Page 4A
STATE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Medical pot businesses stand to lose under regulation
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s medical
marijuana businesses stand to lose
money under tighter regulations
proposed by state lawmakers.
Testimony in Salem recently
focused on how patients would suf-
fer if lawmakers pass legislation to
limit the size of medical pot gardens
and require tracking of cannabis so
it doesn’t leak into the black mar-
ket. Lawmakers are considering the
medical program changes as Ore-
gon prepares for the legalization of
pot for all adults age 21 and older
starting July 1, and the debate has
revealed divisions between differ-
ent cannabis business interests in
the state.
Legislators claim the vast ma-
jority of marijuana produced under
that program is sold by growers on
the black market.
Privately, business owners who
KDYH SUR¿WHG IURP 2UHJRQ¶V PHG-
ical marijuana system acknowl-
edged new regulations would also
impact their enterprises.
Oregon’s medical marijuana
program was created by voters in
1998 to help sick people. Many
medical marijuana growers provide
free pot to patients through arrange-
ments that provided legal cover for
large pot gardens over the years
when the medical program was the
only sanctioned way to grow canna-
bis in Oregon.
At any one time, medical mari-
juana cardholders can have six ma-
ture 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,
KHOSVJURZHUV¿QGSDWLHQWVWKURXJK
his consulting business Duff John-
Pamplin Media Group
Medical marijuana businesses stand to lose money under tighter
regulations being proposed in the Oregon Legislature.
son Consulting.
“It’s really a small part of Duff
Johnson Consulting and hopefully
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 mon-
ey from consulting with medical
marijuana clinics and organizing
conferences.
Brent Kenyon, a businessman
in Medford, operates 17 medical
marijuana clinics and three dispen-
saries around the state. Kenyon 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 marijua-
na from growers who sell the excess
pot to dispensaries. The new recre-
ational system means growers will
no longer have to line up patients
to justify large gardens, and tighter
regulations on medical marijuana
could further tamp down the indus-
try.
“The problem is we have so
may (medical) growers now that
are gonna jump ship,” said Kenyon,
who also helps connect patients
with growers.
Low-income patients depend on
this system to obtain their medicine,
patients and members of the indus-
try said.
State lawmakers and regulators
want to move the largest pot gar-
dens in the state into the new rec-
reational marijuana system that will
legalize, regulate and tax pot for all
adults under the authority of the Or-
egon Liquor Control Commission.
The Oregon medical marijuana
program allowed huge gardens to
blossom in southern Oregon, in-
cluding one that served 104 patients
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 suc-
ceed and to show federal law en-
forcement the state is doing its best
to prevent Oregon producers from
feeding the black market.
The bills lawmakers are consid-
ering would limit medical marijua-
na grows to 24 to 48 plants outside
FLW\ OLPLWV DQG IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH
track the path of medical marijuana
from growers to processors, dispen-
saries 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 representa-
tives 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 ma-
ture plants.
Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland,
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 marijua-
na businesses across the state and
is lobbying for the state to allow
co-location of recreational and
medical marijuana sales.
“As you know, the Cannabis
3$&KDVWDNHQQRRI¿FLDOSRVLWLRQ
on plant counts and that was not my
role in those meetings,” Margolis
wrote in an email Monday. Rather,
Margolis wrote that her role was to
provide input on the practical appli-
cation of regulations.
Associated Press
Margolis’ name was in the news
recently, after it was revealed that
OLCC pot czar Tom Burns was
¿UHG IRU O\LQJ DERXW D UHJXODWRU\
proposal by members of the medi-
cal marijuana industry which Burns
forwarded to Margolis.
The proposal came from Ken-
yon, Johnson and Anthony Taylor,
co-founder and legislative liaison
for Compassionate Oregon, which
describes itself as a patient advoca-
cy organization. The trio generated
the proposal after a March 12 meet-
ing with Patridge, the OLCC chair-
man. It included an exemption from
tracking for growers with 24 or
fewer plants, although those grow-
ers could apply for permits to sell
their excess weed to dispensaries 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-income patients who no longer
received 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 industry’s proposal,
but Burdick said she expects the
marijuana industry will continue to
care for patients who need cannabis
products.
“I think the industry has been
very good at taking care of patients’
needs, and I expect that to contin-
ue,” Burdick said.
Burdick said lawmakers plan
to move ahead soon with a bill on
plant limits and tracking for medi-
cal growers.
“We expect this one to move
¿UVW´%XUGLFNVDLGRIDELOOWKDWZLOO
address those questions. Then, Bur-
dick said lawmakers can turn their
full attention back to implementing
the new recreational system.
The Capital Bureau is a collab-
oration between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Even if a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling this spring
makes same-sex marriage the
law, it would leave pockets
of the country where it isn’t
likely to be recognized any
time soon: the reservations of
a handful of sovereign Native
American tribes, including
the nation’s two largest.
Since 2011, as the num-
ber of states recognizing
such unions spiked to 37, at
least six smaller tribes have
revisited and let stand laws
WKDWGH¿QHPDUULDJHDVEHLQJ
between a man and a wom-
an, according to an Associ-
ated Press review of tribal
records. In all, tribes with a
total membership approach-
ing 1 million won’t recognize
marriages between two men
or two women.
Several explicitly declare
that same-sex marriages are
prohibited. And some have
even toughened their stance.
In December, just weeks
after North Carolina began
issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples, the state’s
Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians updated its law to
add language preventing gay
couples from having mar-
riage ceremonies performed
on tribal land. The resolu-
tion changing the law, which
passed 8-1, says court cases
around the country prompted
the tribe of about 13,000 en-
rolled members to review its
own laws.
The Cherokee Nation in
Oklahoma and the Navajo
Nation, with about 300,000
members each, maintain de-
cade-old laws that don’t rec-
ognize same-sex marriage.
Neither tribe has shown
much sign of shifting.
AP Photo/Jerry Archuleta
In this Jan. 2014 photo provided by Jerry Archuleta,
Alray Nelson, left, and Brennen Yonnie, right, pose for
a photo at the flea market in Gallup, N.M. The couple
has been advocating to have a Navajo Nation law that
prohibits same-sex marriages repealed.
Alray Nelson, a gay rights
activist who lives with his
partner Brennen Yonnie on
the Navajo reservation, said
the tribe’s law denies same-
sex couples the right to be in-
cluded in decisions on a part-
ner’s health care, or to share
in a home site lease. Getting
a marriage license would
only require a short drive to
a courthouse off the reserva-
tion, but the couple — both
enrolled Navajo members —
would rather wait until it’s al-
lowed on the reservation.
“We are both planning to
build a life here, and we want
to raise a family,” he said.
“So it’s not an option for us
to remove ourselves from our
community.”
As with the states, oppo-
sition to gay marriage var-
ies among tribes. At least 10
have recognized same-sex
marriage, often well ahead of
their surrounding states and
without having judges force
their hands. Many others are
neutral.
The Supreme Court will
hear arguments April 28 and
could decide by June wheth-
er gay couples can marry
in the remaining states and
U.S. territories where it’s not
allowed. But while 27 states
that allow gay marriage got
dragged over the threshold by
judges, the sovereign status
of federally recognized tribes
means a Supreme Court rul-
ing wouldn’t directly affect
their laws.
&KHURNHH RI¿FLDOV LQ
Oklahoma and North Caro-
lina say nothing in their laws
prevents members from get-
ting marriage licenses in ad-
jacent counties. The Oklaho-
ma-based Cherokee Nation,
which has a separate govern-
ment and laws from the East-
ern Band, passed its marriage
law in 2004.
The Navajo Nation Coun-
cil voted in 2005 to ban same-
sex marriages on the 27,000
square-mile reservation that
extends into Arizona, New
Mexico and Utah — all states
where such marriages are le-
gal. Then-President Joe Shir-
ley Jr. vetoed the measure,
but lawmakers overturned it.
There’s been no push re-
cently among tribal lawmak-
ers to change that, said coun-
cil spokesman Jared Touchin.
The Osage Nation, bor-
dering Tulsa, Oklahoma,
passed a wide-ranging mar-
riage law in 2012 that doesn’t
recognize same-sex unions.
John Hawk Co-Cke’ (co-
KAY), an enrolled member of
the Osage Nation who’s gay,
said that before reservations
were created, many tribes had
no problem with men who
embraced their feminine side
and women who lean toward
their masculine side, inspiring
the term two-spirit people.
Two-spirit people were some-
times given special ceremoni-
al roles because of their ability
to go into both the masculine
and feminine world, he said.
The spread of Christiani-
ty starting when tribes were
moved onto reservations con-
tributed to a change in attitude
WKDW¶V UHÀHFWHG LQ ODZV WKDW
reserve marriage for hetero-
sexual couples, Co-Cke’ said.
7KHLQÀXHQFHRI&KULVWLDQLW\
remains strong in many tribes
more than a century after an
era of mass conversions on
reservations.
Page 5A
BRIEFLY
Kenyan airstrikes
hit suspected
militant camps
NAIROBI, Kenya
(AP) — Kenyan warplanes
bombed militant camps
LQ6RPDOLDRI¿FLDOVVDLG
Monday, following a vow by
President Uhuru Kenyatta
WRUHVSRQG³LQWKH¿HUFHVW
way possible” to a massacre
of college students by al-
Shabab extremists.
The airstrikes Sunday and
Monday targeted the Gedo
region of western Somalia,
directly across the border
from Kenya, said Col. David
Obonyo of the Kenyan
military.
The al-Shabab camps,
which were used to store
arms and for logistical
support, were destroyed,
but it was not possible to
determine the number of
casualties because of poor
visibility, he said.
The Somalia-based mili-
tant group claimed responsi-
bility for Thursday’s attack at
Garissa University College in
northeastern Kenya in which
militants killed 148 people.
Airstrikes and other con-
ventional military operations
have hurt al-Shabab, but ana-
lysts say better intelligence is
needed to thwart an extremist
group that has proven effec-
WLYHLQLQ¿OWUDWLQJFLYLOLDQ
populations and carrying out
attacks on so-called “soft”
targets in urban areas.
Cuba-United States
warming held up
by listing of Cuba
as terror sponsor
HAVANA (AP) — Amer-
ican hopes of opening an
embassy in Havana before
presidents Barack Obama
and Raul Castro meet at a
regional summit this week
have been snarled in disputes
about Cuba’s presence on the
U.S. list of state sponsors of
terror and U.S. diplomats’
freedom to travel and talk
to ordinary Cubans without
UHVWULFWLRQRI¿FLDOVVD\
The Summit of the
Americas will be the scene
RIWKHSUHVLGHQWV¶¿UVWIDFH
to-face meeting since they
announced Dec. 17 that they
will re-establish diplomatic
relations after a half-centu-
ry of hostility. The Obama
administration wanted the
embassies reopened before
the summit starts in Panama
on Friday, boosting a new
American policy motivat-
ed partly by a sense that
isolating Cuba was causing
friction with other countries
in the region.
Arriving at the summit
with a deal to reopen embas-
sies in Washington and Ha-
vana would create goodwill
for the U.S., particularly after
it issued new sanctions on
VHOHFWHG9HQH]XHODQRI¿FLDOV
last month that prompted
protests from left-leaning
countries.
Negotiators on both sides
VDLGWKH\DUHFRQ¿GHQWWKH\
will be able to strike a deal to
reopen embassies in the com-
ing weeks but not necessarily
before the summit.
Asked Monday about
the latest on the embassies,
White House spokesman
Josh Earnest told reporters
that “when you have a coun-
try that has essentially been
ostracized by the United
6WDWHVIRU¿YHGHFDGHV
it’s going to take a little bit
of time to re-establish some
trust.”
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