A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019
Washington considers overhaul of pot regulation
Five years after
legalization
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Five years
after
Washington
state
launched its pioneering legal
marijuana market, offi cials
are proposing an overhaul of
the state’s industry rules, with
plans for boosting minority
ownership of pot businesses,
paving the way for home
deliveries of medical can-
nabis and letting the small-
est growers increase the size
of their operations to become
more competitive.
Liquor and Cannabis
Board Director Rick Garza
detailed the proposals — part
of what the board calls “Can-
nabis 2.0” — in an interview
with The Associated Press.
It’s an effort to picture what
the legal marijuana market
will look like over the next
fi ve years, after spending the
past fi ve years largely regu-
lating by reaction as the dif-
fi culties of building an indus-
try from infancy absorbed the
agency’s attention.
“We’ve typically been so
challenged with the issues of
the day we haven’t been look-
ing out long term to deter-
mine what the future looks
like,” Garza said.
The board has been free-
ing up its bandwidth by coor-
dinating with other agencies
to share the responsibility of
regulating the market, such
as having the Department of
Ecology oversee the certifi ca-
tion of marijuana testing labs
and the Department of Finan-
cial Institutions examine the
sometimes complicated own-
ership structures of licensed
cannabis businesses.
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
Cannabis consultant Juan Aguilar, left, assists customers Bill, right, and Nize Nylen and their son,
Russell, shop for edible marijuana products in the Herban Legends pot shop in Seattle last year.
One big-picture issue
the board could rethink is
whether to abandon the
state’s seed-to-sale marijuana
tracking program, which has
long been beset by software
issues, sometimes grinding
business to a halt, in favor of
a system where businesses
report their transactions to the
board and are then audited.
Another is whether to prepare
to allow marijuana exports,
as Oregon did this year, in the
event the federal government
approves it.
New legislation
For the next session of
the Legislature, the board
has proposed two bills. One
would create what some crit-
ics describe as a long-over-
due “social equity” program,
encouraging greater owner-
ship of marijuana businesses
by minorities, women and
military veterans. Part of the
rationale of legalizing mari-
juana in Washington state in
2012 was to remedy the dis-
proportionate effect the drug
war has had on people of
color, but minority ownership
of cannabis businesses in the
state remains paltry.
While Washington is not
currently issuing any more
marijuana licenses, 11 of the
more than 500 retailers have
surrendered their licenses,
Garza said. Under the board’s
proposal, those could be reis-
sued, or, if cities or counties
agree to increase the num-
ber of pot shops within their
boundaries, new licenses
could be granted — this time,
to participants in the social
equity program.
Businesses would be eli-
gible if they are owned by a
woman, minority or veteran,
or if a majority of its own-
ership group are members
of a “protected class” under
state anti-discrimination law.
Applicants would be barred
from consideration if any
owner already has a major-
ity share of another cannabis
retail license.
The legislation would also
create a technical assistance
program run by the Depart-
ment of Commerce that
would provide grants total-
ing at least $100,000 per year
to help minority-, woman-
or veteran-owned businesses
navigate the licensing pro-
cess, receive compliance
and fi nancial training, and
buy equipment, software or
facilities.
The Washington CannaB-
usiness Association, an indus-
try group, said it agrees there
is a need for a social equity
program, and it’s been work-
ing on its own version.
“We think there’s an
opportunity to go even
beyond” what the board is
proposing, said spokesman
Aaron Pickus.
Another legislative pro-
Scrutiny could ease on public forest projects
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Forest Service is
proposing to reduce the pub-
lic’s role in shaping the way
it applies federal environ-
mental laws to projects on
public lands.
The agency says the
changes would help land
managers “make timelier
decisions based on high qual-
ity, science-based analysis.”
Environmental groups are
calling the proposed changes
a giveaway to the timber
industry that will allow proj-
ects on national forests to
be approved with far less
involvement from the public.
The changes concern how
the Forest Service operates
under the National Environ-
mental Policy Act , the law
Jes Burns/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Thinning, mowing and prescribed fi re are used in Ponderosa
pine forests to maintain an open forest fl oor.
that provides much of the
framework for environmen-
tal protection in the United
States. Under the law, proj-
ects on public lands have
to go through various lev-
els of environmental anal-
ysis to ensure that detri-
mental impacts are not too
great. These environmen-
tal analyses can take months
or even years to complete
and include various levels
of public involvement and
feedback.
Critics of how the For-
est Service currently applies
NEPA say the process is way
too cumbersome, slows proj-
ects and permit applications
down too much, and has led
to backlogs in needed natural
resource management.
“The paperwork exercise
that they have to go through
just don’t match the scope
and scale of the problem,”
said Travis Joseph, president
of the Portland-based Amer-
ican Forest Resource Coun-
cil, a timber industry trade
association.
The proposed changes
are being framed in terms
of reducing the backlog of
forest restoration and wild-
fi re mitigation projects by
streamlining the NEPA pro-
cess. The Forest Service says
the backlog is 80 million
acres.
posal would allow strug-
gling tier-one producers —
the smallest size, limited to
2,000 square feet of plants —
to sell medical-grade product
directly to the state’s 36,000
registered marijuana patients.
The patients have long com-
plained that they have a hard
time fi nding medical-grade
cannabis, which must go
through additional testing for
pesticides and heavy met-
als, in retail stores, and Garza
said the proposal could help
the patients while giving the
growers an incentive to offer
more medically compliant
product.
The tier-one growers could
sell to patients onsite, with
other growers at indoor farm-
ers-market-style locations, or
by delivery, Garza said. Local
jurisdictions would have to
approve, and to avoid com-
petition with other licensed
retailers, the growers or farm-
ers markets would have to be
at least 3 miles away from
established retailers.
Any proposal to allow
delivery or sales by small
growers is certain to be con-
troversial, as other retailers
might object to additional
competition. Garza said the
board will consider industry
feedback.
“There’s going to be real
concerns by retailers out
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The organization that
oversees organ transplants
in the United States has
approved an application
from Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University to resume
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OHSU stopped perform-
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after four cardiologists left
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OHSU restarts heart transplant program
Craft growers
Even more signifi cantly
for the smallest growers, the
board wants to allow them to
expand, fi rst to 5,000 square
feet and then possibly to
8,000 square feet. Those pro-
ducers have long complained
the tier-one licenses, designed
to ensure craft growers have
a place in the market, are
so restrictive that they can’t
succeed. Though they must
make similar investments in
security, insurance and prod-
uct tracking as the largest
growers, they are allowed to
grow and sell only tiny frac-
tion of what the largest grow-
ers produce.
Paige Berger, CEO of
Hygge Farms in Onalaska,
said she’s excited about the
board’s proposal. She ini-
tially obtained a tier-one
license because she didn’t
have enough money to invest
in a larger operation. Now,
she said, she’s hamstrung by
her limited size: She can only
produce enough marijuana to
have product in 10 licensed
cannabis shops.
“I can’t get out there and
expand my brand to what I
think it could do,” Berger
said.
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