Maine withdraws marijuana tracker contract, will seek bids

Maine is withdrawing a contract with a firm it had signed on to track the growth and distribution of marijuana and marijuana products in the state.

State officials had inked a deal with Florida-based Franwell Inc. valued at $150,000. The deal would have allowed the state to use Metrc, a software product that uses radio-frequency identification tags to track marijuana.

The state Office of Marijuana Policy says it's concerned that the contract could draw a challenge that results in a delay of recreational marijuana sales, which voters chose to legalize in 2016. The office says the state will instead seek competitive bids for tracking services by releasing a request for proposals, which has not yet been developed.

Marijuana office director Erik Gundersen says the state's looking for "qualified tracking providers."