Basic facts about Oregon’s early sales of recreational marijuana

Hines Brian September 3, 2015No Comments

Today I got an email message from a friend who'd been contacted by someone who thought I had my facts wrong about early sales of recreational marijuana in Salem, and Oregon as a whole.

That "someone" (I don't know who it was) wrote to my friend:

I think he got the dates wrong for the early sales of pot. Legal sales from rec dispensaries can begin on Jan 4 2016 if i am not mistaken… meaning that early sales (from medical dispensaries) would go from Oct 1 to Jan 4. Brian would have you believe from his blog, that the City Council's action would ban recreational pot from Oct 1 2015 to December 31 2016, if I read his blog right. He claimed that by neglecting to put the year on the agenda item that they were trying to ban rec pot sales to the end of 2016.

This is wrong, largely. I responded with the correct facts.

Glad to reply to the person who has questions.

Early recreational sales from medical marijuana dispensaries run from October 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016. Senate Bill 460 says this at the end of the short bill. It sunsets on December 31, 2016. See:

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB460

Recreational sales through the “late” licensing program aren’t expected to begin until the end of 2016. So it isn’t true that “late” sales begin on January 4, 2016. It will be much later. The OLCC chairman, Bob Partridge, explained this in a Q and A interview with the Oregonian recently.

http://www.oregonlive.com/marijuana/index.ssf/2015/08/post_3.html

Under the early sales law, anyone 21 and older may purchase marijuana from a dispensary starting Oct. 1. Meanwhile, the liquor control commission isn't expected to launch regulated recreational sales until late next year. How do early sales impact the liquor control commission's work?

Patridge: We are going to get a lot of questions related to, 'What does this really mean?' and 'What is going on?' But the OLCC is not the enforcement arm for that particular piece.

Does it complicate next year's rollout of recreational sales under the OLCC?

Patridge: I think it could get awkward toward the end of 2016 because we will be putting up stores at the end of 2016. There could be some overlap and some market confusion.

So, as Partridge says, the early sales through medical marijuana dispensaries can continue through the end of 2016. At some point near the end of 2016, likely there will be recreational stores also, so there could be some overlap between recreational sales at "medical" and "recreational" stores. Of course, likely many medical marijuana dispensaries will apply for a recreational license.

The main thing, again, is that recreational stores won’t open until the end of 2016.

Early sales at medical marijuana dispensaries are intended to bridge the gap between October 1, 2015 and the end of 2016 — helping to cut down on black market sales between now and then, and bringing in tax revenue. (There is a tax holiday for recreational buyers at dispensaries until January 1, 2016; then taxes will be levied.)

Regarding the City of Salem getting the date wrong in their staff report about marijuana, the importance of this is that since “late" recreational sales won’t begin until the end of 2016, a ban on “early” sales in Salem would have meant that citizens 21 and older wouldn’t have had any way to buy recreational marijuana in Salem until late 2016 — not January 4, 2016, as erroneously mentioned by some.

I’ve been following this issue more closely than most people have. It’s sort of confusing, but not that confusing. There’s no reason City of Salem staff couldn’t have gotten their facts right in the staff report, so I appropriately criticized them about that.

Feel free to share this message with anyone else who has similar questions.

— Brian

Since the City of Salem staff report erroneously said on the first page that the early sales program ends on December 31, 2015 rather than the date it actually ends, December 31, 2016, I can see why some people would think that "late" recreational sales in Salem could begin in January 2016.

But this isn't true.

It's unfortunate that the error was in the staff report. I pointed it out to the City Attorney and other city officials last Friday morning, as soon as I noticed it. As I said in my testimony at Monday's city council meeting, I sort of expected a "thank you" from City staff. But so far, that hasn't happened.

This is a big shortcoming of the top officials who run the City of Salem these days. Everybody makes mistakes. I sure do. Frequently.

What's important is that when a mistake/error is pointed out to us, we take a close look at what the other person is saying and consider whether we could be wrong. I've found that City of Salem officials are extremely reluctant to admit when they are wrong.