There’s a lot of chatter in the news about upcoming votes on cannabis laws, most of it focused on California. While talk is of legalization that even when passed will be two years from now, 4 states are still “discovering” regulatory issues that need to be addressed. Colorado and Washington are somewhat settled down so they have functioning systems after dealing with the discoveries (lab testing, edibles standards) they encountered. Oregon and Alaska are going through that stage right now, both have deadlines for an up and running Soviet-style regulated market coming up fast.
I’ve mentioned before that Oregon seems to have a penchant for putting two government entities in charge of a single project, which I think almost guarantees failures. Oregon failed on the healthcare marketplace because of that. Now they seem to be doing it with cannabis.
If you’re into the cannabis business in Oregon, you are regulated by Health and by Liquor Control, which never work together on anything. To confuse matters, each have temporary regs that apply until later when the rules are finalized. If you are a producer or seller you have your choice about whose rules you want to follow, and which version: the old rules or the new rules. More to the point, law enforcement hasn’t a clue about what to do in any given situation. Right now, it’s a free-for-all for marijuana businesses in Oregon: do whatever you want with no oversight.
Oregon Health pleaded today that they have no capabilities to fulfill their job of certifying marijuana testing laboratories in time to get approved product to market by the deadline. In fact, the director threatened to quit over this. They have far too many applications for labs than they have staff to work them. Now, Oregon has a lot of labs applying for the licenses, the bulk of which are somewhat questionable in my mind. When I talked to folk there it worked like this: “I give a guy an eighth [of marijuana] and he gives me a sheet of paper with numbers on it”. Washington State has 7 accredited labs; I found 7 just in Ashland advertising in the weekly paper. There are probably several hundred of these “cottage labs” in Oregon.
Oregon Health also is tasked with approving the packaging and labeling requirements for marijuana. You submit your plans for the language and child-proof packaging for approval, then go with it. Except there are thousands of players in the Oregon marijuana business, and they don’t seem to really relate to these regulatory realities. Only a few dozen have submitted their paperwork to Health, and the deadline for approval is October 1.
Oregon Health is involved because it gives citizens a feel-good about how things are being run. But Health wants nothing to do with cannabis. In their mind the two have nothing in common. And I agree with them.
It’s interesting watching Oregon….