather than to Metrc. Ask the shop for the certificate of analysis: OCM says every regulated product has a QR code or link to its lab results.
Corrections
- In the line-by-line table we said the Terpenes line shows the aromatic compounds the lab measured, “if it measured them”. OCM's testing rules require every final product to be tested for terpenes; the line now says so, and that a record may still show none.