State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Williams has ‘significant
concerns’ about state’s
regulation of marijuana
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
U.S. Attorney for Oregon
Billy Williams says he has
“significant concerns” about
the state’s ability to tamp down
on illegal marijuana activity.
Williams, through an op-ed
in The Oregonian Friday, of-
fered a detailed perspective on
Oregon’s marijuana landscape
for the first time since Attorney
General Jeff Sessions rescind-
ed Obama-era Department of
Justice policies on the drug last
week and gave local prosecu-
tors discretion to pursue cases
within the state-regulated in-
dustry.
It’s not a favorable view:
Williams was blunt about what
he called Oregon’s “massive
marijuana
overproduction
problem.”
Sixteen states have reported
seizures of marijuana from Ore-
gon, and federal agents and port
police have seized more than $1
million in cash connected with
marijuana transactions passing
through the Portland airport in
the last six months, Williams
said. And postal agents seized
2,644 pounds of marijuana in
outbound mail and more than
$1.2 million in cash in 2017.
Williams, through a spokes-
man, declined a request for an
interview with the EO/Pamplin
Capital Bureau.
But in his op-ed Williams
said that he wants to host a
summit among law enforce-
ment and other groups to share
information about the state’s
problems to “inform our federal
enforcement strategy.”
Williams claims that pro-
ducers can sell marijuana ille-
gally for more money in other
states, and the profit incentive
drives more criminal activity in
Oregon.
“This lucrative supply at-
tracts cartels and other criminal
networks into Oregon and in
turn brings money laundering,
violence, and environmental
degradation,” Williams wrote.
Williams also criticized a
lack of information from the
state, in particular an incom-
plete report from the Oregon
State Police on a slew of mar-
ijuana-related public safety
topics.
A draft version of that report
obtained by The Oregonian
in March, detailed significant
problems with the state’s reg-
ulatory system, “leakage” of
Oregon marijuana into the il-
licit market and diversion of the
product across state lines.
OSP was adamant the
draft was incomplete. But
nearly a year later, it still
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Capital Press/Mateusz Perkowski
Marijuana plants grow in a high tunnel at a farm near
McMinnville. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said Friday
that he has serious concerns about Oregon’s ability to
regulate marijuana.
hasn’t been finished.
A spokesman for OSP did
not respond to an inquiry re-
garding Williams’ comments.
Meanwhile, the OSP analyst
working on the report has since
left the agency for the Ore-
gon-Idaho High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area, a program
that supports “collaborative
drug control efforts” among
law enforcement agencies in
the two states.
Chris Gibson, the Ore-
gon-Idaho HIDTA executive
director, said that he hoped the
report would be done by the
end of 2018.
The Oregon State Police
are active in drug enforce-
ment. For example, OSP seized
3,687 pounds of marijuana and
over 1,500 marijuana plants in
2017, Oregon State Police Lt.
Gregg Withers, who works in
the agency’s drug enforcement
section, said.
The Legislature has taken
steps to close regulatory gaps.
In the 2017 session, for exam-
ple, OSP was allotted seven
additional drug detective posi-
tions.
And although state officials
have touted the tax dollars and
jobs created by the state’s legal
marijuana program, Williams
said that the tax dollars going
to public safety may not be
enough. State police got $12.75
million out of the $108.6 mil-
lion the state collected in pot
tax revenues between January
2016 and August 2017.
“While state officials have
allocated a portion of marijua-
na tax revenues to public safe-
ty organizations including the
Oregon State Police, the net
effect on enforcement remains
an open question,” Williams
wrote.
Data released this week
by the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission also suggests that
there are gaps in what would
seem to be simple aspects of
compliance.
On Jan. 10, the agency re-
ported that 16 out of 66 pot
shops surveyed in a recent
OLCC sting failed to check that
customers were 21 or older, the
age requirement to buy mari-
juana in Oregon.
Williams wants to convene
law enforcement and other
groups to confront the prob-
lems.
“We need to have people in
the room who can identify their
interest, what the issues are,
and work together to try and
find some solutions,” Williams
told Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing on Friday. “...Somebody
needs to step up and take a hard
look at where we’re at thus far.”
Oregon officials were quick
to defend the state’s recre-
ational and medical marijuana
programs when Sessions an-
nounced his stance last week.
But the office of Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown, a Democrat, did
not immediately respond Fri-
day to a request for comment
on Williams’ comments.
Governor releases priorities
for upcoming short session
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown’s prior-
ities for the 2018 legislative
session include efforts to pay
down the state’s public pen-
sion liability and tighten re-
strictions on gun ownership.
Brown, who is running for
re-election in November, re-
leased five proposals Wednes-
day, ahead of the short session
that begins Feb. 5 and will last
up to 35 days.
Here are the governor’s
proposals:
• Gun control: This pro-
posal lays out a previously
voiced desire of the governor
to close the “Boyfriend Loop-
hole” by modifying state law
to bar people convicted of
misdemeanor stalking and/or
domestic violence from pur-
chasing a firearm.
The bill would also make
sure that the “appropriate au-
thorities” are notified when
someone who is prohibited by
law from buying a firearm tries
to buy one, and have the state
track information about those
cases to learn where the report-
ing system can be improved.
• Affordable housing:
The proposal would allow
the state to temporarily waive
fees and education require-
ments (in favor of training
experience “on the job”) for
File photo
Gov. Kate Brown has
released five proposals
ahead of next month’s
short session of the
Oregon Legislature.
construction professionals to
obtain supervisory licenses
from the state.
It would also create low-
cost loans, administered by
Business Oregon, to encour-
age subcontractors to work on
affordable housing projects in
rural Oregon.
Finally, it would also hand
out grants for new equipment
and tools for construction
workers through Workforce
Investment Boards to bring
down businesses’ costs of hir-
ing more people.
• PERS paydown: The
state is facing an unfund-
ed pension liability of about
$25 billion, and this proposal
would create a fund to encour-
age public employers to save
money to put toward their em-
ployees’ retirement costs.
The state would contrib-
ute 25 cents for every dollar
saved by public agencies, but
it’s not yet clear how much
the proposal could shave from
the unfunded liability, which
is the amount of money that
the state owes to retirees but
can’t currently pay.
• Opioid epidemic: The
governor wants to “take the
first steps toward” requiring
drug manufacturers to regis-
ter for the Prescription Drug
Monitoring Program, create
a four-county pilot program
to test the efficacy of peer
mentors for people having a
drug overdose, and require the
state’s insurance commission-
er to study how to improve
access to addiction treatment.
• State procurement
practices: This proposal
would take several steps to
bring down state government
costs by changing how the
state buys goods and services.
The bill would have the
state test a “reverse auction”
concept that would have sell-
ers of goods or services valued
at more than $150,000 com-
pete to win the state’s business,
and test an idea that would
have the state study whether
requiring 30 percent of evalu-
ation criteria to be price.
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