From state data to findings regulators can act on.
Canndata offers three services for cannabis oversight: a recurring regulatory data report, policy advice for proposed and existing rules, and the research that establishes what results should be compared against.
Three ways Canndata works with an agency.
Reporting
A recurring regulatory data report, typically twice per year, identifying concerning artifacts in the data, their likely causes, and recommended next steps.
Consulting
Identifying policy issues, how other jurisdictions have fixed or mitigated them, and what a proposed change is likely to do once in force.
Research
Analysis of cannabis data across states and sources, producing the baselines against which other data should be compared.
Each report includes three deliverables.
Canndata's core work is a recurring regulatory data report. Each report reviews state cannabis data using statistical tools, laboratory knowledge, cannabis-market experience, and industry context to identify patterns that warrant attention.
Executive summary
A concise summary of the major findings, interpretation, and recommended next steps.
Full report
A complete written report with charts, analysis, findings, context, and recommendations.
Code used to produce the analysis
The code used for the analysis, so the work can be reviewed, reproduced, and extended as needed.
The report can examine testing, markets, and policy effects.
The report is shaped by the state's data and oversight needs. Each report identifies the areas of concern that the data actually surfaces — these are examples, not a fixed menu: potency inflation, contaminant reporting patterns, laboratory-level results, inversion, declining medical markets, market dynamics, or changes following prior regulatory action.
Testing patterns
- Potency
- Contaminants
- Lab-level results
Market dynamics
- Inversion
- Product-category shifts
- Medical-market decline
Policy effects
- Implemented changes
- Proposed changes
- Modeling against other states
Canndata turns cannabis data into findings and next steps.
Prepare the data
- Canndata begins with state cannabis data, provided by the agency or obtained through available public-records processes.
- The data is cleaned and organized, allowing the analysis to be based on reliable datasets.
Compare against established baselines
- State results are compared with established baselines drawn from broader cannabis datasets, so unusual patterns can be seen in context.
- Canndata looks for testing results, distributions, thresholds, laboratory patterns, market shifts, product-category changes, or policy effects that are statistically or practically unusual.
Explain and interpret
- The report explains what may be driving the pattern, drawing on cannabis testing methods, market incentives, regulatory structure, and industry knowledge.
- Findings are interpreted in light of the state's rules, market structure, prior oversight, available data, and comparable patterns from other states.
Recommend and revisit
- The report recommends next steps a regulator can consider, such as further review, data monitoring, lab engagement, audit testing, policy adjustment, or additional analysis.
- In the next report, Canndata reviews new data in light of previous findings and recommendations.
Findings are careful. Recommendations are practical.
Stated only as strongly as the data supports
The analysis describes patterns. It does not assign intent. When a finding is serious, the report explains what the data shows, what it does not establish, and what next step is proportionate.
Sensitive findings handled carefully
Reports often contain sensitive findings. Canndata works privately with agencies and handles those findings with care. The purpose is to support accurate, credible, and consumer-protective oversight.
A recurring report shows whether the market is changing.
A single report shows what is happening now. Recurring reports show what changed over time.
Regulators can see whether a pattern persisted, improved, shifted, or resolved after prior attention or action.
If prior recommendations were adopted, the next report can evaluate whether the data changed. If concerns persist, the report can say so clearly and recommend the next practical step.
Model a policy change before proposing or implementing it.
Canndata can help policy makers and the agencies that implement their rules evaluate the likely effect of a proposed change by modeling it against large datasets from other states.
The work also runs in the other direction. Where a jurisdiction has already faced the same problem, Canndata can identify how it was fixed or mitigated there, what worked, and what did not — so a rule can be improved before it is proposed rather than corrected after it is in force.
Where a comparable change has already taken effect elsewhere, its results can be measured rather than estimated. The same analysis shows which effects the available data can anticipate and which it cannot — a policy model is a projection, not a promise, and the work says so plainly.
Every result needs something to be measured against.
Looking at a single occurrence, a dataset, or one test result, the first question is whether it is within reason. That cannot be answered from the number on its own.
Answering it requires reference points: what is correct, what is incorrect, and what is normal. Canndata's research builds and maintains those reference points from cannabis data across states and sources.
The norm
National averages, and the distribution around them, set the general range and shape of the data.
Credible sources
Data from credible sources, such as reference laboratories, carries a recognisable profile.
Closed laboratories
Laboratories that were later shut down show a unique profile.
A state's results are read against all three, which shows where they fall relative to patterns already documented elsewhere. This framework makes the comparison possible and grounded.
Discuss the data your state already collects.
Canndata can begin with a conversation about a report, a policy question, or a specific concern.