The Oregon cannabisindustry is in the home stretch of its transition to the recreational potmarket. That is sometimes hard to discern with all the noise around administrative rule tweaks and dynamic program deadlines, but the fact is inescapable. At this point, everyone whose motivation is profits should be pushing toward Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) licensure. The Oregon Health Authoritys (OHA) medical marijuana regime will soon recede to strictly limited, patient-caregiver relationships. The money there is gone.
First, lets get the very recent stuff out of the way. Lately in Oregon, lots of marijuana industry people have been scratching their heads and more than a few have been pulling out their hair. The general confusion centered on the October 1deadlines related to product testing, packaging and labeling, and concentration limits. A flurry of updates issued from stateagencieson Friday, and we got another batch of temporary rules from OLCC and OHA. Friday was a big day.
Although the October 1run up was challenging for some of our clients (and required many late nights of our Oregon cannabis business lawyers), most people were able to get through the packaging and labeling approval process without much delay, and the rest of the industry can take solace in the fact that OLCC will take an educational approach to noncompliance in the near term. As to testing quantity requirements, the OLCCs rule tweak was certainly welcome: we noted back in July that testing labs were slow to come online, although they are finally trickling in. Going forward, we predict licensed processors will be the next recreational program bottleneck. Lets hope its minor.
In the big picture, however, October 1was just another bump in the introduction to Oregons recreational cannabis market, and the big bumps are now behind us. Today, the foremost challenge for existing industry players is probably timing. Anyone who has not yet applied to move into OLCC land should hustle, because the end of the year is drawing nigh. After December 31, OHA licensed dispensaries will no longer be able to sell to non-medical cardholders under the current early start program, and most of those dispensaries will have settled into the recreational market. Anyone who does not follow will be left out in the cold.
A common misconception in Oregon marijuana is that once a dispensary moves to OLCC, it can no longer sell to medical patients. That is not the case. OLCC licensed processors and wholesalers will be allowed to process and ...
