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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2017
No pot plants at state fair this year
Regulatory snafu
blamed for absence
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — After last year’s high-profile
debut of award-winning cannabis crops at the
Oregon State Fair, visitors this year may have
been surprised by the absence of plants.
“It is extremely unfortunate because 30,000
people came to the state fair last year specif-
ically to see the cannabis display,” said Pete
Gendron, president of Sungrown Growers’
Guild, citing 2016 state fair statistics.
A law enacted by the state Legislature in
May was intended specifically to sanction the
display of marijuana plants at the annual state
fair in Oregon’s capital city.
“The bill allows … compliant licensees to
exhibit at trade shows,” state Sen. Ted Ferrioli,
the bill’s co-sponsor, said on the Senate floor in
May. “If you remember the 2016 Oregon State
Fair … did have some exhibits. This puts it in
statute, allows it and would also specifically
designate the state fair a proper venue so long
as they maintain full compliance with (Oregon
Liquor Control Commission) laws.”
Yet the liquor commission, the state’s alco-
hol and marijuana regulator, issued last-min-
ute temporary rules that effectively prevented
Capital Bureau
Cannabis products on display at the state
fair marijuana exhibit in Salem on Thurs-
day. A regulatory snafu prevented actual
plants from being exhibited this year.
organizers from displaying any actual plants.
The rules require organizers to submit an
application and receive agency approval for
any participant in an exhibit at least 28 days
before the event date.
Notice of changes to the application pro-
cess was sent out Aug. 17, one week before the
10-day state fair kicked off in Salem.
Last year, organizers of the cannabis exhibit
displayed plants that had won awards at the
Oregon Growers’ Fair earlier in August.
This year, organizers displayed canna-
bis-sourced products from retailers. State rules
prohibited any of the products from being sold
or consumed at the state fair.
Part of the snafu with exhibiting plants
stemmed from a transition in the authority
for regulating the marijuana industry from
the Oregon Health Authority to the liquor
commission.
“It was a system we weren’t familiar with,”
said Mark Pettinger, a liquor commission
spokesman.
Four marijuana exhibit events that preceded
the fair were a process of trial and error while
the agency refined temporary rules, Pettinger
said.
“It would be reasonable to assume if the
state fair event is on the books next year and
we have a year under our belt for the indus-
try and for us as regulators, it would go a lot
smoother and be a lot easier,” he said.
Donald Morse, director of the Oregon Can-
nabis Business Council, which organized this
year’s cannabis exhibit at the state fair, said
being barred from showing plants was disap-
pointing, but it is part of “growing pains” for
the industry and for state regulators.
“That is OK because we wanted to high-
light what happens after the plants grew and
how it was used in edibles and topicals so we
have those items on display,” Morse said.
Gendron said his guild will work to make
sure there is “a robust plant display at the 2018
Oregon State Fair.”
The Capital Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Ships slowing in busy channel to protect orcas
Study measures impact
of underwater noise
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Ships moving through a
busy channel off Washington state’s San
Juan Island are slowing down this summer as
part of a study to determine whether that can
reduce noise and benefit a small, endangered
population of killer whales.
The Puget Sound orcas spend summer
months in a major shipping channel in the Sal-
ish Sea that is critical habitat for the whales.
The trial, led by the Vancouver Fraser Port
Authority, is trying to understand whether
reducing commercial vessel speeds can
reduce underwater noise. Orcas use clicks,
calls and other sounds to navigate, communi-
cate and forage mainly for salmon.
Noise and other impacts from vessels is
one of three major threats facing the whales.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Lack of prey and pollution are the others. An orca whale leaps out of the water near a whale watching boat in the Salish Sea in the
They currently number 78.
San Juan Islands, Wash., in 2015.
The two-month trial asks cruise ships, fer-
ries, bulk containers and other commercial tion increased to about 68 percent in the sec- ities to orcas in the southern coast of British
vessels to voluntarily slow to 11 knots through ond week. It dropped to about 55 percent in the Columbia.
The port is offering $500 each trip when
Haro Strait. Average vessel speeds typically third week with stronger tidal currents contrib-
range from 13 knots for bulk carriers to 18 uting to concerns about costs and not meeting ships slow down. Earlier this year, it began offer-
knots for container ships. The project began in schedules. On average, 95 commercial vessels ing discounted harbor rates for quieter ships and
vessels that install technology to reduce propel-
early August and ends Oct. 6.
transit Haro Strait each week.
“We’re certainly very encouraged for that ler and other noise.
Nearly five dozen industry participants,
“Noise can interfere with these really
including Washington State Ferries and Hol- level of participation,” said Orla Robinson,
land America Line, have formally agreed to program manager for the Enhancing Cetacean important functions such as eating, navigating
slow down when it’s feasible and safe, port Habitat and Conservation program led by the and communicating to stay together as a fam-
ily group,” said Marla Holt, a research wildlife
officials said. Recreational and whale-watch- Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
The program launched in 2014 to bring biologist who studies marine mammal acoustics
ing boats are encouraged to slow down as well.
In the first week, about 59 percent of com- shipping industry and other groups together with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in
mercial vessels reduced their speed. Participa- to reduce impacts of shipping-related activ- Seattle.
Attempt to
repeal hospital
tax appears to
miss target
New opinion from
Legislature’s attorney
By JEFF MAPES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Three Republican state lawmakers
thought they were sponsoring a proposed
ballot referendum that would eliminate
$333 million in new taxes on Oregon’s
health care industry.
But the Legislature’s top attorney said
in an opinion Friday that the bill didn’t
include all the sections necessary to get
rid of a tax on some hospitals.
The bottom line: The referendum
appears to fall $111 million short of its
intended goal. The taxes and assessments
on hospitals, insurers and managed care
providers are part of a bill providing about
$600 million to help pay the Oregon’s
share of the federal Medicaid program.
About a fourth of all Oregonians are
now covered by Medicaid, many as a
result of the Affordable Care Act signed
into law by former President Barack
Obama.
State Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn,
is spearheading the proposed referendum
to repeal the taxes on health care provid-
ers. She disagreed with Legislative Coun-
sel Dexter Johnson’s assessment that her
plan misses $111 million.
“We don’t believe that,” she said. “The
only place you’re going to determine that
is in a courtroom. We would litigate that.”
Patty Wentz, who is working with a
coalition to protect the taxes passed by the
Legislature, said the package does not do
what Republicans say it does.
“It’s different from what they’re telling
voters and their donors,” Wentz said.
She added that “you have to be really
careful” when you’re working with health
care policy.
Parrish and the other two co-sponsors
of the measure — GOP Reps. Sal Esquivel
of Medford and Cedric Hayden of Rose-
burg — need to gather about 59,000 sig-
natures by Oct. 5 to put the measure on the
ballot. If they succeed, a special election
will be held Jan. 23.
The Republican lawmakers say the
Legislature went too far in raising health
care taxes and that there are cheaper ways
to protect Medicaid funding.
Opponents dispute that, saying each
of the new tax dollars will generate about
$3 in federal money. They say the taxes
play an important role in ensuring there is
enough money to provide services to Med-
icaid patients.
Johnson, the legislative counsel, said in
his opinion that “a very strong case could
be made” that GOP referendum would only
have the effect of delaying the 0.7 percent
hospital tax from Oct. 6 until Jan. 1.
The problem, he said, is that opponents
failed to seek repeal of all of the sections
of the bill covering that hospital tax.
For undocumented youth, being exceptional is a survival tactic
Anxious over
legal status
By ERICKA CRUZ
GUEVARRA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
PORTLAND — At a press
conference in downtown Port-
land’s Pioneer Courthouse
Square on Friday, undocu-
mented immigrants took turns
at the mic, listing their accom-
plishments like a well-re-
hearsed elevator pitch.
Bianca Ramirez recently
completed her certified nurs-
ing assistant program and is
working towards becoming a
registered nurse. She works
two or three jobs at a time,
seven days a week, 12-hour
shifts. She takes two classes
online.
Jhoana Monroy doesn’t
live off of welfare. She pays
taxes and is a mentor who
“impacts the lives of thou-
sands of youth every year.”
She’s a mother whose daugh-
ters have everything they need
because her and her partner
provide for them.
Liliana Luna is a master’s
student in counseling at Port-
land State University. She
dreams of opening her own
nonprofit to provide low-cost
counseling for families.
“I always have to work
two-to-three times harder than
what I see other people work-
ing for, just to prove my exis-
tence,” Luna said. “At one
point I just prefer sometimes
to give up.”
But she says giving up is
a death sentence. Giving up
means returning to Nuevo Lar-
edo, Tamaulipas, at the bor-
der of Texas and Mexico. It
means returning to the place
where, 12 years ago, her par-
ents decided they wanted and
needed a better life. It means
returning to the place where
drug cartels scared her family
out of the country.
The same day the White
House announced Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s plans
to unveil his decision on the
fate of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program,
Luna, a DACA recipient, stood
before a small crowd of people
at Pioneer Courthouse Square
urging people to fight for the
only program keeping her in
the United States.
To do that, Luna says
undocumented
immigrants
have to constantly justify their
right to stay. And that means
telling everyone what makes
them worthy, deserving of a
life in the United States.
“It’s emotionally exhaust-
ing,” Luna said. “We’re liv-
ing with constant threats, with
constant depression, anxiety
and it’s not healthy for us.”
Luna says the undocu-
mented community doesn’t
W A NTED
really talk publicly about the
health effects of living undoc-
umented. But she says a lot of
her friends have to go to the
doctor or see counselors to
deal with the overwhelming
amount of pressure that comes
from being undocumented.
Luna says she has to deal with
that, in addition to all the nor-
mal stresses that come with
being a college student.
The DACA program,
started under President Barack
Obama, temporarily suspends
deportation for people brought
to the U.S. illegally as chil-
dren. It allows approved appli-
cants to work legally in the
United States.
Luna is one of 787,580
people nationwide who have
applied for DACA and have
been approved. In a January
interview with OPB, Luna said
that if DACA goes away for
her, she could lose the things
she’s worked hard for.
“We’re here to contrib-
ute,” Luna said. “We’re here to
make the United States better.”
In front of the crowd of
people, Luna said she was
there with three of her peers
to give a face to the undocu-
mented community.
“We are making Amer-
ica great,” she told the crowd.
“Again, and again, and again.”
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