10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2015
Matthew Ficken, 13, holds his Ameraucana, Charolette, in
the stands during the poultry showmanship competition.
An 18-day-old Hamp York Cross piglet, owned by Cole Bi-
amont, rests during the Clatsop County Fair Wednesday.
Jack Phillips, 11, cleans his pig, Sally, before competing in
the swine showmanship competition.
POULTRY AND SWINE SHINE AT FAIR
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JOSHUA BESSEX
The Daily Astorian
P
rimped and poised poul-
try and pigs took center
stage Wednesday at the
Clatsop County Fair for the
showmanship competitions.
Kids, dressed to the nines,
showed off their animals to
judges for the chance to win
ribbons and the Grand Champi-
onship.
In the swine showmanship
competition, 4-Hers led their
pigs around the arena following
a judge who asked each handler
Tuestions related to handling
and raising pigs. Today’s com-
petitions will include rabbit and
cavy showmanship, alongside
several horse competitions.
From left:
Emily Berger-
son, 12, Cole
Biamont, 11,
Marlee Walter,
13, and Juan
Jimenez, 14,
work with
their chick-
ens during
the poultry
showmanship
competition
at the Clatsop
County Fair
Wednesday.
Joshua Bessex
The Daily Astorian
LEFT: Maddie Sisley, 11, tries to guide her pig, Peaches, away from the rail during the swine showmanship competition at the Clatsop County Fair Wednesday. RIGHT: Kids partic-
ipate in the swine showmanship competition at the Clatsop County Fair Wednesday.
+LJKZD\ ‘The future of medical marijuana is uncertain’
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Eventually, they found their
current location on Roosevelt
Drive at the intersection with
Avenue S. The spot met the cri-
teria to be a medical marijuana
dispensary, as per the Oregon
Medical Marijuana Program,
and the couple applied for that
status two years ago.
“It costs a lot of money to be-
come compliant with the state,”
Geiger said. “They demand a
whole lot of things that are very
expensive. It’s not easy. It’s not
something you just throw to-
gether.”
He described the paperwork
to register with the Oregon
Health Authority as “a cross
between a tax audit and a mort-
gage agreement.” Everything
— video surveillance, security,
safes, alarms — has to meet
high standards of oversight.
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PRUDWRULXP
The next hurdles the busi-
ness encountered were at a local
level. In 2013, the state gave
municipalities the ability to en-
act a moratorium of up to one
year on licensing medical mar-
ijuana dispensaries while they
worked to establish “reasonable
regulations.”
Not wanting to lose their
location on U.S. Highway 101,
the Geigers continued to under-
go inspections by the Oregon
Health Authority and pay an
annual licensing fee of $4,000
even during the moratorium.
“It wasn’t easy. We’ve got a
ly than we have in the past, and
instead of recoiling from it and
thinking it represents something
it doesn’t, embrace it and let
the money that’s going to come
from it, come to our town,” he
said.
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Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group
Evee Geiger is the co-owner of Highway 420, Seaside’s
first legally operational medical marijuana dispensary
since the local moratorium on such facilities was lifted.
very big space and a small store
to support it,” Geiger said.
Seaside’s moratorium ex-
pired May 1. Even then, though,
the Geigers were unable to oper-
ate as a dispensary, because the
city’s general business license
ordinance prohibits activities
that violate local, state or federal
law. Marijuana is still a schedule
I drug at the federal level.
The waiting continued, Gei-
ger said, as the Seaside City
Council grappled with adopting
provisions to control how, when
and where dispensaries could be
operated within city limits. Even
after an ordinance was adopted
in May, it took 30 days for that
to go into effect. Highway 420
was then subject to a surprise
inspection by the Oregon Health
Authority and local law enforce-
ment, as well as background
checks for all employees.
“We have been thoroughly
searched, investigated, looked at
up and down for weeks, months
and years before we were ¿nally
able to get this,” Geiger said.
He believes the tenacity was
worth it and the feedback he has
received has con¿rmed that.
Many customers have expressed
gratitude that the couple put up a
¿ght and the dispensary is now
running, Geiger said.
“That part of it has been very
rewarding, because every day
people are coming in here and
they’re happy,” he said. “That’s
what we wanted to achieve and
we’ve done it.”
The dispensary carries 20
strains of medical marijuana, as
well as oils, medibles and other
items. His products come from
several sources, including some
in the local area, Portland and
southern Oregon.
“We’re getting new prod-
ucts all the time,” Geiger said.
“When you’re brand new, you
can’t just open up and have a
Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group
Steve Geiger’s business has been licensed with the state
to operate as a dispensary for about two years.
store full of stuff. You have to go
through the process, and it takes
a little bit of time, if you do it le-
gally and correctly.”
When it comes to pricing,
he said, the Oregon Health Au-
thority reTuires dispensaries
to derive a formula based on
what they pay for their product,
their operating costs and what it
would take to turn a pro¿t. After
calculating costs, Geiger said,
they determine what to charge
per gram based on what they
paid per pound.
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Only a few weeks into oper-
ating their dispensary, the Gei-
gers are faced with the decision
of whether to start selling rec-
reational marijuana in October.
Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill
into law Tuesday that allows ex-
isting dispensaries to sell limited
Tuantities of dried marijuana,
seeds and starter plants to all
adults beginning Oct. 1.
“When we got into this, we
never had an interest in recre-
ational,” Geiger said. “We got into
this to help people and we were
interested in the medicinal side.
But now that things have changed
dramatically, the future of medical
marijuana is uncertain.”
As a business person who
has invested heavily in a medical
marijuana dispensary, he added,
“we’re really forced now to con-
sider the recreational end, because
if we don’t, we won’t survive.”
The new law allows local
governments to adopt ordinanc-
es that prohibit sales of limited
marijuana retail products.
Geiger hopes the city will
not choose to do so, especially
considering approximately 59
percent of Seaside voters ap-
proved of Measure 91 legalizing
marijuana last November.
“Maybe it’s time to start
looking at marijuana different-
Recently Seaside voted to
ban medical marijuana dispen-
saries in the downtown core,
and could consider enacting
limits on the sale of recreational
marijuana. Geiger said there are
other factors that make the fu-
ture uncertain for Highway 420.
It is very expensive and
time-consuming for patients to
get their medical marijuana card
every year. Many will continue
to bene¿t from having a card be-
cause taxes for medical marijua-
na will be signi¿cantly less than
taxes for recreational marijuana.
On the other hand, Geiger said,
because people now can grow
their own plants and possess
marijuana in multiple forms, the
medical card “doesn’t have near
the value it once did.”
Geiger still seeks answers to
the following Tuestions How
many patients will continue to
pay to keep their cards? How
will the Oregon /iTuor Control
Commission address medical
versus recreational marijuana?
What fees and taxes will the
state establish?
“All those are Tuestions that
are still left to be answered, and
as a business person there’s
no way you can do any sort of
pro¿le or business plan around
something that doesn’t exist
yet,” Geiger said.
3UREH Credits issued from 2006 to 2014 could cost the state up to $968 million
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The state awarded the tax
credits to owners of renew-
aEOe enerJ\ and ef¿cienc\
projects, such as a cellulosic
ethanol plant and public transit
districts across the state. The
owners could use the credits to
offset their taxes, or sell them
at a discount to raise cash.
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The Department of Energy
traditionally helped project
owners ¿nd buyers for their
tax credits as part of the state
program, but private brokers
started to negotiate the deals
as early as 2009. The de-
partment does not verify the
sales prices of credits sold in
private deals, and energy of-
¿cials Tuietly stopped enforc-
ing pricing rules for the sales
in 2009, the EO Media Group/
Pamplin Media Group Capital
Bureau reported in June.
The agency is now in
the process of retroactively
changing pricing rules going
back to mid-2012, so deals
that violated the rules in place
at the time will be legitimate.
Business energy tax cred-
its issued from 2006 to 2014
could cost the state up to
$968.1 million in tax revenue,
according to the Department
of Energy. A majority of that
cost — $703.6 million —
comes from tax credits that
were sold to investors.
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Although an auditor is con-
ducting the investigation, it is
not an actual audit, according
to energy agency spokeswom-
an Rachel Wray.
“Those forms were pulled
because the Secretary of
State¶s of¿ce has some Tues-
tions about our processes,”
Wray said. “It is not an audit.”
Wray referred other Tues-
tions about the inTuiry to the
Secretary of State¶s of¿ce.
Tony Green, a spokesman
for the Secretary of State’s
of¿ce, declined to comment
on any aspect of the auditor’s
work, including the timing
of the investigation and what
prompted the probe.
“As you know, the Audits
Division has some investi-
gatory responsibilities that
are confidential in nature
until resolution is reached,”
Green wrote in an email
Tuesday.
The Secretary of State’s
of¿ce operates the state’s
government waste, fraud and
abuse hotline. Under state
law, those complaints and
the investigation ¿ndings are
con¿dential until the agency
completes the inTuiry.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.