Lewis Koski Of Metrc On What We Must Do To Create Nationally Secure And Resilient Supply Chains

An Interview With David Leichner

Actionable data from the reporting system then needs to be made readily available.

The cascading logistical problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe, have made securing a reliable supply chain a national imperative. In addition, severe cyberattacks like the highly publicized Colonial pipeline attack, have brought supply chain cybersecurity into the limelight. So what must manufacturers and policymakers do to ensure that we have secure and resilient supply chains? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders who can share insights from their experiences about how we can address these challenges. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lewis Koski.

Lewis is the Chief Strategy Officer at Metrc, the most trusted and experienced provider of cannabis regulatory technology systems in the U.S. He joined the company in March 2019 where he originally served as COO. Previously, Lewis helped build the first state agency in the U.S. to develop and implement medical and adult-use cannabis policy, serving as the director of the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and the majority of my career was spent in law enforcement — first as a soldier in the U.S. Army and then as a civilian police officer. While working as a police officer, I began attending grad school at Regis University, earning my master’s degree in international business. After graduating, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Gaming Division recruited me to help set up a financial investigations unit. As I began learning about the challenges state agencies face in building regulated markets, I turned my attention to exploring how Colorado could build a better, more commercialized cannabis industry.

In 2010, I transitioned out of the Gaming Division and into the brand new Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division to help build the first state agency dedicated to cannabis policy and regulation. We started licensing medical cannabis businesses immediately upon medical-use legalization, and after adult-use was legalized in 2012, we began developing policies and drafting regulations to support state legislatures in creating some of the enabling statutes that are in place today.

As more states began legalizing, I saw an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge I gained from developing Colorado’s policies to help newly legalized states build their own government agencies — I also worked with the Canadian government to formulate some of their public policies after cannabis was legalized in 2018. During that time, I started working with the team at Metrc as a consultant to help grow their footprint as the most trusted and experienced provider of cannabis regulatory technology systems in the U.S., and in 2019, I joined the company full-time.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I’m immensely proud of my work helping implement cannabis legalization, and I think my path to this profession is one of the more unusual and ultimately rewarding aspects of my career. Transitioning from law enforcement to cannabis in a time when the industry barely existed was a huge step, and it’s one I will always be grateful that I took. I am fortunate to have built such a long-lasting career in an industry that I am as passionate about today as I was on day one.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. A strong work ethic. It takes fortitude and commitment to achieve anything.
2. The ability to recognize that no one can do everything alone. Surrounding yourself with people more talented than you in their field of expertise will lead to greater success.
3. A devotion to continual education. Become a student of your industry, and stay curious to avoid stagnation in your career.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

There are a few different projects we are currently working on at Metrc. I spend most of my time focused on European cannabis policy. As the conversation around legalization continues, the importance of data collection and product tracking has gained a lot of momentum on the continent. In the U.S., each individual cannabis market is close-looped, meaning everything has to be grown, manufactured, produced and sold in the same state. Given its infancy, there is potential in Europe for the policies and regulations to be structured entirely differently.

There is also a tremendous opportunity for Metrc to leverage and maximize track-and-trace for the cannabis supply chain as a use case to explore what processes and policies are available and applicable to other regulated industries, such as tobacco, alcohol or psilocybin.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. In order to ensure that we are all on the same page let’s begin with some simple definitions. What does the term “supply chain” encompass?

At Metrc, the term “supply chain” is characterized as seed-to-sale. We collect all the inputs into the supply chain and report on all the outputs, and vice versa.

Can you help articulate what the weaknesses are in our current supply chain systems?

The lack of transparency is the top issue with our current supply chain system, and the lack of uniform reporting makes it difficult for the government to regulate the system and make it more efficient. There is also limited ability to track products back to their origins to identify potential problems with the supply chain.

Can you help define what a nationally secure and resilient supply chain would look like?

There needs to be transparency and uniform reporting to the government to establish a nationally secure and resilient supply chain. Uniform reporting would result in real-time, actionable data proactively available when making important decisions.

My particular expertise is in cybersecurity so I’m particularly passionate about this topic. Can you share some examples of recent and notable cyber attacks against our supply chain? Why do you think these attacks were so significant?

Cybersecurity has never been more important, and threats to our supply chains have never been more serious. These risks have increased as global supply chains are under dynamic stress, fueled by the war in Europe and economic disruption from the pandemic. New technologies and automation are now integral to helping solve the issues of the modern age, which is why cybersecurity platforms have to keep up with evolving threats to ensure the safety and security of our supply chains.

What would you recommend for the government or for tech leaders to do to improve supply chain cybersecurity?

As a company with no known security breaches, we take supply chain cybersecurity very seriously. We recognize that, in a reporting system like ours, data needs to be actionable and accurate, but it also needs to be secure.

In cannabis, we’ve seen state governments build resilient supply chains by implementing Metrc’s track-and-trace programs that provide helpful information to determine potential public health and safety causes and evaluate public policy to ensure it’s working. Governments can apply these same standards to other industries to create supply chains that are less vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Ok, thank you. Here is the main question of our interview. What are the “5 Things We Must Do To Create Nationally Secure And Resilient Supply Chains” and why?

1. The government must facilitate a centralized supply chain reporting system.
2. The system needs to be uniform for all stakeholders.
3. It should also offer data sharing between market participants.
4. Actionable data from the reporting system then needs to be made readily available.
5. This system should provide the ability to trace back in the supply chain to identify where potential problems could occur and where opportunities for improvement may exist.

Are there other ideas or considerations that should encourage us to reimagine our supply chain?

Metrc has provided a great use case for effectively monitoring other supply chains. Our work has contributed to the resiliency of the cannabis supply chain, and if it can work in a still-developing and ever-changing industry, it can work for others.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

The pandemic taught us very quickly that our supply chains were not as resilient as we once thought. The issues that were exposed continue to persist and have contributed to many of the economic challenges we face today. But there are solutions that exist to help prevent these inefficiencies from happening in the future.

In order to help the largest number of people, there needs to be more transparency among stakeholders in the ecosystem of each supply chain and more transparency in what they report to the government. Governments can use that data to help market participants be more methodical in running their businesses, and by sharing relevant information among those participants, the supply chains can become more resilient, more efficient, and more effective.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can find more information about Metrc on our website or by following us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

This was very inspiring and informative. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview!

About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.