Legalized Cannabis in Montana: How Flexible Software Helps Fund Essential Services

Greetings from Big Sky Country, where a new industry is buoying Montana’s economy: recreational cannabis.?

Sales exceeded projections for the first two quarters of 2022, surpassing $96.7 million. In June, providers sold more than $17.2 million of recreational cannabis—an increase from $16.6 million in May. Data from Montana’s Department of Revenue (DOR) show that overall sales (including medical) have generated nearly $21 million in tax revenue for the state this year. Of those funds, $6 million will go toward substance abuse prevention and treatment and mental health services. The remaining funds will support:?

• Fish, wildlife, parks,?and trails
• Veterans and their surviving spouses?
• Crisis treatment training??

The legalization of recreational marijuana in November 2020 raised questions: Who would issue business licenses? How would the state handle taxes? The state’s Department of Public Health and Human Services (HHS) had managed medical cannabis registrations since 2004, but it was determined that the DOR would handle the medical program going forward, alongside recreational business registrations.??

The DOR established a Cannabis Control Division (CCD) to simultaneously oversee recreational and medical marijuana. The agency had a secret weapon that allowed it to pivot quickly: GenTax—our highly flexible software, built to adapt to new demands.??

Thus, the Montana DOR became the first government agency to use FAST software to issue and administer individual medical card registrations. In the first seven months, the office issued, in total cannabis registrations:?

• 1,049 business licenses?
• 17,313 medical cards?
• 4,237 worker permits?

“It has been a true pleasure working with the great people of Montana over the last 20 years,” said Blake Olson, FAST’s Project Manager for the Montana DOR modernization. “We have worked together to produce creative solutions for every challenge we’ve faced.”?

When DOR acquired the cannabis program, the agency had just finished upgrading to a new version of GenTax. The FAST team, working out of DOR’s Helena office, folded the cannabis tax rollout into their existing upgrade without skipping a beat.?

Our experts worked closely with agency staff to convert more than 40,000 medical cards from the HHS system to DOR, while implementing functionality to:?

• Distribute and track business licensing?
• Administer and collect the state and local options tax??
• Issue and track marijuana worker permits?
• Issue and track medical patient cards for a lower tax rate than recreational buyers?

It’s not uncommon for FAST to help agencies respond to new legislation. What was unique, however, was how quickly the cannabis program changed: Our team implemented new software components to comply with statutes and requirements as they continuously evolved. Our trainers prepared DOR staff to administer cannabis taxes in their system on day one.?

“Their patience and attention to detail helped us understand the multiple layers of the new system while breaking it down in an easy-to-learn format,” said Cindie Bacon, CCD Lead License Specialist.?

Two FAST trainers in particular—Bre and Eric—made an impression on Peyton Virts, CCD License Specialist, who said they were “absolutely essential in getting the Cannabis Control Division program where it is today.” ?

FAST is looking forward to a continued partnership with all the government agencies we serve in the state of Montana.?

For more insight into FAST rollouts, read our blog post, “FAST Launches 500th Software Rollout with Maryland Mobile Driver Licenses.”