THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2022 A3
LocalNews
Redmond supplement company a
stop on state business roadshow
Oregon’s Wild Harvest
employs 60
BY LEO BAUDHUIN
Redmond Spokesman
Members of Oregon Busi-
ness & Industry gathered in the
lobby of Oregon’s Wild Harvest
in Redmond for a tour of the or-
ganic herbal supplement com-
pany’s facilities.
The event on Wednesday,
August 16, came near the end
of an 11-day manufacturing
and innovation roadshow,
during which OBI traveled
across Oregon — from Port-
land to Medford to Klamath
Falls to Redmond — to meet
with manufacturers and unique
businesses across the state. OBI
collaborated with the Oregon
Business Council to plan and
execute the tour.
Scott Bruun, the OBI director
of tax and fiscal policy, said the
roadshow was a way “to hear
the stories of the diverse base
of Oregon manufacturing and
then to tell those stories in a way
that really gets at the base of the
innovation and creation of Or-
egon.”
With those stories, OBI can
identify themes around what is
and isn’t working for Oregon
businesses and use those in-
sights to push for policy changes
that support local manufactur-
ing, Bruun said.
The roadshow mostly fea-
tured OBI member businesses,
with the goal of showcasing a
variety of products and loca-
tions. Oregon’s Wild Harvest
isn’t part of that membership,
but cofounder Pam Martin
jumped on the opportunity
when she heard about it. Martin
Photo by Leo Baudhuin/Spokesman
Milk thistle bottles collect on a conveyor belt at Oregon’s Wild Harvest,
waiting for their labels.
Photo by Leo Baudhuin/Spokesman
Oregon Business Council analyst Andrew Desmond (left) and Oregon’s Wild Harvest cofounder Pam Martin
(right) stand in front of a conveyor belt.
said the roadshow seemed like
an opportunity to show the state
what Oregon’s Wild Harvest
does and to grow the business.
Martin helped the group suit
up in hair and beard nets, shoe
covers and lab coats and took
them on a tour through Ore-
gon’s Wild Harvest’s facilities.
Attendees look in at the herb
room, where the company tries
to bring in materials in the most
natural form possible. It’s eas-
ier for workers to know what
they’re getting if they’re eval-
uating a full root rather than
something that has already been
ground into powder, for in-
stance.
The business grows about 30
percent of its natural products,
according to Oregon’s Wild
Harvest marketing manager
Wendy Brinkley. And that num-
ber is on the rise. Oregon’s Wild
Harvest uses biodynamic farm-
ing to grow herbs, a more holis-
tic step above certified organic
practices.
“We’re enriching the soil,”
Martin said. “And trying to
make the world a better place
than what we started with.”
To verify the quality and au-
thenticity of its products, Ore-
gon’s Wild Harvest tests the mi-
cro and macro composition of
the plants it works with, as well
as looking for insects and traces
of heavy metals like lead and ar-
senic. It encases its capsules with
tapioca, which Martin said is
better for people than the more
commonly used semisynthetic
HPMC. The company sells its
products in glass bottles and is
planning on switching over to
metal lids to reduce plastic use.
“I can’t say enough on how
hard we work as a company
to give the best herbs we can,”
she said.
Oregon’s Wild Harvest also
contributes to research. It’s cur-
rently partnering with Oregon
Health & Science University to
test products on mice and fruit
flies. It released a study on the
use of botanical products as di-
etary supplements in January.
Bruun said he wants to high-
light that research component
in conversations with legislators
and the videos OBI plans on
putting together based on the
roadshow.
“Most of the companies we’re
seeing have a significant re-
search and development com-
ponent,” he said. “And yet the
state doesn’t really acknowledge
that from a tax perspective.”
Another trend Bruun noticed
is staffing shortages, largely re-
lated to COVID-19 and the
strains the pandemic has put on
various parts of people’s lives.
Oregon’s Wild Harvest, which
currently employs about 60 peo-
ple in Redmond, hasn’t been hit
as hard as most, Bruun said OBI
had to cancel its Bend stop at 10
Barrel Brewing Co. due to the
business limiting its hours as a
result of fewer employees.
Still, Bruun said that the
roadshow and the opportunity
to see how local manufacturers
interact with and give back to
the communities they’re a part
of has been overwhelmingly
positive.
“When we look at Oregon’s
diverse manufacturing sector
and everything it’s doing for the
communities, for the state, for
the country, it’s awe-inspiring,”
he said. “It really is. Makes me
proud to be an Oregonian.”
█
Reporter: lbaudhuin@
redmondspokesman.com
Redmond voters will make choices on psylocybin
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
In November, Redmond vot-
ers will answer two questions
on psilocybin in city limits:
Whether therapeutic service
centers can operate and whether
local businesses can manufacture
the newly-legal psychedelic.
On Tuesday August 16, Red-
mond city council moved for-
ward a plan to ask voters to
decide whether or not to tem-
porarily ban treatment centers
at least until 2024 and put into
effect a permanent ban on man-
ufacture of psilocybin.
Psilocybin is a natural, hallu-
cinogenic compound found in
some mushrooms.
With the passage of Measure
109 by Oregon voters in 2020,
the Oregon Health Authority
was ordered to license and regu-
late the manufacture, transport,
delivery, sale and purchase of
psilocybin products and services.
That law goes into effect Jan. 1.
Measure 110, passed in the
same election, reduced crimi-
nal penalties for a wide range of
drugs, including psilocybin, and
has already become the law of
the land.
“110 still exists, nothing can be
done about that,” Redmond city
attorney Keith Leitz told council-
ors before they started their de-
bate. “Recreational use of drugs,
including psilocybin, will still ex-
ist regardless of what we do.”
Measure 109, however, did al-
low for a few opt out provisions
kirill vasilev
Psilocybin mushrooms are touted
for their therapeutic use.
for local municipalities. The
measure allowed voters in cities
and counties to ban service cen-
ters, where trained operators can
guide users through a therapeu-
tic experience, as well as manu-
facturing facilities. Both bans can
only been enacted with the con-
sent of voters.
Redmond city councilors
were united on the fact that they
wished to ban therapy centers
and manufacturers for at least
the next two years, but split on
whether to make those bans per-
manent or temporary.
Councilors Krisanna
Clark-Endicott, Jay Patrick and
Shannon Wedding voted in favor
of the permanent ban on both
therapy centers and manufactur-
ing. The three deadlocked with
councilors Clifford Evelyn, Ed
Fitch and Cat Zwicker, who sup-
ported the permanent ban on
manufacturing, but only wanted
a temporary moratorium on the
therapy centers. Mayor George
Endicott was absent and Patrick
ran the meeting.
Those advocating the tem-
porary ban said they had little
information on the treatment
centers at this time, and they
hoped that in 2024 they — and
local voters — would have bet-
ter information at their hands.
In a clinical setting, psilocybin
has shown promise on a wide
range of issues, including PTSD,
anxiety, and numerous men-
tal health, mood and substance
abuse disorders.
“I don’t want to force people in
Redmond to go somewhere else
to seek medical treatment,” said
councilor Fitch.
“I think we should send it to
the voters for a permanent ban
and see what they have to say
about that,” argued councilor
Clark-Endicott. “They’ve already
said they wanted (a ban) once, so
we’ll see if they want it again.”
In 2020, when Measures 109
passed in a statewide vote, all
four Redmond precincts voted
against legalization of psilocybin.
Margins of defeat ranged from
51 percent to 60 percent.
After one tie vote, Clark-En-
dicott, Patrick and Wedding
relented. A majority of council
then decided to send two ques-
tions to voters: Should the city
temporarily ban the therapeu-
tic centers through 2024, and
should it permanently ban man-
ufacture of psilocybin?
Both those questions will be
on the November ballot.
REPUBLIC SERVICES TALKS
TRASH
Joe Dear, general manager
for Republic Services in Cen-
tral Oregon, spoke about issues
at the city’s solid waste garbage
hauler.
City officials said they have
seen higher volume of com-
plaints of delayed or missed
garbage and recycling pickups,
which residents pay for whether
their trash gets picked up or
not. Numerous city councilors
passed on complaints they re-
ceived from constituents, which
has increased since June, they
said..
“We’ve seen some service
issues here, we’ll admit that,”
Dear responded.
He noted that a lack of staff
and high employee turnover
has required the company to
push some routes “to the next
service day.” Sometimes, those
“next service days” do not hap-
pen until two weeks later, espe-
cially on recycling routes.
Dear said that Republic
crews are now currently servic-
ing 95 percent of their custom-
ers on time each day.
He also noted that they are
working hard to fill open po-
sitions, and they have new
programs to train and certify
CDL drivers. He also noted
that many employees are work-
ing weekends and the highest
number of hours allowed by
the Department of Transpor-
tation. The company has also
increased hiring, retention and
referral bonuses. He said they
have lost numerous employ-
ees who moved to areas with a
lower cost of living and they are
not seeing a lot of new people
moving into the area who can
afford housing.
“We’re continually looking
for other opportunities to try
bring more drivers into the
business,” said Dear.
AIRPORT PROJECTS GET OK
Council approved bids on
a number of projects at city-
owned Redmond Airport.
Council first approved a
$92,150 bid to Central Oregon
Roofing to replace the roof on
the airport’s rescue and fire-
fighting station.
Central Oregon Roofing
also got the green light on a
$74,800 bid for roof repair on
an airport-owned hanger.
A third airport project went
forward as well, after Apollo
Mechanical Contractors got
the go ahead to repair and
replace part of the airport’s
HVAC system to improve
cooling.
█
Reporter: ttrainor@
redmondspokesman.com
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