How The Government Is Turning Legal Marijuana Into A Massive Surveillance State

‘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.’
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