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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 28, 2015)
Page 8A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian POT: Rules aim to cut into black PDUNHWSUR¿W Continued from 1A DQGKHDUGIURPRI¿FLDOVZKR regretted delays in regulating medical marijuana. House Democrats on the committee, including co-chair Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego, would like Oregon to delay the cap on medical pot grows until at least the end of 2016. Colorado adopted regu- lations several years ago on medical marijuana, including a seed-to-sale tracking system, but then struggled to implement them due at least in part to a budget shortfall. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill into law May 18 to limit medical growers to 36 plants, unless at least one of the patients the grower is supplying has a higher limit due “based on medical necessity.” The Oregon bill would limit medical gardens to 12 mature plants in residential areas of cities and 48 plants in other areas, although growsites registered with the state before Jan. 1, 2015 could keep 24 plants in urban residential neighborhoods and 96 plants in other areas. Amy Margolis, a Portland lawyer who is part of the Oregon Cannabis political action committee, said if Oregon delays regulation of medical marijuana, it runs the risk of following Washington’s example. Medical marijuana remained unregulated in the state until this year, when lawmakers passed a bill to fold the medical system into the regu- lated recreational program. “I don’t think anybody really wants to see that happen, but that’s what might happen,” Margolis said. The Oregon Cannabis PAC, whose members mostly plan to join the recreational pot market, has not taken a position on SB 964. Hilary Bricken, a Seattle-based lawyer who represents recreational and medical marijuana clients in several states including Oregon, said much of the push for regulations in Wash- ington came from the tightly regulated recreational pot businesses in the state, which have been at a competitive disadvantage. “You had an outcry from the (recreational cannabis) community basically saying, ‘We’re being completely undermined by medical mari- juana because there are so many of these storefronts,’” Bricken said. “They’re not taxed, they’re not regulated.” Pressure from the recreational pot industry is not the only concern for Oregon lawmakers. They also want to make a good faith effort to stamp out the black market, so Oregon does not become a target for federal prosecutors. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum in 2013, saying prosecutors would IRFXVRQGUXJWUDI¿FNLQJDQG other priorities, but would challenge states with legal- ized marijuana if they do too little to prevent leakage into other states where the drug remains illegal. Patrick Moen is a lawyer who worked for 10 years as a criminal investigator and supervisor for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Adminis- tration, including two years running the inter-agency task force in Portland. Moen is now managing director and general counsel for the Seattle-based marijuana SULYDWH HTXLW\ ¿UP 3ULYDWHHU Holdings, which wants the Oregon Legislature to apply the same rules to medical and recreational marijuana. “We have a group of legacy growers here who are opposed to regulation,” Moen said. Moen said “there is a subset of that group that is providing a needed service to patients. “But the numbers indicate that there is a vast amount (of marijuana) that is being diverted illegally,” Moen said. “I’ve heard if called euphemistically leakage. Let’s call it what it is. It’s criminal. ,W¶VGUXJWUDI¿FNLQJ$QGWKRVH folks have vested interest in protecting their market.” According to Privateer, Oregon produces approxi- mately 408,000 pounds of marijuana annually which would be enough to serve all the medical marijuana patients in Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Arizona. Nonetheless, some lawmakers and people in the medical marijuana commu- nity remain concerned that Oregon patients could face a shortage if the state regu- lates medical cannabis too quickly. Lininger, who is co-chair of the committee, said it makes sense to delay the marijuana grow limits until it’s more clear how many medical growers switch to the recreational market. “The last thing I think any of us want to do is have a chemotherapy patient or somebody struggling with some other painful condition be put in a position where they can’t get the medicine they need to alleviate their symptoms,” she said. Lininger’s concern that patients could experience shortages is also a common refrain on the “marijuana politics” blog maintained by southern Oregon medical marijuana clinic owner Alex Rogers. Rogers, who also orga- nizes cannabis business conferences, is one of the most vocal opponents of regulation and has written on the blog that “at least hundreds of patients will lose their gardens AND be denied safe access when cities and counties ban medical mari- juana dispensaries.” Rogers did not respond to a request for comment. Burdick said the people FXUUHQWO\ SUR¿WLQJ IURP medical marijuana are the biggest opponents of regula- tion, and they are spreading misinformation to patients. Specialized clinics have sprung up across Oregon to help patients obtain medical marijuana cards and then renew them annually. “There are people now who are making millions off the medical market,” Burdick said. “And when it becomes impossible to divert the product so easily, that is going to cut into some SHRSOH¶VSUR¿WV´ Burdick said SB 964 will likely end up at the joint budget writing committee, because lawmakers expect it will impact the state budget. That is where lawmakers from the House and Senate could work out their differ- ences on the bill. The central disagreement is still a provision that would allow a 180-day window for cities and counties to ban medical marijuana dispensa- ries and processing facilities. The Senate bill would allow voters to challenge the bans through a citizen initiative process, whereas House Democrats want the bans to be referred directly to voters. Margolis said this sticking point might actually be UHVROYHG E\ D ODZVXLW ¿OHG last year in Josephine County Circuit Court, where the city of Cave Junction asked a judge to decide whether federal law prohibiting the sale of marijuana preempts the Oregon law allowing Todd Tennant Business Health Farm Life Todd Tennant One Responsible Source Agent 541/276-2302 • 800/225-2521 The Stratton Agency Pendleton / Hermiston • stratton-insurance.com Thursday, May 28, 2015 FUNGUS: Origin in Umatilla Co. unknown Continued from 1A to last year, at 16 cents per pound versus 22 cents in 2014, Wysocki said. OSU began inspecting FDQROD ¿HOGV LQ 8PDWLOOD County after last year’s infestation of blackleg in the Willamette Valley and DGGLWLRQDO¿QGLQJVLQ,GDKR Tissue samples were sent to the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Service pathology lab for testing, and came back positive for the disease. Only about 5 percent of plants are infected, Wysocki said, and it doesn’t appear to be spreading at the moment. However, it is still unknown where exactly this strain of blackleg came from, and how aggressive it might behave. “Mostly it’s a wait- and-see kind of thing,” Wysocki said. “We don’t know what it’s going to do RUKRZVLJQL¿FDQWLW¶VJRLQJ Photo from DuPont Seed to be ... maybe at harvest I’ll be saying something different.” The National Agricul- tural Statistics Service reports there are just 5,000 acres of canola grown state- wide. Wysocki estimates fewer than 1,000 acres are grown in Umatilla County, after a bulk of stands were killed by a hard freeze last November. In Morrow County, there are approximately 500 acres of irrigated canola. Blackleg so far does not appear to be an issue there, said research agronomist Larry Lutcher with OSU Extension Service. “It’s something to look at in future years, and deal with if need be,” Lutcher said. Wysocki encourages Umatilla County farmers to PRQLWRU WKHLU ¿HOGV FORVHO\ and call the OSU Extension if they have any concerns. Since blackleg is both soil- and seed-borne, farmers should be sure to plant only FHUWL¿HG EODFNOHJIUHH DQG fungicide treated seed. “It’s not going to prevent us from growing canola,” he said. “We just have to do the right things to manage it and prevent the spread.” Wysocki will be discussing blackleg disease IXUWKHU GXULQJ 268 ¿HOG days at the Pendleton and Moro research stations on June 9 and June 10, respec- tively. For more informa- tion, contact Wysocki at 541-278-4396. ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian. BEAVERS: $42M facility upgrade planned spent a majority of his speech espousing pundits thought the move was a step his commitment to improving his down for Andersen, who had been players’ academic performance and presence in the community. He said his head coach at Wisconsin. While OSU fans will be eager for goal is to have the team average GPA a successful season following years of 3.0. During his interview before the in which the University of Oregon speech, he said Oregon State needed has ascended to national prominence, Andersen downplayed expectations. WR SUHSDUH IRU WKHLU ¿UVW JDPH DJDLQVW He said the football team has only 13 Weber State before worrying about seniors going into this season while Pac-12 powers, including the dreaded adding his players have “a long way to Ducks. But that didn’t mean Andersen go” before he’s comfortable with their wasn’t above throwing a little red meat physical strength. $OWKRXJKKHEULHÀ\WRXFKLQJRQWKH to a partisan crowd during his speech. While admitting a planned $42 team’s athletic challenges, Andersen million football facility upgrade could Continued from 1A ERRVW268¶VUHFUXLWLQJSUR¿OHKHVDLG any improvements wouldn’t have too many “bells and whistles” like lockers WKDW DUH XQORFNHG ZLWK ¿QJHUSULQWV D prominent feature of Oregon’s locker room. “We’re not going to live in a damn spaceship,” he said. Andersen was well received by the local crowd, with his speech eliciting loud applause on multiple occasions. Despite Andersen’s mistake, the man with the Bucks hat switched to the white Beavers cap anyway. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. WEST PARK: School has shared its methods past three years teachers and said he was happy the state administrators at the school wanted to come out and have researched tried and “see the keys to our recent true methods of instruction, applied them at West Park, success.” He said part of Education tracked the results and Northwest’s model, and by shared tips for better imple- extension the department menting those methods with of education’s model, for other teachers. “We found what works helping focus schools is to and then we stick with those WUDYHO WKH VWDWH WR ¿QG RXW things,” he said. “We don’t what is working and bring back the information to change strategies every year.” other schools. He also credited the “I’d like to think some of the video they got today will school’s impressive turn- be used in other schools,” he around to the help of Mark Burrows, the learning said. Headings said the school coach Education Northwest has been “real big on follow trained and assigned to West best practice” itself. For the Park after it was designated Continued from 1A a focus school. Burrows, former superin- tendent of Morrow County School District, said he and Headings do walkthroughs and sit in classrooms to see what’s working and what could be improved at the school. Each week they invite a different two teachers to come with them to pick up ideas from what their colleagues are doing in the classroom. “It’s changed the culture of the staff,” he said. Burrows said victories tend to build on each other, VR:HVW 3DUN¶V ¿UVW \HDU RI improvement helped inspire its second year and so on. “Nothing succeeds like success,” he said. Once a school receives a focus school designation by the state it stays on the list for four years no matter how much it improves, so West Park Elementary will have one more year of focus school support from Burrows, Education North- west and the state. Schneider said a link to WKH ¿QDO YLGHR IHDWXULQJ West Park should be made available to the school and to the public sometime this summer. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- EPA: No new permits required for agriculture Continued from 1A DQGJRYHUQPHQWRI¿FLDOV The new rules would kick in and force a permitting process only if a business or landowner took steps to pollute or destroy covered waters. EPA says the rules will help landowners understand exactly which waters fall under the Clean Water Act. For example, a tributary must show evidence RI ÀRZLQJ ZDWHU WR EH protected — such as a bank or a high water mark. President Barack Obama said that while providing that clarity for business and industry, the rules “will ensure polluters who know- ingly threaten our waters can be held accountable.” There is deep opposition from the Republican-led Congress and from farmers and other landowners concerned that every stream, ditch and puddle on their private land could now be subject to federal oversight. The House voted to block the regulations earlier this month, and a Senate panel is planning to consider a similar bill this summer. House Speaker Boehner called the rules “a raw and tyrannical power grab.” EPA’s McCarthy has acknowledged the proposed regulations last year were confusing, and she said WKH ¿QDO UXOHV ZHUH ZULWWHQ to be clearer. She said the regulations don’t create any new permitting require- ments for agriculture and even add new exemptions IRUDUWL¿FLDOODNHVDQGSRQGV DQGZDWHU¿OOHGGHSUHVVLRQV from construction, among other features. These efforts were “to make clear our goal is to stay out of agriculture’s way,” McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a blog on the EPA website. The American Farm Bureau Federation has led opposition to the rules, saying they could make EXVLQHVV PRUH GLI¿FXOW IRU farmers. The group said Wednesday that it would ZDLWWRUHYLHZWKH¿QDOUXOHV before responding. The agriculture industry has been particularly concerned about the regu- lation of drainage ditches on farmland. The EPA and Army Corps said the only ditches that would be covered under the rule are those that look, act and function like tributaries and carry pollution downstream. Another farm group, the National Farmers Union, said it still has some concerns about the impact on farmers but is pleased with the increased clarity on ditches, “removing a gray area that has caused farmers and ranchers an incredible amount of concern.” Since the rules were originally proposed last year, the EPA has been working to clear up some misconcep- tions, putting to rest rumors that puddles in your back- yard would be regulated, for example. Farming practices currently exempted from the Clean Water Act — plowing, seeding and the movement of livestock, among other things — will continue to be exempted. Environmentalists praised the rules, saying many of the nation’s waters would regain federal protections that had been in doubt since the Supreme Court rulings. Margie Alt, executive director with Environment America, called the rules “the biggest victory for
