Incident record for cannabis licensees

Find information and rules about incident records for cannabis retail licensees.

On this page

• What is an incident record
• What kinds of incidents do I need to record?
• What information should I include in the incident record?
• Best practices

What is an incident record

When an incident occurs in or near an establishment or while delivering cannabis, you must document information about the incident in an incident record.

Records must be kept for six years from the date the record is created. If your licence is cancelled or it expires, you must keep records for six months beyond the date that your licence was cancelled or expired.

You must provide your incident records to an inspector or police officer upon request. Make sure your staff know where incident records are kept in your business.

Keeping incident records can help you:

• Better manage incidents in the future
• Provide evidence for an investigation, hearing or court case
• Train your staff to effectively manage incidents

All licensed cannabis retails establishments must maintain incident records.

What kinds of incidents do I need to record?

All incidents that negatively affect staff, customers, people who live or work nearby, or the operation of the establishment must be recorded.

If someone brings illicit cannabis into your retail store, you must ask the person to leave and record the incident in your incident record.

Some examples of incidents to record include:

• Refusing someone entry into the establishment (e.g., someone causing a disturbance, an intoxicated person, or a minor)
• Removing someone from the establishment (e.g. an intoxicated person, a minor, or someone who brought illicit cannabis into the store)
• An injury or accident on the premises, including injuries caused by a fight
• Any incidents where emergency personnel were called (police, fire, or ambulance)
• Any illegal acts or behaviour that happen in the establishment
• An incident that takes place while delivering cannabis, including an injury or accident

What information should I include in the incident record?

• Date and time of the incident
• A description of the incident
• Names or a description of the people involved in the incident
• Names of any employees who witnessed the incident
• Actions taken by the licensee or their employee
• Relevant sales records (receipts)
• Any other relevant information, including witness statements

The Selling it Right course provides a sample incident record. You may also develop your own, however it must contain the information listed above.

See the Selling it Right course manual (page 54) for more helpful information about incident records.

Best practices

If your establishment uses a communication book to convey important information between shifts, incident records should be separate from this and should not contain communications or records unrelated to incidents.

Build a daily habit for staff to document incident records in a log book or digital system. If no incidents take place, staff can simply state this in the log. An upsetting or emotional event could result in people forgetting to complete the log, but a daily log practice makes this less likely.