SOBERING TIMES
FOR LEGAL CANNABIS
arijuana is a crutch on which many were hop-
ing to lean for the next four years.
That alone explains why our bronzed chief
executive might be looking to snatch it away.
Why else would President Donald J. Trump se-
lect unabashed marijuana-phobe Jeff Sessions to run the
Department of Justice?
One of the country’s most fervent foes of legal weed, the
Republican senator from Alabama recently said that “good
people don’t smoke marijuana” and expressed our nation’s
need for “grown-ups in charge in Washington to say mari-
juana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.”
Sessions’ nomination signals a possible end to a Drug
War entente between federal law enforcement and states
like Oregon where cannabis is legal. Since 2014, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency has agreed to turn a blind eye
to low-level marijuana infractions.
That’s why members of Oregon’s multi-million dollar
cannabis industry are particularly sensitive to Sessions’
fear-mongering bluster.
“He certainly got our attention,” says TJ’s Provisions
part-owner Travis MacKenzie.
MacKenzie says, deep down, he isn’t feeling much
threatened: Marijuana business is a huge source of tax rev-
enue in states where it’s legal — Oregon’s Department of
Revenue reports that it raked in more than $60 million in
tax receipts last year — and the momentum behind legal-
ization is too strong at this point to be easily quelled.
M
Eight states, along with the District of Columbia, have
voted to decriminalize the recreational use of weed. And
it’s legally recognized as medicine in more than half the
country.
A federal crackdown “would be terrible,” MacKenzie
admits. “I’m pretty much all-in on this.” There’s just not
much else for him to do but wait and see how things shake
out.
Founder and executive director of local cannabis testing
facility OG Analytical Bethany Sherman is certainly aware
Sessions is only a few minor hurdles away from heading
Trump’s DOJ, but says her office hasn’t noticed any sign
that the industry is slowing down or responding to danger.
Sherman says things in Oregon will stay the same until
the DOJ updates its 2014 “Cole Memo,” which lays out
eight federal guidelines for states that have legalized recre-
ational marijuana. The memo stipulates that pot should be
kept out of the hands of minors, its revenue should not fund
criminal enterprise, and transfer of marijuana across state
lines is prohibited.
Sherman says the best thing for everyone to do is stay
focused on keeping Oregon’s cannabis industry as clean as
possible — which, she admits, is no mean feat for fledg-
ling businesses still coming to grips with newfangled state
regulations.
Growers and sellers in Eugene say the Oregon Health
Authority mints new rules on an almost weekly basis, and
staying in line with regulation is neither cheap nor easy.
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JEFF SESSIONS BEING SWORN IN AT HIS
JANUARY CONFIRMATION HEARING
If the feds go after marijuana, MacKenzie says, it could
lead to an uncomfortable discussion at the highest levels of
government about the controversial place marijuana cur-
rently holds on a short list of Schedule I drugs.
Schedule I substances are those considered by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency to be dangerous and addictive
with no medical benefit. Scientific study is making it hard-
er all the time to argue that marijuana belongs on the same
list of banned substances as heroin and LSD.
Anecdotal evidence indicating the medical benefits of
cannabis is plain to see, MacKenzie says.
Aside from two recreational pot dispensaries, MacK-
enzie and his business partners set up a program a cou-
ple years ago that supplies cannabidiol treatments free
of charge to more than 100 youngsters who suffer from
epileptic seizures. MacKenzie says some of the children
enrolled used to suffer daily seizures. Regular doses of
CBD have brought the number of spells down to only a
few every month.
The science is stacking up firmly on the side of the in-
dustry, MacKenzie says. “From no angle can you defend
[marijuana’s Schedule I classification]. It’s pretty to clear
to everyone at this point that it doesn’t stand.”
If only the current administration was bound by facts.
If it does become a fight, MacKenzie says, it could do
tremendous damage across the country.
“This is my livelihood,” MacKenzie adds. “Also we
made a promise to a bunch of kids, and we intend to keep it.”
PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT-ELECT
BY B E N R I C K E R