Williams Farm With Elaborate Greenhouse Operation Underscores Huge Growth in Local Marijuana Industry WILLIAMS - Josephine County's growing marijuana industry is experiencing growing pains. The number of medical marijuana grow sites in the county has remained steady from a year ago, at about 2,500. But growers who sell to retailers have been sprouting up - 38 new state-issued licenses have been granted this summer to people who plan to grow for the recreational market. More applications are pending. Pivoting to take advantage of retailer preference for indoor-grown marijuana, these new operations are springing up in former pastures and fields across the county. [continues 564 words]
Police Can't Stop Cars for Having Plates From States That Have Legal Marijuana WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Law enforcement officials in Kansas cannot stop and search motorists just for having out-of-state license plates from states that have legalized marijuana, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit filed by a Colorado motorist, Peter Vasquez, against two Kansas Highway Patrol officers who pulled him over and searched his vehicle as he was driving alone at night through Kansas on his way to Maryland. [continues 246 words]
Collections Are Exceeding Projections Pot smokers are paying even more in taxes than state officials thought they would. According to figures released Monday by the Oregon Department of Revenue, Oregon's recreational marijuana sales tax has generated $25.5 million in revenue so far this year, exceeding projections by millions. In the first quarter of 2016, the Oregon Department of Revenue collected $14.9 million from recreational pot sales. In May and June alone, retail outlets collected $10.6 million in taxes to push the year-to-date total over $25 million. [continues 392 words]
Panel Orders Ban Because No State Laws Are Broken SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday banned the Justice Department from prosecuting medical marijuana cases if no state laws were broken. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the federal agency to show that 10 pending cases in California and Washington state violated medical marijuana laws in those states before continuing with prosecutions. [continues 243 words]
SALEM (AP) - People flocked to Oregon's first-ever marijuana growers' fair on Saturday where a competition for best pot plants was being held, with the winners to be displayed at the Oregon State Fair. The inaugural two-day Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair underscores how the once-illicit marijuana industry is starting to go mainstream in Oregon, one of four states to have legalized recreational marijuana use, along with Washington, D.C. Ed Rosenthal, known in pot circles as the Guru of Ganja, poked, prodded, rubbed and sniffed several dozen marijuana plants - some of which were so big they engulfed him in an exhibition hall on the Oregon State Fairgrounds. He and other judges were picking nine winning plants - three in each of three categories - that will be displayed at the Oregon State Fair for two weeks starting later this month. [continues 351 words]
Winning Pot-Plant Entries Will Be Displayed at the Oregon State Fair SALEM (AP) - From seed providers to a company offering mechanized bud trimmers, those involved in the once-illicit marijuana industry in the Pacific Northwest got ready on Friday for the first-ever Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair. Reggae music thumped from Savant Plant Technologies' display as owner James Knox, 38, of Corvallis, set up his do-it-yourself grow package, including peat and microorganisms to stimulate plant growth, among more than 80 exhibitors registered for the two-day fair that starts Saturday. [continues 188 words]
Sen. Wyden says laws are 'behind the times' WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has decided marijuana will remain on the list of most dangerous drugs, fully rebuffing growing support across the country for broad legalization, but said it will allow more research into its medical uses. The decision to expand research into marijuana's medical potential could pave the way for the drug to be moved to a lesser category. Heroin, peyote and marijuana, among others, are considered Schedule I drugs because they have no medical application; cocaine and opiates, for example, have medical uses and, while still illegal for recreational use, are designated Schedule II drugs. [continues 732 words]
Four in 10 Americans now hold mixed views on illegal substances, believing hard drugs should stay illegal, but recreational drugs, like marijuana, should be allowed, according to a newly released Barna Group study. Despite changes in public perception, an additional 32 percent still believe all drugs should be illegal, but it doesn't end there. Beyond those paradigms, 13 percent believe all drugs should be legal but regulated, with only 3 percent saying that all drugs should be legal with no regulation. [continues 469 words]
Both Medical and Recreational Marijuana Commerce Would Be Outlawed If Measure Passes In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, Grants Pass City Council referred an ordinance to the November ballot that would ban virtually all forms of marijuana commerce in the city. The decision comes about a year after the council voted to enact two ordinances banning marijuana, one dealing with recreational marijuana and the other dealing with medical marijuana. The new version approved Wednesday consolidates both medical and recreational into a single ordinance. [continues 241 words]
A public hearing Wednesday about a proposed tax on the retail sale of marijuana in Josephine County blossomed to include comments about problems with marijuana growing operations. No opposition to the tax surfaced from a handful of people who addressed the county Board of Commissioners at the Basker Auditorium, although there were plenty of suggestions about how to spend the money - including education, treatment, health and public safety programs. But the subject of the hearing and a later comment period grew to include complaints about marijuana growing operations, including complaints that they use too much water, smell skunky, are enclosed by ugly fences and allow pesticides to float away on the wind. [continues 406 words]
Critics Call the Assertion an 'Opinion,' and Author Admits It's A 'Guess' Medical marijuana growers in Oregon are producing far more product than they or their customer-patients can consume, feeding a black market that doesn't appear to be going away soon, according to a controversial new report. An estimated 70 percent of the crop will be distributed illegally next year, according to a draft report from the Portland consulting firm ECONorthwest, which has been hired by Josephine County and the city of Grants Pass to study the local economy, including the marijuana industry. [continues 572 words]
It's been suspected for some time that a lot more marijuana was being produced by medical growers than could be consumed by patients, and now the evidence is beginning to surface. First came the arrest of a Jackson County dispensary owner in Siskiyou County for allegedly hauling marijuana across the California line for illegal sale. Now an economic analysis has concluded that a huge percentage of marijuana ostensibly grown in Josephine County for medical patients is instead feeding the black market. [continues 332 words]
State Hopes to Prevent and Delay Usage by Underage People Less than two years after recreational marijuana was legalized in the state, the Oregon Healthy Authority is launching a program to dissuade young residents from using it. The message: Marijuana can affect brain development, impair abilities and jeopardize people's health and careers. The OHA is piloting the campaign in Medford and Portland using web ads, streaming radio and TV and Facebook ads. It's being funded with $4 million allocated by the Legislature in this year's session to help prevent marijuana use among youth, according to Kati Moseley, policy specialist with the OHA Public Health Division. [continues 373 words]
SALEM (AP) - Sales and tax figures collected by state agencies may finally solve one of Oregon's long-running farm crop questions: whether marijuana is indeed the state's most valuable crop, as cannabis advocates have maintained. Tight controls and reporting requirements by the Oregon Department of Revenue and Oregon Liquor Control Commission should result in accurate information about pot, said Bruce Pokarney, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. The department compiles an annual list of the state's most valuable crops. [continues 406 words]
Threats to put anti-pot measures on the ballot were juxtaposed against complaints about overregulation during a packed meeting Thursday evening about the future of the burgeoning marijuana industry in Josephine County. Many in attendance at the Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass complained about the industry, bringing up concerns about traffic, illegal water use, travel trailers moving in, water pollution and even threats of violence. Others talked up the benefits of marijuana as medicine and an economic boon. [continues 567 words]
Law Requiring Fences Around Pot Grows Creates Some Eyesores MURPHY - They say good fences make good neighbors. Then there are the fences that enclose the growing number of Josephine County's marijuana grow sites. There are a lot of them. And they are often ugly, especially when topped by a couple feet of plastic. Among those unhappy with the proliferation of Visqueen view blockers is Chris Locke, a Murphy landscape nursery owner who endures the sight of a neighbor's fenced marijuana grow. [continues 866 words]
I read where our county and city officials are concerned about the influx of casinos. I would think they would be more concerned about the influx of marijuana and the problems that go with it. You can't get a DUII from going to a casino. No such thing as driving under the influence of casino. You don't have the odor from a casino drifting over your fence from a casino-playing neighbor. Put your heads back on your shoulders and stop and think. Employers will be taxing people, not earning money under the table. In applying for a job, how many employers ask if you have a player card? R. W. Golphenee Medford [end]
We've reached another green-letter day in the state of Oregon's continuing experiment with legalizing recreational marijuana: Beginning Thursday, edible pot products are available for retail sale in registered medical marijuana dispensaries across the state. Not in Linn County, though: At this writing, no medical marijuana dispensary in the county legally can sell recreational marijuana, and that includes edibles intended for recreational users. Local governments throughout the county (including Linn County) have barred medical dispensaries from selling recreational pot. Voters in each of those jurisdictions will get a chance in November to decide the fate of those restrictions. [continues 517 words]
Health Officials Warn to Keep Them Away From Children Area marijuana dispensaries and public health officials are recommending that recreational users use caution with extracts and edibles that will be come available Thursday, especially around children. Edible marijuana products with up to 15 milligrams of THC will be available at dispensaries that serve recreational users 21 and older. What's available at dispensaries for recreational users has a fraction of the potency available to medical marijuana cardholders, but Peter Gross, COO of Green Valley Wellness and Epic Edibles, says those not familiar with how an edible product affects them should be careful in the beginning. [continues 423 words]
I am very disappointed by the lack of temerity on the part of the Medford City Council by putting it out to vote on the growing of marijuana in the city limits. I feel the council has been swayed by the minority protestors. Until you have lived next to a pot grow and had to share the skunk like odors you won't know how unpleasant it can be. Also if it is allowed, what will the city do if a neighbor files a complaint? And will there be any law on how far away from a school a pot grow can be established. These are questions voters should know the answers to before voting. Chuck Gates Medford [end]
