Seed to sale tracking of intoxicating hemp products

North Carolina is struggling with wide-open intoxicating hemp THC, which other states that started there have restricted and regulated — not banned.  Like North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia have Republican Legislatures.

Here’s what they do about seed to sale tracking, according to Gemini A.I. (nothing).

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Do Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia require seed to sale tracking of intoxicating hemp products legal in those states? 

As of early 2026, the short answer is no, these states generally do not require a comprehensive “seed-to-sale” electronic tracking system (like Metrc or BioTrack) specifically for intoxicating hemp products, though they all have strict record-keeping, licensing, and lab-reporting requirements.

In the cannabis industry, “seed-to-sale tracking” usually refers to state-mandated software that tags every individual plant and package with a UID (Unique Identifier). While these four states use such systems for medical marijuana, they handle intoxicating hemp (Delta-8, THCA, etc.) through a “paper trail” of testing and licensing.

State-by-State Breakdown (2026)

State	Seed-to-Sale Software?	Key Tracking Mechanism
Tennessee	No	ABC Licensing & QR Codes. Oversight moved to the Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) on Jan 1, 2026. Every product must have a scannable QR code linking directly to a full-panel Lab Report (COA).
Georgia	No	Licensing & Self-Reporting. Georgia requires retailers and wholesalers to hold specific “Consumable Hemp” licenses. While medical cannabis is tracked via software, hemp products rely on COA verification and GDA inspections.
Alabama	No	ABC Registry & Monthly Reporting. Under the new 2026 rules (HB445), retailers must be licensed by the ABC Board and submit monthly sales reports, but there is no per-plant/per-gram electronic tracking system.
West Virginia	No	Product Registration. All hemp products must be individually registered and approved by the WV Dept. of Agriculture before they can be sold. Tracking is done via these registration records and batch-specific COAs.

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Key Compliance Requirements Across All Four States

Even without a centralized tracking software, businesses in these states must maintain a “traceable” chain of custody through:

• Mandatory COAs: You must be able to produce a Certificate of Analysis (COA) for every batch of product to prove it contains less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC.
• QR Codes: In Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, a scannable QR code on the packaging is now a primary enforcement tool for “traceability.”
• Licensing: All four states now require specific state-level licenses for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers of “intoxicating” or “consumable” hemp.
• 21+ Age Verification: In 2026, all four states strictly enforce 21+ age gates for these products.

Important Note on 2026 Federal Changes

A new federal provision (enacted late 2025) has begun to tighten the definition of hemp. In many of these states, products like THCA flower and high-dose Delta-8 are facing much stricter local bans or “total THC” limits that effectively render them illegal, regardless of how they are tracked.