High-level state officials met recently with the U.S. attorney for Oregon to defend the state’s efforts to regulate marijuana in a state notorious for black market trafficking.
The session, disclosed publicly Monday, took place as the Trump administration re-examines the federal government’s approach to marijuana enforcement.
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams requested the meeting with top aides in Brown’s office in late May to discuss a draft report by the state police that found Oregon remains a top national source for black market cannabis.
Others at the meeting included Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission executive director and a representative of the Oregon Attorney General’s Office.
Williams said he asked for the meeting after reading about the state police analysis in The Oregonian/OregonLive. The newsroom obtained the report in March, but state police said it was preliminary and incomplete.
State police have yet to release a finished version of the report.
“Overproduction is definitely concerning and the violation of the state and federal law, diverting it to other areas of the country is very concerning and we are looking at it,” Williams said.
The draft report found that Oregon has an “expansive geographic footprint” on the black market with six counties — Jackson, Multnomah, Josephine, Lane, Deschutes and Washington — supplying much of what’s shipped out of state.
It also found that overall marijuana production in Oregon far outpaces demand, hash oil manufacturing has fueled a rise in explosions and serious injuries and the state doesn’t comply with key federal marijuana enforcement priorities.
Jeffrey Rhoades, Brown’s marijuana policy adviser, led the state’s presentation to Williams. He talked about how Oregon’s seed-to-sale tracking system for marijuana, as well as security and testing requirements, are part of the state’s efforts to comply with the Cole Memorandum.
President Obama largely tolerated legal marijuana provided states met requirements spelled out in the 2013 memo, such as limiting black market diversion and access to the drug by minors. The memo was written by James Cole, a United States deputy attorney general.
Rhoades’ presentation, disclosed in response to a public records request from The Oregonian/OregonLive, offered a largely positive take on legalization in Oregon. He told Williams and a half-dozen federal prosecutors who joined the meeting that legal cannabis has generated $60.2 million in tax revenue so far and created more than 12,000 jobs.
State officials also highlighted efforts by the Legislature this year to track medical marijuana production, historically a loosely regulated industry and one vulnerable to black market trafficking.
The latest reforms mean medical marijuana growers with more than a dozen plants must be tracked similar to recreational producers. Lawmakers also imposed a new limit on the number of immature plants medical growers may have, capping them at twice the number of mature plants. Previously, immature plants faced no limits.
Lawmakers also allowed existing medical marijuana growers with more than a dozen plants to sell up to 20 pounds of cannabis to licensed processors and stores. The reform is an important one, officials said, because medical growers previously were allowed to sell to medical marijuana dispensaries, but the vast majority of those outlets have converted to recreational cannabis shops.
Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties, said the federal prosecutors who attended the meeting questioned officials about what Oregon is doing to crack down on the black market.
Bovett, who has been deeply involved in cannabis policy at the state level for years, said officials are trying to address holes in the system, particularly around medical marijuana production.
He said the publication in The Oregonian/OregonLive of the draft state police report provided “extra motivation” in the Legislature to regulate medical marijuana production to keep it out of the illicit market.
“We were already focused on it anyway but it gave extra oomph to ‘boy, we really need to do something about this leakage into the interstate black market,'” he said.
credit:oregonlive.com
