OREGON LEAF
BEHIND THE SCENES ISSUE
INSIDE THE OLCC THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE
OREGON LIQUOR CONTROL COMMISSION RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM OFFERS A DEEPER LOOK INTO THE AGENCY RESPONSIBLE FOR REGULATING OREGON’S LEGAL CANNABIS INDUSTRY AMID THE NATION'S EVOLVING LEGAL LANDSCAPE.
What are the main facets of successfully achieving a Cannabis license – other than paying the licensing fees?
The very first thing a licensee has to get is the Land Use Compatibility Statement or LUCs from a local zoning jurisdiction, whether that be a city or county. And that’s to ensure that whatever the business is, whether a processor or a retailer, that it’s compatible with the existing land use policy and zoning set by that community. The LUCs is one of the fundamental determinants a local community can apply towards whether or not a certain – or type – of business can be located in their community. Beyond that, licensing has been dependent on factors like the character of the applicant and if they have any criminal activity in their background – and, if it’s germane to their application. That has to do with character issues of the licensees’. We’ve found that people who are well prepared tend to sail through the process. They focus on [more than] just the license [application], but the operational plans, even if they don’t have deep pockets, but have still been thoughtful in terms of the impact and the implication of their operation and where it’s going to be located. Cannabis industry business/license holders often complain about the amount of time it takes for the OLCC to approve licenses. What would be your response?
A main criticism towards our agency (OLCC) is that it takes too long to process. Well, we acknowledge that we are under-resourced and understaffed, but a lot of folks would fare much better if they took the time to follow the directions on the application process. Having the proper documentation and asking a lot of questions and learning as much as possible upfront is important. I think what happens is there are some folks who
INTERVIEW by @SIMONEFISCHERR | PHOTO by @BERMANPHOTOS
just aren’t detail oriented a lot of times and people don’t pay attention to the details - which means there is more back-and-forth with their investigator, which adds more time delay. Some are skilled as Cannabis cultivators, but not so much with navigating the regulatory application process. We are continuing to add staff to the agency. Right now, we roughly have between 80 to 100 people working in the Cannabis division – and we plan on increasing personnel. We going to be working with medical growers and CTS tracking, and getting more responsibility around hemp as well. The last CTS training session was canceled and lots of businesses within the legal Cannabis system need additional Metrc training. Would the OLCC be interested in letting industry experts also help guide training sessions since they are dealing with CTS almost daily?
During the months of May and June, we will be having another road show. There will be two tracks: OLCC and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) for medical growers. During that time, we will, on our side, give an update on the Cannabis program and what’s new, talk about changes in our rules and also about any changes reflected in Metrc. We will be working with OHA to deliver a Cannabis tracking system (CTS) to OMMP growers. We are going out on the road again for trainings to delivery specific content, but potentially we could work with the industry by hosting a panel of OLCC licensees to come up and talk about their experiences and how they go about resolving Metrc issues. As of April 2018, there are currently 965 producers applying for licenses as posted on the OLCC website. According to Newsweek, Oregon is currently producing three-times what we consume, combined with an eightpercent drop in gram prices since 2017. Is the OLCC thinking of any solutions for the problem of over-production – whether it be license caps, canopy caps or potentially allowing Cannabis “bars” for social consumption?
RIGHT NOW WE HAVE 80-100 PEOPLE WORKING IN THE
CANNABIS DIVISION AND WE PLAN ON INCREASING PERSONNEL
58/MAY 2018 FACEBOOK.COM/NWLEAF
[MARK PETTINGER]
Well you’re right. The amount of production is a multifaceted issue and challenge. Our agency doesn’t have any statutory authority to put a cap on licenses. Where we do have some ability to regulate is canopy size. We haven’t moved forward on a firm proposal yet, but the impact isn’t solely on growers. There are a lot of retailers feeling the squeeze of the market – the fall of the price for Cannabis. As we go forward, one of the things we are focusing on is proactive compliance – as opposed to complaint-driven, or CTS data-driven compliance. Up until this point, it’s been a challenge to clearly distinguish the three sources of Cannabis: the OHA medical market, the OLCC regulated market and outright illegal market. One thing we consistently hear from licensees is that they would like to us doing more to crack down on medical and illegal diversion. Do you think regulating medical growers will provide more accountability and reduce alleged diversion?
I think it will make the medical growers more accountable. A lot of our compliance activity with regard to the Cannabis tracking system has been where we see anomalies and distinctions. We’re hiring three data analysts to help us have a better snapshot of the medical system, in terms of production. Additionally, we’ll add 13 to 14 inspectors out in the field looking at OMMP grow sites and interacting with grow site administrators. We will have a better understanding of what [production amount] should be there and it will be apparent whether or not a medical grow is diverting into the illegal market. So, those changes along with being able to better share information with law enforcement will help us determine our use of resources and focus. If we are able to eliminate the questions about sources on the medical side – that just leaves the outright illegal side of production to focus on.