5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015
Medical pot shops stand to lose under new regulations
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s medical
marijuana businesses stand to
lose money under tighter regula-
tions proposed by state lawmak-
ers.
Testimony in Salem recently
focused on how patients would
suffer if lawmakers pass legisla-
tion to limit the size of medical
pot gardens and require tracking
of cannabis so it doesn’t leak into
the black market.
Lawmakers are considering
the medical program changes
as Oregon prepares for the le-
galization of pot for all adults
age 21 and older starting July 1,
and the debate has revealed di-
visions between different can-
nabis business interests in the
state.
Legislators claim the vast ma-
jority of marijuana produced un-
der that program is sold by grow-
ers on the black market.
Privately, business owners
who have profited from Ore-
gon’s medical marijuana system
acknowledged new regulations
would also impact their enterpris-
es.
Oregon’s medical marijuana
program was created by voters in
1998 to help sick people . Many
medical marijuana growers pro-
vide free pot to patients through
arrangements that provided legal
cover for large pot gardens over
the years when the medical pro-
gram was the only sanctioned
way to grow cannabis in Oregon.
At any one time, medical mar-
ijuana cardholders can have six
mature plants and 18 immature
plants. Or, cardholders can hire a
grower to produce the crop under
the same limits. Each grower can
serve four patients, but multiple
growers often share grow sites.
Anthony Johnson, chief peti-
tioner and co-author of Measure
91 which legalized recreational
pot, helps growers find patients
through his consulting business
Duff Johnson Consulting.
“It’s really a small part of Duff
Johnson Consulting and hope-
fully over time will be a service
that’s no longer needed to be
provided,” Johnson said of the
matchmaking service on Monday.
Johnson said the business earns
more of its money from consult-
ing with medical marijuana clin-
ics and organizing conferences.
Brent Kenyon, a businessman
Pamplin Media Group
Medical marijuana businesses stand to lose money under tighter regulations being proposed in the Ore-
gon Legislature.
in Medford, operates 17 medical
marijuana clinics and three dis-
pensaries around the state. Ken-
yon did not say directly whether
plant limits and the availability of
legal pot for all adults would hurt
his businesses.
However, Kenyon said “it’s
a no brainer” for people to sign
up for the medical marijuana
program when they can receive
free marijuana from growers
who sell the excess pot to dis-
pensaries. The new recreational
system means growers will no
longer have to line up patients to
justify large gardens, and tighter
regulations on medical marijua-
na could further tamp down the
industry.
“The problem is we have so
may (medical) growers now that
are gonna jump ship,” said Ken-
yon, who also helps connect pa-
tients with growers.
Low-income patients depend
on this system to obtain their
medicine, patients and members
of the industry said.
State lawmakers and regula-
tors want to move the largest pot
gardens in the state into the new
recreational marijuana system
that will legalize, regulate and
tax pot for all adults under the
authority of the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission.
The Oregon medical marijua-
na program allowed huge gardens
to blossom in southern Oregon,
including one that served 104 pa-
tients with California addresses
in 2014, The Oregonian reported
in October.
Rob Patridge, chairman of the
Oregon Liquor Control Commis-
sion, has estimated as much as 75
percent of weed grown under the
medical program leaks into the
black market.
Tom Towslee, an OLCC
spokesman, said this was based
on Patridge’s conversations with
unnamed medical marijuana
growers.
Regulators and lawmakers
have said they must take steps so
that the legal recreational market
can succeed and to show federal
law enforcement the state is do-
ing its best to prevent Oregon
producers from feeding the black
market.
The bills lawmakers are con-
sidering would limit medical
marijuana grows to 24 to 48
plants outside city limits, and for
the first time track the path of
medical marijuana from growers
to processors, dispensaries and
patients.
Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ash-
land, introduced House Bill 3400
which would limit medical grows
to 48 mature plants per rural grow
site. Senate Bill 936, sponsored
by several senators and represen-
tatives from the Joint Committee
On Implementing Measure 91,
would limit rural medical gardens
to 24 mature plants. Both would
cap pot gardens inside city limits
at 12 mature plants.
Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Port-
land, consulted with cannabis
industry lawyer Amy Margolis
during the development of Senate
Bill 936. Margolis is part of the
Cannabis PAC, formerly known
as Grow PAC, which represents
marijuana businesses across the
state and is lobbying for the state
to allow co-location of recre-
ational and medical marijuana
sales.
“As you know, the Cannabis
PAC has taken no official posi-
tion on plant counts and that was
not my role in those meetings,”
Margolis wrote in an email Mon-
day. Rather, Margolis wrote that
her role was to provide input on
the practical application of regu-
lations.
Margolis’ name was in the
news recently, after it was re-
vealed that OLCC pot czar Tom
Burns was fired for lying about a
regulatory proposal by members
of the medical marijuana industry
which Burns forwarded to Mar-
golis.
The proposal came from Ken-
yon, Johnson and Anthony Tay-
lor, co-founder and legislative li-
aison for Compassionate Oregon,
which describes itself as a patient
advocacy organization.
The trio generated the propos-
al after a March 12 meeting with
Patridge, the OLCC chairman.
It included an exemption from
tracking for growers with 24
or fewer plants, although those
growers could apply for permits
to sell their excess weed to dis-
pensaries or recreational pot
stores.
The group also called for the
Oregon Health Authority to set
up a program to help cover the
cost of marijuana for low-in-
come patients who no longer re-
ceived free or reduced price pot,
and the trio said they would like
to form a new group with the
OLCC to continue work on the
issues.
It’s unclear now what the
OLCC and lawmakers will do
with the medical pot indus-
try’s proposal, but Burdick said
she expects the marijuana in-
dustry will continue to care
for patients who need cannabis
products.
“I think the industry has been
very good at taking care of pa-
tients’ needs, and I expect that to
continue,” Burdick said.
Burdick said lawmakers plan
to move ahead soon with a bill on
plant limits and tracking for med-
ical growers.
“We expect this one to move
first,” Burdick said of a bill that
will address those questions.
Then, Burdick said lawmakers
can turn their full attention back
to implementing the new recre-
ational system.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Senate passes $7.3 billion school funding
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A $7.3 bil-
lion state school funding
measure, though criticized
by minority Republicans
and education advocates,
is on its way to Gov. Kate
Brown for her signature.
The Oregon Senate ap-
proved the budget on an 18-
12 party-line vote Monday,
following a debate of more
than three hours and action
by the House last week.
The fund is $600 million
more than in the current
two-year cycle, which ends
June 30 — and the current
cycle is up $1 billion from
2011-13, when it was at its
lowest during the economic
downturn.
www.dailyastorian.com
The fund supplies the
lion’s share of school op-
erating costs since voters
imposed statewide limits
on local property taxes in
the 1990s. It is about 40
percent of the $18.5 billion
general fund, which is sup-
ported by taxes and lottery
proceeds, the most flexible
funding sources available
to lawmakers.
The budget’s floor man-
ager says it will boost
per-student funding by
$100 for most of Oregon’s
197 districts and cushion
them from most cuts.
“Funding education is a
difficult process; there is
never enough money,” said
Sen. Rod Monroe, R-Port-
land, a retired teacher.
“This does not gain any-
thing on our deficit, but it
doesn’t cut anything, ei-
ther.”
Monroe also said the
budget provides $220 mil-
lion in state funding for
Early Childhood
Health & Education Clinic For
Clatsop County Kids
SIGN UP TODAY!
FREE For all 3-5 year olds, regardless of income
April 14, 2015
The Astoria Armory
1636 Exchange St., Astoria
April 22, 2015
Seaside Convention Center
415 First Avenue, Seaside
Early screening is an important step to successful learning.
Your child will receive the following exams and screenings:
~ Physical ~ Hearing ~ School Readiness ~Speech
~ Nutrition ~Vision ~Dental ~Immunization
Call your local elementary school or Head Start center for an appointment by April 7 for the
Astoria clinic or April 15 for the Seaside clinic.
full-day kindergarten, which
lawmakers made mandatory
in 2011 and starts this fall.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Bea-
verton, said this budget
makes good on the Legis-
lature’s promise to support
full-day kindergarten back
then.
“It was not the popu-
lar thing to do, but it was
right,”Hass, who was co-
floor manager of the 2011
legislation, said.
But educators told the
Legislature’s joint budget
committee that the fund
ought to be at least $7.5 bil-
lion — $245 million more
than is proposed. Among
the groups at public hear-
ings in March were delega-
tions from Portland Public
Schools, which enroll the
most students in Oregon,
and the Forest Grove and
North Clackamas districts.
All 12 Republicans
joined those critics and vot-
ed against it.
“We can do better,” said
Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby.
The bill contains a pro-
vision that earmarks for
the school fund 40 percent
of any additional tax col-
lections projected in the
May 14 revenue and eco-
nomic forecast — the fi-
nal one before the start of
the new budget cycle on
July 1.
Leaders said passage of
the fund also gives a figure
that school boards can plan
on as they draw up their
own budgets for the 2015-
16 school year.
It would be the earliest
legislative action on the
state school fund since 2011,
when lawmakers cleared a
budget on April 11.
Republicans
proposed
several motions to send
the fund back to the budget
committee, and others to
raise more money for it by
reducing government regu-
lation of business or selling
the Elliott State Forest and
reinvesting the proceeds.
All failed on party-line
votes.
“The K-12 students of
Oregon will be the losers,”-
said Senate Minority Leader
Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
HUGE APRIL GOLF SALE!!
Mention Or Bring In This Ad And Save!!
Save Big on Last Year’s Gear from Titleist,
Callaway, TaylorMade, Cobra, Nike,
Adams, Cleveland, and more!
Drivers - $149.00
Fairways & Hybrids - $99.00
Putters & Wedges - $69.00
ALL THE NAME BRANDS ON SALE!!
50% OFF Select Apparel, Raingear, Shoes, and Caps
40% OFF Golf Bags
S
PLU SAVE BIG ON GOLF PASSES!
Buy a One-Year Pass and receive a $100.00 Gift Certificate for Merchandise!
Buy a 10 Round Local Pass for only $99.00 (That’s only $10.00 per round!)
Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
www.HighlandsGolfGearhart.com
EVERYONE’S FAVORITE NINE!
Limited transportation help is available upon request. se habla espanol.
Sponsors are NW Early Learning Council, NW Educational Service District
and Clatsop Kinder Ready. Major health & education groups of
Clatsop County are partnering to make this clinic possible.
Golf Club
LOCATED 1 MILE NORTH OF GEARHART OFF 101 AT DEL REY BEACH ACCESS ROAD
PHONE: 503-738-5248 WEB: WWW.DISCOUNTDANSGOLF.COM