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by QT9 Software on December 16, 2025
The cannabis industry has grown from an emerging market fueled by passion and innovation into a highly competitive, intricately regulated sector. As U.S. operators scale, expand into new locations and diversify product lines, many are beginning to encounter the same challenges that other, mature industries have already faced: consistent quality, regulatory load, document and process control, and the complexity of managing it all.
In a recent episode of the QT9 Q-Cast podcast, host Christian Reyes sat down with President and Chief Scientist of Pure Analytics Innovation and Consultation, Samantha Miller, to discuss what quality management looks like in cannabis today and how companies can evolve from startup mode into sustainable, data-driven operations.
This article distills their conversation into guidance for cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, labs and brand operators taking the next step to improve quality, successfully adhere to changing regulations and create scalable systems for long-term success.
Contents
Understanding quality management in the cannabis industry
Quality in an evolving cannabis industry
Why cannabis operators need a quality management system now
How an eQMS drives ROI for cannabis businesses
Why cannabis companies must embrace eQMS solutions
How cannabis companies must approach quality
Understanding quality management in the cannabis industry
Unlike the pharmaceutical or food industries, where quality and compliance frameworks have been standardized for decades, cannabis currently operates in a hybrid regulatory environment.
While cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act, many states have legalized medical and/or recreational use under their own, unique legal requirements. Compliance expectations change from state to state, and no single ISO or FDA standard perfectly fits every license type.
Because of this wide variation, one of the first septs operators must undertake before they can begin structuring processes is to identify which quality system aligns with their product type, license and operational model.
“Depending on what area of the cannabis industry you're working in, there’s probably a different ISO quality system that best applies to you,” said Miller. Typically cannabis operations are subject to at least one or sometimes a combination of the following regulatory frameworks:
- Labs: ISO 17025
- Manufacturers: ISO 9001
- Cultivation: Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP); ISO 22000
“For a business that has complexity and is operating across multiple different license types within a regulatory system, they may have need for GACP for their cultivation side and a need for ISO 22000 as they move into making their product and controlling those outputs,” said Miller.
The first step for cannabis operators is to determine the quality system or systems they must adhere to and map documentation and processes to its directives.
Quality in an evolving cannabis industry
While the scale of cannabis operations runs the spectrum, one inherent characteristic is similar to many, said Miller: Quality management systems tend to be one of the last systems that cannabis operators add to their tool box.
In smaller operations, quality tends to be delegated to a single lead or spread across a handful of people. As cannabis organizations mature, they often add a quality department and implemented quality systems, however, Miller said that many are still discovering that an effective quality system goes beyond quality and is ultimately an operational tool that helps create structure across your organization.
“One of the things I see around quality and cannabis,” she said, “is that [organizations] may hire very qualified people who build great systems, but because at the very top management isn’t aware of the function of quality systems, they don’t necessarily provide the support and the buy-in that you truly need to get the broad adoption and culture change that comes with it.”
This disconnect between system design and leadership adoption is often where cannabis operators feel the most friction as they begin to scale.
Why cannabis operators need a quality management system now
The successful adoption of a quality mindset often requires a culture change, as cannabis operators move from startup mode to market maturity. Many cannabis companies postpone implementing a QMS until they feel big enough. But Miller warns that waiting too long comes with significant risks.
Even small operations struggle with managing:
- Document control
- Change control
- Corrective and preventive action tracking
- Regulatory reporting
- Equipment and maintenance monitoring
- Supplier management
- Training documentation
Miller shares an eye-opening example: Even when running a small five-person lab, she discovered she still needed a formalized quality system to maintain control over output consistency and compliance.
“Even though I was there every day," she said, "I couldn’t control the outputs without structure. The system was necessary long before we were a hundred-person operation.”
For cannabis companies planning to scale to new states or take on co-manufacturing partners, this need becomes even more critical. QMS software can be the thread that ties every location back to a unified process.
Without it, operators risk:
- Product variability
- Brand inconsistency
- Delays launching new markets
- Failed audits
- Lost licenses
- Costly operational inefficiencies
How an eQMS drives ROI for cannabis businesses
One of the biggest myths about quality management is that it’s just a cost center, a compliance expense. In reality, a QMS becomes a value generator once it’s fully adopted. Miller shared several ways quality systems directly improve business performance:
Better cross-team alignment
Quality sits at the intersection of operations, engineering, finance and leadership.
A unified system reduces friction and allows each department to work from a centralized, single source of truth.
Data-driven decision-making
Most cannabis operators often still make decisions based on instinct or fragmented data. An eQMS consolidates data into dashboards and reports that help leaders answer strategic questions, such as:
- Where are we losing money?
- What processes create the most risk?
- How efficient are our teams?
- Where should capital be invested first?
This real-time visibility into both front- and back-end operations becomes invaluable as companies scale.
Reduced regulatory risk
Every cannabis license requires operators to meet dozens, sometimes hundreds, of compliance rules. Many operators try to manage these requirements individually, as isolated tasks. An eQMS integrates disparate regulatory tasks into one cohesive framework.
That translates into:
- Fewer missed deadlines
- Fewer documentation gaps
- Fewer audit surprises
- Greater confidence from regulators and investors
Consistent product quality across sites
Multi-state cannabis brands face some of the biggest quality challenges. Each location may have different processes, teams and state regulations.
A QMS allows multi-state operators to:
- Standardize core workflows
- Use consistent document templates
- Maintain global control over SOPs, specs and change management
- Roll all sites into a single visibility dashboard
This helps ensure that products taste, feel and perform the same from state to state.
Why cannabis companies must embrace eQMS solutions
Just as cannabis markets are maturing and expanding, regulators are stepping up oversight as they come to a better understanding of best practices for cannabis quality, safety and control.
In this next phase of industry evolution, operators should be prepared to go beyond checking off items on a list of compliance requirements to create systems of accountability and visibility as a way to better evaluate and prevent risk.
“While there’s been an absence of regulatory action in the last three to five years,” said Miller, “in many of the larger markets there’s been quite a step up” lately.
“There’s a long list of requirements for manufacturing, a long list of different requirements for cultivation, and similarly for laboratory,” she adds. “So the quality management system becomes a structure which you integrate all of those requirements. It creates cohesion that drives results for your company.”
Like many start-up industries, cannabis operators have looked to technology to speed processes and time to market. Quality leaders who are resource-constrained, scaling quickly and eager for automation that combats inefficiency should look to affordable, intuitive QMS software like QT9.
QT9 QMS goes beyond document control to provide an end-to-end operational system that unifies quality, risk management, reporting and change control. It also offers seamless integration with QT9 ERP for simple batch and lot traceability, purchasing and inventory control as well as production integration.
Watch QT9 Q-Cast Episode 6, High Cost of Low Quality: QMS in Cannabis, with Samantha Miller, pioneering cannabis scientist and quality expert.
How cannabis companies must approach quality
The cannabis industry is evolving, and the companies that thrive in the next phase will be the ones that embrace quality early in that evolution.
QMS software enables cannabis operators to integrate quality and compliance into their daily workflows. Real-time data and at-a-glance dashboards provide early insights to reduce risk and maintain compliance. Integration with QT9 ERP provides streamlined batch processing, inventory control and materials planning as well as solutions that address every aspect of operations.
With QT9 solutions, cannabis operators:
- Protects their license
- Reduce risk
- Strengthen their brand
- Streamline expansion
- Support product consistency
- Drive operational efficiency
- Unlock real-time data visibility
- Mature sustainably
As competition accelerates and regulatory expectations evolve, cannabis companies that invest now in structured, salable quality systems will be best positioned to grow with confidence. An integrated eQMS doesn’t just support compliance, it becomes the engine that powers consistency, operational maturity and long-term success.