7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2018
Crab control: Visits mainly happen during beginning of season
Continued from Page 1A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Lt. Cmdr. G.B. Cathey points out something of interest on the waters off the Oregon Coast.
“We mostly do most of the pointing
out and say, ‘You’ve got to go here,’”
1st Class Aviation Maintenance Tech-
nician Chris Porter said.
The crew’s visits are mainly
concentrated at the beginning of
crab season, when many of the
valuable crustaceans are caught. Crab
boats typically shift their attention
every few days when returns begin to
dwindle.
“It’s pretty random,” Young said.
Not as random was the timing of
this year’s crab season opening. Low
meat yields and price negotiations
stalled the start of the season, which
was scheduled to begin Dec. 1, until
Jan. 22.
“There’s a difference year to year,”
Young said. “It seems like they’re hav-
ing a good season.”
The C-27 replaced the C-130 as the
preferred aircraft for crab season fly-
overs a couple of years ago. After they
sat idle in an Air Force hangar for five
years, the Coast Guard purchased 14
of them. Air Station Sacramento — the
only air station with fixed-wing aircraft
on the mainland West Coast — houses
six of the planes. The new toys come
with perks and drawbacks.
“It allows us to fly at low eleva-
tions, but we have to be more careful
about how offshore we go,” said Lt.
Cmdr. G.B. Cathey, the pilot.
Cathey and his partner in the cock-
pit — Lt. Cmdr. Peter Igoe — recalled
days out on the water in Coast Guard
vessels, but they were in their element
in the air on Thursday.
“I remember standing on a boat
during a fishery, looking up at a patrol
plane and saying, ‘That is where I want
to be,’” Cathey said. “And here we are
today.”
Pot summit: ‘It was a
DUIIs: Officers have to
system designed for failure’ hunt for drunken drivers
Continued from Page 1A
networks and sparking money
laundering, violence and envi-
ronmental woes.
The column came shortly
after Attorney General Jeff Ses-
sions last month rescinded an
Obama administration memo
that outlined the steps states
with legalized cannabis could
take to avoid scrutiny under
federal law, where marijuana
remains illegal.
“In sum, I have significant
concerns about the state’s cur-
rent regulatory framework and
the resources allocated to polic-
ing marijuana in Oregon,” Wil-
liams wrote in The Orego-
nian, adding the summit and
the state’s response to his con-
cerns would “inform our fed-
eral enforcement strategy.”
The summit was attended by
14 other U.S. attorney’s offices,
Gov. Kate Brown, the FBI and
other federal agencies.
Darwin Roberts, a former
federal prosecutor in Seattle
who also worked on marijuana
issues as a senior official in the
Washington Attorney Gener-
al’s Office, said he wasn’t sur-
prised to see Williams’ con-
cerns. But he added the Justice
Department is in a tough spot:
If it shuts down states’ mari-
juana programs, it will drive
that activity back to the black
market, where neither the feds
nor state authorities have the
resources to deal with it.
“The Justice Department
clearly is unhappy that the
states aren’t doing more to stop
marijuana activity outside the
state legal system,” Roberts
said. “I suspect that for DOJ to
allow the states to keep mak-
ing money off legal marijuana,
DOJ will want to see a real
commitment of state tax dol-
lars to law enforcement efforts
against black market growing
and trafficking heading out of
state.”
There is general agree-
ment that some marijuana from
Oregon does wind up in other
states where it isn’t legal. Still,
it’s hard to say if pot smug-
gling has gotten worse in Ore-
gon — where illicit pot farmers
were thriving long before recre-
ational legalization — or how
much of the marijuana leav-
ing the state filters out from the
legal side.
In his column, Williams
said law enforcement in 16
other states have reported seiz-
ing marijuana from Oregon and
postal agents have intercepted
more than 2,600 pounds of pot
in outbound packages and over
$1.2 million in associated cash.
Advocates dismiss the idea
that legalization has caused a
spike in black markets sales.
It’s just that now, because it’s
legal, it’s much easier to track it
back, they said
“When I moved to Oregon
in 1979, cannabis was a bil-
lion-dollar crop then, so the
notion that this is somehow
caused by legalization or by the
medical program is something
that’s misplaced,” said Leland
Berger, an attorney who spe-
cializes in marijuana cases.
“When it’s intercepted out
of state it’s easier to docu-
ment where it came from, but
I’m a little disappointed that
it’s viewed as a new and huge
problem.”
States that have legalized
marijuana for recreational and
medical use have taken vary-
ing approaches to satisfying
federal law enforcement prior-
ities, in an effort to pre-empt
raids or even a Justice Depart-
ment lawsuit that could under-
mine the newly regulated mar-
kets. They’ve also adjusted
their approaches as their mar-
kets matured.
Oregon voters approved the
sale of recreational marijuana
in 2014, and it became legal
the following year. The state
has allowed medical marijuana
since 1998.
It now has about 900
licensed recreational growers,
with more than 1,100 licenses
awaiting approval and no cap
on the number of licenses it will
grant. Another roughly 25,600
growers in the state produce
cannabis for medical marijuana
patients. More than 500 retail-
ers are licensed to sell recre-
ational weed, with nearly 250
applications pending.
Washington state launched
recreational sales in 2014,
the same year as Colorado. It
started off with relatively low
caps on the number of licensed
retail marijuana stores and for
the size of grow operations.
Both measures were designed
to prevent an oversupply of
cannabis that might make its
way into the black market.
As its industry grew, Wash-
ington merged its unregu-
lated medical market with the
strictly regulated recreational
one. It now has more than 500
licensed retailers, though not all
are operating, and nearly 1,200
licensed growers.
In Oregon, the medical and
recreational marijuana indus-
tries still operate separately,
although the number of medical
pot dispensaries has dropped
precipitously as retailers move
toward the more lucrative rec-
reational cannabis sales.
Oregon did not cap the num-
ber of pot producers, virtually
guaranteeing an overproduc-
tion problem, said Seth Craw-
ford, a former Oregon State
University professor who’s an
expert on marijuana economics
and cannabis policy. Crawford
now runs an industrial hemp
seed company.
Coupled with Oregon’s
small population — 4 million
people total — and its reputa-
tion as a prime cannabis-grow-
ing location on a par with
Northern California, a surplus
was predictable here, Craw-
ford said. He estimated Oregon
growers produce up to three
times the amount of marijuana
that the state can absorb legally
each year.
“You created this huge
industry that has nowhere to
put its product,” Crawford said.
“If you were an investor and
you had just dropped $4 million
into a (marijuana) grow and
you had thousands of pounds of
flower that was ready to go but
you had nowhere to sell it … if
you want any of your money
back, the only thing you can
do is sell it on the black mar-
ket,” he said. “It was a system
designed for failure.”
Oregon has begun taking
steps to address diversion to
the black market. The state will
soon require medical marijuana
growers to adopt a seed-to-sale
tracking system that it uses for
recreational marijuana. It is
also allowing medical growers
to sell some of their surplus to
wholesalers for sale in recre-
ational dispensaries as medical
pot shops dry up.
At a recent meeting of a
medical marijuana advisory
commission, members iden-
tified the pot surplus leaving
Oregon as its No. 1 priority.
Lawmakers are also taking the
issue seriously: A bill last year
to allow the governor to enter
into sales compacts with other
marijuana states didn’t make it
to a vote, but there is interest in
reviving the idea.
Those in the industry in Ore-
gon are cautiously optimistic
about the summit.
“It’s a brand-new industry
operating legally under state
law and illegally under federal
law — and that’s hard to bal-
ance. That’s one of the purposes
of this summit. Let’s talk about
it,” said Anthony Taylor, presi-
dent of Compassionate Oregon,
which advocates for medical
marijuana patients.
“I think everybody realizes
it’s a discussion that needs to
happen.”
Associated Press writer
Gene Johnson in Seattle con-
tributed to this report.
Continued from Page 1A
paying overtime. When one
officer handles a shift alone,
DUII arrests, which are
time-consuming, can slip.
“It makes it extremely
hard,
because
they’re
answering all the calls,” he
said.
The police chief also cred-
its the promotion of Sgt. Jim
Pierce and the hiring of Offi-
cer Teresa McKee, who are
experienced at drunken-driv-
ing enforcement. Other new
officers have also joined the
ranks over the past few years.
“You’ve got a lot of peo-
ple that have a lot of fire and
spark in them and go out
there and are a little more
aggressive,” Workman said.
Two officers left the
police department during
an investigation into behav-
ioral and workplace issues,
but Workman does not link
those problems to the low
DUII arrest figures. The
police chief also does not
believe officers consciously
let drunken drivers go.
“I think it is a serious
thing,” Workman said of the
crime.
City Commissioner Tom
Dyer, a retired Oregon State
Police trooper, is not con-
cerned by the fluctuation in
DUII arrests.
In his experience, police
officers have to hunt for
drunken drivers. “But that
takes time,” he said. “Well, if
you get a lot of calls, guess
what? You don’t get a chance
to look for them.”
Dyer believes publicly
reporting the increase in
arrests can act as a deterrent.
“When you get big numbers
and it gets reported, people
think twice about driving,”
he said. “And a lot of times
it will go down. Small towns,
especially, you get that.”
District Attorney Josh
Marquis said the county has
a higher number of prose-
cutions for drunken driving
than counties of similar size,
mostly a reflection of the
tourism industry.
While Marquis said no
one in law enforcement
hopes for more DUII arrests,
he recognized the changes in
Warrenton.
“I welcome what is
clearly a heightened empha-
sis on DUII enforcement
by Chief Workman and his
force,” the district attorney
said in an email.
3 WAYS
TO GET
YOUR
COPY
• ORDER ONLINE•
www.DiscoverOurCoast.com/order
• STOP BY ONE OF
OUR 3 LOCATIONS•
Astoria • 949 Exchange St.
Seaside • 1555 N. Roosevelt Dr.
Long Beach • 205 Boldstad Ave. E #2
• PICK UP A PHONE•
Call Holly Larkins at 503-325-3211, x227
Email: hlarkins@dailyastorian.com