Panel foresees complex reefer regulations

On Tuesday, MHCC’s Troublesome Movement (TM) and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) held a discussion in the Town and Gown room about the expectations of marijuana legalization in Oregon.

The consensus? Bud is about to blow up, even as local and state officials struggle to set new ground rules.

Five panelists talked about their experience with cannabis and its coming impact on Oregon’s economy. Sam Krause, a Mt. Hood political science major, founding member of MHCC’s chapter of the SSDP, and staff writer for The Advocate, organized the event with Stephen Graves, political science instructor and Troublesome Movement adviser.

Besides Krause, the panel included Matthew Goldberg, a cannabis business lawyer from Lake Oswego; Mike Mullins, director of services for Portlandsterdam University and Stoney Girl Gardens; Jennifer Valley, founder of Stoney Girl Gardens; and Josh Jardine, a columnist who writes for the Portland Mercury newspaper’s Cannabuzz section.

The event started with the roughly 20 attendees invited to sample the desserts and coffee on hand, including the “non-medicated” treats, as one TM member said.

The evening’s focus was clarification of Oregon’s Measure 91, its effect on the up-and-coming cannabis industry, and on federal versus state laws.

“July 1 is when we’ll definitely have the ability to smoke, when we’ll have the ability to possess and grow,” Krause explained. Then comes a lull, “a bit of a gray area between July 1 and January when shops open” for recreational pot sales, he said.

While marijuana may be legal in Oregon, as in a few other states, it is still federally illegal and is listed as a Schedule I drug, according to dea.gov. Schedule I drugs are “substances, or chemicals defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” the federal Drug Enforcement Agency says. “Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.”

Goldberg explained that despite marijuana’s illegal status on a federal level, the United States Department of Justice has released guidelines on how states should regulate marijuana if they decide to legalize or decriminalize it. The most significant of these is called the “Cole Memorandum,” he said.

“The federal government basically said that, ‘Here’s where you can’t cross the line. Here’s where if you do this, we’re still gonna come after you no matter what your state says,’ ” Goldberg said. Some limits include having marijuana grown or sold too near to schools, or to children. “One of the biggest fears is that it gets to kids, and that’s why you always hear all these references to 1,000 feet from a school,” he said.

Marijuana cannot be on federally owned land, and it cannot be taken to states which have yet to legalize.

Though marijuana legalization was passed through a ballot initiative, Oregon’s state legislature has the ability to change the law in ways that might not be agreeable to all. “There’s a common misunderstanding: I would say that the law is the law that we all voted on,” said Goldberg. However, “it’s only the law until the time that it gets changed,” he said.

The Legislature is working on implementing and revising the law, and will continue to do so during its next session in 2016. “The state of the law is very much in flux, and it is really important to be aware of it and to get engaged in some fashion,” Goldberg said.

Jardine listed specifics of Measure 91, to date: On July 1, anyone may possess up to one ounce of marijuana outside of his or her home, and eight ounces is permitted inside. Any adult age 21 and over may grow up to four plants per household,  but they must be at least 1,000 feet away from a school.

Jardine said growing marijuana indoors yields about five onces of smokable bud per plant; growing outdoors yields about five pounds. With regulations still in flux, Measure 91 has something called “the gifting clause.” The clause exists as an attempt to keep marijuana off the black market and from being carried over state or national borders.

“My best advice is to make friends with someone that grows really good pot, so you can get free pot from them, or get a medical card, or start growing yourself,” Jardine suggested.

With April 20 fast approaching, many news publications (The Advocate included) have been rushing to release a 4/20 issue. The Mercury this week saw the number of cannabis-related advertisers triple from last year’s 4/20 issue, and the boom in revenue is unmistakable. “There’s quite a bit of money coming into the region,” said Jardine.

Mullins, the Portlandsterdam and Stoney Girls Gardens leader, tells business operators to pay close attention.

“We want to make sure we never break the law, and by that I mean the state law,” he said. “Don’t skirt it, don’t take chances, don’t go to the edge and see if you can ride the wave, because it’s real easy to go down that way and you just don’t go very far.”

Goldberg noted the industry’s difficulty in opening bank accounts. “It’s totally legal in the state, and you can’t get a bank account for your business,” he said. Dispensaries are generally stuck being “almost exclusively all-cash businesses,” he said.

Despite the obstacles, Mullins is fully optimistic.

“We’ve even had USDA scientists visit our (Stoney Girl) garden on an unofficial basis to start learning about this new wonderful plant because it is quite different,” he said. He’s also had Harvard University-trained professionals come to look at the business side of the organization, and suggest creative taxing and accounting solutions.

“They expect this to be much larger than the dotcom, or the cell business,” he said. “This is a fantastic opportunity for everybody to go out and make your own business. I don’t think this is something to be afraid of.”