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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2017)
2B Wednesday, August 23, 2017 Appeal Tribune Pot states fight smuggling war Oregon, others clamp down on border exports ANDREW SELSKY ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND - Well before Oregon le- galized marijuana, its verdant, wet for- ests made it an ideal place for growing the drug, which often ended up being funneled out of the state for big money. Now, officials suspect pot grown legally in Oregon and other states also is being smuggled out, and the trafficking is put- ting America’s multibillion-dollar mari- juana industry at risk. In response, pot-legal states are try- ing to clamp down on “diversion” even as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions presses for enforcement of federal laws against marijuana. Tracking legal weed from the fields and greenhouses where it’s grown to the shops where it’s sold under names like Blueberry Kush and Chernobyl is so far their main protective measure. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon’s le- gal market. So far, only recreational mar- ijuana has been comprehensively tracked. Tina Kotek, speaker of the Ore- gon House, said lawmakers wanted to ensure “we’re protecting the new indus- try that we’re supporting here.” “There was a real recognition that things could be changing in D.C.,” she said. The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board says it’s replacing its current tracking Nov. 1with a “highly se- cure, reliable, scalable and flexible sys- tem.” California voters approved using a tracking system run by Lakeland, Flori- da-based Franwell for its recreational pot market. Sales become legal Jan. 1. Franwell also tracks marijuana, using bar-code and radio frequency identifica- tion labels on packaging and plants, in Colorado, Oregon, Maryland, Alaska and Michigan. “The tracking system is the most im- portant tool a state has,” said Adam Crabtree, who runs Denver-based Na- tionwide Compliance Specialists Inc., which helps tax collectors track elusive, cash-heavy industries like the marijua- na business. But the systems aren’t fool-proof. They rely on the users’ honesty, he said. “We have seen numerous examples of people ‘forgetting’ to tag plants,” Crab- tree said. Colorado’s tracking also doesn’t apply to home-grown plants and many noncommercial marijuana care- givers. In California, implementing a “fully operational, legal market” could take years, said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents the “Emerald Triangle” ANDREW SELSKY/AP FILE Todd Golden displays a sample tag that can be scanned by radio-frequency identification devices on an artificial marijuana plant at the Oregon Liquor Commission offices in Portland last year. region that’s estimated to produce 60 percent of America’s marijuana. But he’s confident tracking will help. “In the first 24 months, we’re going to have a good idea who is in the regulated market and who is in black market,” McGuire said. Oregon was the first state to decrimi- nalize personal possession, in 1973. It le- galized medical marijuana in 1998, and recreational use in 2014. Before that, Anthony Taylor hid his large cannabis crop from aerial surveil- lance under a forest canopy east of Port- land, and tended it when there was bare- ly enough light to see. “In those days, marijuana was REAL- LY illegal,” said Taylor, now a licensed marijuana processor and lobbyist. “If you got caught growing the amounts we were growing, you were going to go to prison for a number of years.” Taylor believes it’s easier to grow ille- gally now because authorities lack the resources to sniff out every operation. And growers who sell outside the state can earn thousands of dollars per pound, he said. Still, it’s hard to say if pot smuggling has gotten worse in Oregon, or how much of the marijuana leaving the state filters out from the legal side. On a recent morning, Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney in Oregon, sat at his desk in his office overlooking downtown Portland, a draft Oregon State Police re- port in front of him. Oregon produces between 132 tons and 900 tons more marijuana than what Oregonians can conceivably consume, the report said, using statistics from the legal industry and estimates of illicit grows. It identified Oregon as an “epicenter of cannabis production” and quoted an academic as saying three to five times the amount of pot that’s consumed in Oregon leaves the state. Sessions himself cited the report in a July 24 letter to Oregon’s governor. In it, Sessions asked Brown to explain how Oregon would address the report’s “seri- ous findings.” Pete Gendron, a licensed marijuana grower who advised state regulators on compliance and enforcement, said the reports’ numbers are guesswork, and furthermore are outdated because they don’t take into account the marijuana now being sold in Oregon’s legal recre- ational market. A U.S. Justice Department task force recently said the Cole Memorandum, which restricts federal marijuana law enforcement in states where pot is legal, should be re-evaluated to see if it should be changed. The governors of Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska — where both medical and recreational marijuana are legal — wrote to Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in April, warn- ing altering the memorandum “would di- vert existing marijuana product into the black market and increase dangerous activity in both our states and our neigh- boring states.” But less than a month later, Sessions wrote to congressional leaders criticiz- ing the federal government’s hands-off approach to medical marijuana, and cit- ing a Colorado case in which a medical marijuana licensee shipped pot out of state. In his letter, Sessions opposed an amendment by Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer and California Repub- lican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that pre- vents the Justice Department from in- terfering with states’ medical marijua- na. Congress is weighing renewing the amendment for the next fiscal year. “Marijuana has left Oregon for dec- ades,” Blumenauer said. “What’s differ- ent is that now we have better mecha- nisms to try to control it.” Contributing: Associated Press re- porter Kristen Wyatt Wildfire in Detroit area expected to grow ZACH URNESS STATESMAN JOURNAL A small wildfire burning about one mile from De- troit is expected to grow. The French Fire, ignited by a lightning strike last week, is only 2 acres as of Sunday afternoon, but is burning in steep and inaccessible terrain and could spread as the weather turns hot, dry and possibly windy. It’s just one of three fires burning in the Detroit area, along with the 30-acre Little Devil and 7,599-acre Whitewater Fire. There was no imminent threat to Detroit and no evacuations were planned, officials said Aug. 17. There are around 30 small and large fires burning in Western Oregon’s Willamette National Forest alone, leading to closures of over 400,000 acres in the Mount Jefferson, Three Sisters and Fall Creek areas. In Oregon, there are 12 fires and complexes, includ- ing in the Crater Lake National Park, North Umpqua and Southern Oregon areas. "Current and expected weather will result in drying of fuels, with the potential of increased fire spread and smoke from the fires," a report assessing overall fire concerns said. Air quality in Detroit was rated “unhealthy” Aug. 17 due to smoke from area fires and even seeing Detroit Lake was a challenge at times, residents said. As of Aug. 17, fire teams were building containment lines around the fire so they could attack it directly. No helicopters dropped water on the blaze, officials said, because of fear it could knock the fire downhill and spread fire activity closer to town. “The problem with this fire is that it’s real long and skinny, in really nasty terrain that makes it very tough to attack directly without compromising firefighter safety,” incident spokesman Ryan Berlin said. “As the PUBLIC NOTICES POLICY Public Notices are published by the Statesman Journal and available online at w w w .S ta te s m a n J o u r n a l.c o m . The Statesman Journal lobby is open Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can reach them by phone at 503-399-6789. In order to receive a quote for a public notice you must e-mail your copy to SJLegals@StatesmanJournal.com , and our Legal Clerk will return a proposal with cost, publication date(s), and a preview of the ad. LEGAL/PUBLIC NOTICE DEADLINES All Legals Deadline @ 1:00 p.m. on all days listed below: ***All Deadlines are subject to change when there is a Holiday. The Silverton Appeal Tribune is a one day a week (Wednesday) only publication • Wednesday publication deadlines the Wednesday prior LEGAL/PUBLIC NOTICE RATES Silverton Appeal Tribune: • Wednesdays only - $12.15/per inch/per time • Online Fee - $21.00 per time • Affidavit Fee - $10.00 per Affidavit requested PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLAMETTE NATIONAL FOREST Smoke from wildfires obscure the sky in the Detroit area on Aug. 11. moisture dries up — and the trees and brush dry out — we’re expecting some increased growth and fire activ- ity.” The smoke cleared Friday afternoon, leaving a per- fect blue sky and fueling optimism for unimpeded eclipse views. Whitewater Fire There has been little change on the highest-profile fire in the Detroit area, as the Whitewater Fire re- mained was 7,599 acres as of Sunday afternoon. Fire teams have been building containment lines on the western and northern edges of the blaze. With a con- tinued drying trend, tactical burning operations may be implemented to eliminate unburned fuel between the fire perimeter and control lines. These operations may produce visible smoke. A 117,000-acre closure is in place for the northern half of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, that includes popular spots such as Jefferson Park and Pamelia Lake. Little Devil Fire The Little Devil Fire is burning about 3 miles from the Breitenbush community on Devil's Ridge. Officials haven't updated its size in a few days, but say it's likely still close to 30 acres. Helicopters have been dropping water on it. Three Sisters area fire This bustling Western-theme town was expecting thousands of visitors for Monday’s solar eclipse given its location on the edge of the path of totality. But the Milli Fire has put a hold on that. The fire, named for a hiking trail near where it start- ed, has shut down nearby highways, prompted evacua- tions of 600 people from their homes and put a damper on eclipse celebrations. “A lot of people worked hard to get prepared for the eclipse and a few days ago there was excitement in the air,” said Sisters resident Kristan Collins, watching the fire from the edge of town. “But now that’s turned to a little bit of soberness.” “It’s fire season and we’re used to it, but this one real- ly has our attention now.” The fire had reached 8,014 acres Sunday — doubling in size since last Thursday — and remains zero percent contained. But officials said they made enough pro- gress fighting the fire that it's unlikely they will order more evacuations.
