Cannabis Examiners and Traceability

Welcome to Washington State’s hub for cannabis traceability data and resources. Here you will find information on the current Cannabis Examiner team and the current state-designated system used for collecting cannabis traceability data. We hope that you find these resources informing and helpful for your day-to-day operations.

What Can the Examiners Do For You?
  • Licensee
    If you are a cannabis licensee in Washington state, you can contact us to receive a copy of your reported data, assistance with understanding this data and correcting errors. You can also request a traceability consultation to have an Examiner meet you at your licensed location and discuss current traceability requirements and impacts.
  • Integrator
    If you are an integrator, you can contact us to receive assistance with understanding reporting requirements to the state system, request data on your associated licensees for verification of records uploaded, and request a phone consultation regarding state traceability requirements.
  • General Public
    The public can contact us to ask questions regarding traceability requirements for cannabis and to receive generalized knowledge on the cannabis industry. These might include: lab test failures, market trends of product types, and similar generalized industry data.
  • State Agencies
    Other Washington State agencies can contact us to request data on the industry for their own purposes or contact us for a consultation on cannabis traceability. Data can include collecting reported sales and inventory to the state system. 
Meet the Team

The Cannabis Examiners unit is comprised of three Data Consultants and one Data Consultant Supervisor, located around the state. The team helps cannabis licensees throughout Washington, providing assistance on traceability, assisting with enforcement and audit activity, and surveying the industry to develop new resources and data dashboards. Contact the team at examiner@lcb.wa.gov.

image of Brian McQuay, with short brown hair and goatee, in a mauve polo smiling at the camera holding an iced coffee and wearing reflective blue aviator sunglasses

Data Consultant Supervisor

Brian McQuay

Originally hailing from the Midwest, I came to Washington the way a lot of individuals do via active-duty service in the Army. I have been in Washington for 20 years and studied at the University of Washington Tacoma where I earned my bachelor’s degree in Law and Policy and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary studies, where I focused on disparity rate in cannabis conviction post I-502. I have in several different fields and focus on transparency and public safety. I enjoy spending my free time with my partner of 22 years creating art, traveling around the state, and playing video games. I work out of the Headquarters office in Olympia and cover the Southwestern part of Washington state. 

Data Consultant

Ayrianna Blair

Originally hailing from Snohomish County, Ayrianna graduated from Lynnwood High School and attended CWU for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Law & Justice. Ayrianna has primarily worked in a variety of roles within the pet insurance industry where she applied her regulatory compliance and risk management experience that she gained by attending the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California. Ayrianna joined the LCB as a Cannabis Examiner in the beginning of 2023 and works out of our Spokane field office. Ayrianna lives with her husband Jeff and son TJ on their 20+ acre hobby farm in Cheney with a plethora of animals including horses, goats, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, and frogs!

Data Consultant

Shane Early

Raised in north central Washington, Shane graduated from Chelan High School and attended CWU in Ellensburg for a double major in Biology (BS in Botany) and Geography (BA in Environmental Studies) before pursuing a MS in Soil Science at WSU. Shane has worked primarily in natural resource management positions, as a biologist for the Dept. of Army (Yakima Training Center) and as a specialist for the WA State Dept of Natural Resources (Aquatics, Forestry) prior to joining the LCB as a cannabis examiner in the fall of 2022. Shane works in Ellensburg/Yakima, and lives with two wonderful kids (Sam/Becca) and his amazing wife (Dr. Briggs-Early), and enjoys gardening, hiking and reading in his spare time.

image of a person in a light blue button-down shirt smiling at the camera with short dark hair

Data Consultant

Joel Tansey

Joel comes from a farm background in Eastern Iowa and received a BA in economics and an MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics from University of California Davis. He has worked in a variety of positions within the agriculture industry, including cannabis retail, almond production, wheat and rye seed genetics, corn and soybean farm consulting, cannabis consumer research, and most recently as an economist with the UC Davis Cannabis Economics Group. Joel joined the LCB examiner team in August 2023 and works in the greater Seattle area. Free time is spent on hiking with his girlfriend Carly, video games, Legos, powerlifting, and feeding his 2 giant bunnies Lilo and Stitch.