New bill keeps medical, recreational pot separate

Published 5:04 pm Monday, April 24, 2017

Capital Bureau

SALEM — Lawmakers are considering a proposal to keep medical marijuana regulation under the Oregon Health Authority through a new cannabis commission.

Legislators on the Joint Committee on Marijuana Regulation took testimony Tuesday evening on a recently amended version of a bill that initially proposed to merge the state’s medical and recreational marijuana programs under the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

Under the amended bill, the cannabis commission, under the umbrella of OHA, would instead enter into an agreement with the OLCC to track medical marijuana produced on grow sites with 12 or more plants.

A medical marijuana grower would be able to sell up to 25 pounds per year to an OLCC-licensed marijuana wholesaler — an effort to prevent medical marijuana surpluses from being sold illegally.

“Diversion is gonna happen,” said Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg. “…What we’re attempting to do here is make it easy and affordable for people to do the right thing.”

A leaked Oregon State Police draft report, obtained and reported by The Oregonian in March, found a sizable quantity of pot grown in Oregon left the state illegally.

Concern about the phenomenon of “leaking” appeared to amplify the Legislature’s efforts to firm up how the state tracks the drug’s whereabouts, especially in the medical marijuana program.

Jeff Roades, marijuana policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, told lawmakers earlier this month that less than half of medical marijuana producers are complying with a self-reporting requirement to report the amount of marijuana products they have on hand and have sold, given away or received.

Andre Ourso, manager of the medical marijuana program, said he was concerned about how the commission, which would have rulemaking authority, would resolve any differences with the Oregon Health Authority.

“I’m not sure how, I guess, for lack of a better term, a power play between a commission with rulemaking authority and an agency with all of its internal processes and procedures, and its own employees, how that would match and how conflicts would be resolved,” Ourso said.

Ourso also said he thought the agreement between the OLCC and the proposed commission could use more specificity. “The devil’s in the details on these agreements,” he said.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said that the proposed commission structure was a result of “frustration” around the fact that the findings of OHA’s advisory boards did not seem to be implemented. The OHA has an 11-member medical marijuana advisory committee.

“Advice is given, but it’s never followed,” Prozanski said.

The state’s medical marijuana program was approved by voters in 1998. Some advocates of using pot for medical purposes turned out Tuesday evening to testify before the committee, saying they generally approved of keeping medical marijuana within the Oregon Health Authority, as it has been for nearly 20 years.

But Kristine Evertz, who testified on behalf of the Oregon SunGrowers Guild, a trade association, worried that without “strong cooperation” between OLCC and the proposed cannabis commission, the supply of medical marijuana could be disrupted and businesses could face a financial burden.

“We would have preferred to see more resources and energy dedicated to fully implementing and strengthening the existing OHA tracking system which has only been in existence for less than a year,” Evertz said in additional, written comments.

Donald Morse, director of the Oregon Cannabis Business Council, said he agreed with most of the provisions of the amended bill, in particular the move toward a “unified market” for all cannabis products.

But, in particular, he worried that the existing medical marijuana advisory committee was “little more than a toothless tiger,” and wasn’t sure how the new commission proposed by the amended bill would differ. He also voiced trepidation about businesses fielding different sets of rules from two agencies.

“If they’re going to be selling into the recreational system, business needs just one set of rules to follow, which is why we came to you with the unified system,” Morse said. “It’s very cumbersome for businesses, even with the good actors trying to do the best work possible, to keep track of who’s doing what and what we’re supposed to do under each agency.”

Another bill — which has been amended multiple times — also seeks to tighten regulation of the drug and prevent it from being diverted to the black market.

That bill, SB 1057, would provide OLCC expanded authority to prevent diversion of marijuana from licensees to the illicit market. Although lawmakers heard details of proposed amendments to the bill Tuesday evening, they did not take action on it.

A public hearing on a third bill before the committee that would require cannabis businesses and their employees to report illegal activity was postponed due to time constraints.