Audit the Audit

The Oregon marijuana regulation audit doesn’t address flaws in the statutes.

What does the audit miss? Most of the biggest issues.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - I just read the Oregon Secretary of State’s audit of the OLCC’s marijuana regulation. The audit makes some good points, but overall misses the big picture.

What did the audit get right? It correctly concludes that OLCC regulation of marijuana has been extreme, unfair in countless ways, and is based on trying to appease federal prohibition, instead of trying to build an equitable industry that can contribute significantly to Oregon’s economy.

It points out many ways that cannabis is more tightly regulated even though alcohol is much more dangerous.

What does the audit miss? Most of the biggest issues. It barely discusses medical marijuana, which has been dramatically affected by OLCC regulation. Patient registration has dropped from 77,000 to 16,000.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program created a model where patients could designate a grower who would provide them all the marijuana they needed, often at no cost. Many of these growers would deliver the marijuana to their patients and some growers assisted bedridden, seriously ill patients in a variety of ways.

When Oregon legalized in 2014, the legislature amended the law passed by voters and created the OLCC regulated growers. Caring for a patient went from being a requirement to being a felony.

Most of the bigger growers sought OLCC licensing because they could make a profit. Almost all quit providing for patients.

The OLCC flirted with creating programs to assist patients, but all these programs failed miserably. The legislature created the Oregon Cannabis Commission to address this, but then almost completely ignores its suggestions.

To be clear, patients with money are better off than they were before legalization. The rec stores have thousands of quality-controlled products that are cheaper than anywhere else in the country. But low-income patients have been thrown under the bus.

Many low-income patients have virtually no disposable income and many are physically unable to even get to a rec store. Most can no longer find a grower because unworkable regulations and dramatically increased expenses have made it impossible for medical growers.

More than half of OMMP patients are low income, which makes sense since most chronically and seriously ill people struggle to earn a living.

Oregon had a program that helped these people at no taxpayer expense. Legislative changes and OLCC regulation killed it.

The audit said of medical marijuana, “The reduction of dedicated dispensaries has not negatively impacted medical cannabis patients since recreational cannabis stores can sell medical grade cannabis products to patients ...tax free.”

This is not accurate.

Low-income patients have been forgotten, just like they were in this audit. The audit says that the OHA has been regulating medical marijuana for 15 years. It actually has been 25 years. This may be a fine point but it highlights how the interests of Oregon’s most vulnerable have been overlooked.

The audit identifies some problems with the METRC tracking system but doesn’t seem to grasp the severity of the problems. METRC is a complete failure that probably costs licensed producers hundreds of millions of dollars.

All that profit goes to a company that is no longer even owned by an American citizen.

The biggest failure of METRC is that although it was designed to stop diversion of marijuana to other states, METRC itself has diverted attention from the much more significant illegal cartel cannabis farms that proliferated in Oregon once hemp was legalized.

The audit states, “while the impacts of illegal cannabis growth and distribution are notable for their effect on those in southern Oregon, illegal cannabis operations are not addressed within the scope of this audit.”

That is tunnel vision. These cartels have created an unregulated marijuana production system that dwarfs the scale of the entire OLCC system and probably provides a significant amount of the black market marijuana in the United States.

One raid in Jackson county was valued at $500,000,000 and there are hundreds of these farms.

The existence of dangerous diversion at this scale is evidence that the METRC tracking is not cost effective. It is expensive and intrusive and is not required of alcohol. METRC should be reconsidered.

The audit also doesn’t address flaws in the statutes that the legislature fails to address.

• Patients are prohibited from using medical marijuana in hospitals or assisted living.
• All public use of marijuana is prohibited.
• Many rec store customers can’t even legally use marijuana at home if they have a hostile landlord or live in Section 8 housing.
• While Oregonians can enjoy alcohol with each other in thousands of establishments from taverns to restaurants to wineries, there are no places where cannabis users can legally gather and enjoy cannabis. Allowing these sorts of activities could increase the positive economic benefits of legal marijuana in Oregon, bring in tourists, and improve the quality of life for Oregonians who choose cannabis.

The first step to solving problems is to identify them. This audit is tunnel vision. Oregon needs a broader vision.

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Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

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