Oregon lawmakers will consider a wide range of marijuana issues this session, including a proposal to merge key elements of the state’s longstanding medical program with the tightly controlled recreational one and a bill that would allow cannabis-friendly clubs and special events.
With the lucrative recreational marijuana program well underway and generating an estimated $3 million in sales each week, lawmakers are taking a hard look at how to move thousands of smaller medical marijuana growers into the seed-to-sale system managed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
Proponents of the proposal say integrating the two systems would not only prove more efficient for the industry and bureaucrats, it would tackle the vexing problem of how to keep Oregon marijuana out of the robust black market.
For now, medical marijuana growers are subject to a relatively light touch when it comes to regulation and oversight under the Oregon Health Authority. They also have increasingly limited legal options when it comes to selling their product; they can provide it directly to patients or sell it to dispensaries, which are allowed to sell only to medical marijuana patients and caregivers. With recreational marijuana now legal in Oregon, the number of dispensaries operating statewide declined sharply, shrinking a significant legal outlet for medical producers.
Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, who also serves as co-chair of the legislative committee overseeing marijuana policy, said this week that knitting the two systems together is the main focus this year. She said some in the medical marijuana industry were reluctant at first to merge with the recreational system, but the first year of regulation under the liquor commission has gone relatively smoothly and that helped to relieve some of their concerns.
Folding medical production into the recreational system means those growers have access to a much larger and more profitable consumer market.
“The more we can consolidate,” said Burdick, “the better it is for the industry.”
Yet some medical marijuana advocates worry integration spells trouble for Oregon’s long-standing program. They argue that regulation by the liquor commission comes with higher costs and increased security requirements that pose burdens to smaller producers.
They worry, too, about patients who’ve come to rely on free or low-cost cannabis from medical marijuana growers who shift to the recreational market. As the market increasingly caters to recreational consumers’ tastes and preferences, advocates fear the sick will be left behind.
“We really do have a medical program that’s been functioning for nearly two decades that really has benefited tens of thousands of patients and to disrupt that for regulatory ease is not very good,” said Anthony Taylor, a longtime advocate for patients.
“I understand they want to capture as much commerce as they can,” he said, “but adding medical marijuana patients to their plate doesn’t really mean that’s going to happen, at least not for patients.”
House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, this week said her priority is ensuring adequate oversight of the medical and recreational programs. She said while she wouldn’t be surprised to see them consolidated under the liquor commission, she, too, wonders about medical marijuana patients.
“We do need to have a robust medical marijuana market,” she said. “It’s really important for people’s health. I do worry a little bit that recreational somehow will supersede all of that.”
Taxes and pot lounges among other proposals
Burdick outlined other key marijuana-related priorities the Legislature will address this session. Among them: allowing local governments to impose up to 8 percent sales taxes on recreational sales. Currently, local taxes are capped at 3 percent. That’s on top of a 17 percent state tax on the drug.
Burdick said she and Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli, of John Day, have worked together on the proposed tax increase, hoping that the prospect of increased revenue will entice local governments to reconsider bans on the businesses. According to the liquor commission, 89 cities and counties have banned recreational marijuana businesses.
Combined, the proposed increase and the state tax would bring the overall tax rate to 25 percent — the same rate that was in place last year. Washington, by comparison, imposes a 37 percent marijuana excise tax. Pot purchases may be subject to state and local sales tax as well.
“My hope is that by increasing the local tax in a reasonable manner, there will be more incentive for localities to opt in,” Burdick said. “That really needs to happen because people in the opt-out areas are still going to have issues around cannabis and the more that are actually in the system, the more you can control and regulate.”
‘Social’ cannabis consumption a hot issue
Lawmakers also are considering proposals to allow cannabis clubs and special events featuring marijuana consumption. Marijuana advocates argue that while anyone 21 and older can legally grow and buy cannabis, they don’t have many options when it comes to consuming it.
“Now that cannabis is legal for adults in Oregon, we are left out with no safe place to consume,” said Madeline Martinez, who owned the World Famous Cannabis Cafe, a Portland marijuana club that closed early last year due to the clean indoor air rules.
Martinez said her Southeast Portland establishment, which didn’t sell marijuana but offered people a place to consume their own or share with others, served Oregonians and tourists as well.
“I had people coming in taxis to be dropped off at the cafe with their carry-on bags because they were coming to Portland to experience the freedoms we voted for and now where do they go?” she said.
But Oregon’s Indoor Clean Air Act prohibits the use of marijuana, along with tobacco, in public areas and workplaces. And the state’s leading public health officials strongly oppose proposals that would weaken the law.
Marijuana smoke is harmful, they argue, and events and establishments that feature marijuana smoking send the wrong message to young people.
“Regardless of the cause of the smoke, whether it’s tobacco or cannabis or a campfire or pollution, inhaling particulate matter is not good whether you are smoking it yourself or breathing secondhand smoke,” said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, state epidemiologist and health officer with the health authority.
Hedberg pointed out that public health surveys found hookah use increased significantly between 2008 and 2009 among eighth-graders living in the five Oregon counties where hookah lounges operate compared to middle-schoolers living in counties without them. Existing lounges were grandfathered into the clean air rules and proliferated around 2009, state health officials said.
Dr. Paul Lewis, a pediatrician and Tri-County Health Officer for Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, also pushed back against proposals that would weaken indoor clean air rules. He said allowing smoking at special events would change “social norms about smoking, a setback to the last half-century of progress on this topic.”
“The intention of the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act is to protect all Oregonians, employees, as well as the public, from the dangers of secondhand smoke,” he said in written remarks submitted this week to lawmakers.
Burdick called social consumption, particularly smoking as opposed to marijuana-infused edibles, “a really difficult issue” given public health concerns.
Burdick said lawmakers may not be able to settle the issue during the current session. Among the proposals before Oregon lawmakers: establish a task force to study the matter.
“You always hope you can reach some closure on an issue, but I am not sure it’s doable,” she said.
— Noelle Crombie
ncrombie@oregonian.com
503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
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