The Oregon legislature concluded its 2018 session last weekend. As we wrote last month, because 2018 is an even-numbered year, this was a short session lasting just 35 days. We predicted that not all four proposed cannabis bills would pass and that is exactly what happened: the proposed legislation on “special events” for marijuana licensees quickly fell by the wayside. You can be sure someone will push that one again in 2019.
Still, three bills made it through, two of which will impact the Oregon marijuana and hemp industries considerably. These “enrolled” bills have been approved by both legislative houses, and will become law as soon as Governor Brown signs– or within 30 days of passage if she does not. Because these bills passed through two Democrat-controlled chambers, and because Governor Brown is also a Democrat who has never vetoed a cannabis bill, you can be 99.99% sure these bills will soon become law.
Each bill is linked to and summarized below. If you click through to view the bills themselves, remember that text in bold typeface is proposed new language, and text in [italicized and bracketed] typeface is language that will be removed from existing statutes.
Senate Bill 1544 (Marijuana)
This was the gut-and-stuff bill we discussed last month, which ended up covering a range of issues related to medical and non-medical marijuana, and industrial hemp. Below are the highlights. Note that references to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) concern the adult use program, which allows recreational operators to serve the medical market nowadays. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) references relate strictly to the medical marijuana program.
Unlike most cannabis legislation passed in Oregon over the past few years, SB 1544 does not carry an “emergency” designation. This means that its provisions are not effective on passage. Instead, the effective date of this bill is June 1, 2018, with some of its provisions operative at designated intervals thereafter.
Below, we have emphasized the big moves in bold and added brief commentary to those items.
- Allows OLCC producer licensees who are registered to grow medical canopies to provide immature plants to OHA program participants.
- Exempts OLCC processors from labeling and packaging requirements and standard when those processors are dealing direct with medical marijuana patients and their caregivers.
- Requires OHA grow sites to include a U.S. Postal Service address in their application, if they have one. If not, the grow site has to cough up an assessor’s map showing the exact location of the grow site, or a tax lot number.
- Caps the amount of immature plants that a person responsible for an OHA grow site (PRMG) can grow, at 12 immature plants that are 24 or more inches high. Requires also that OHA cap the number of immature plants that are less than 24 inches high. This is an effort to curb black market activity.
- Reduces the amount of both mature and immature plants that can exist at an OHA site if a PMRG’s authority is revoked or suspended by OHA.
- Exempts small OHA grow sites with two or fewer cardholders, from tracking and reporting requirements. This is to give the little guy a break.
- Re-jiggers the Department of Revenue distribution protocol for taxes collected from marijuana.
- Clarifies that although OHA grow sites may be subject to certain tracking requirements, they are not “commercial operations” for the purposes of state law.
- Pushes out dates for Oregon Cannabis Commission reporting obligations.
- Grandfathers OLCC and OHA retailers from the school proximity standard, if they were established prior to August 1, 2017 under a city or county ordinance.
- Establishes a tough-sounding “Illegal Marijuana Market Enforcement Grant Program” administered by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, and earmarks about $1.25 million in grants to “address and prosecute unlawful marijuana cultivation or distribution operations.” This may be more symbolic than anything: $1.25 million is not a lot of money as far as the state budget goes.
- Requires industrial hemp products sold by OLCC retailers to contain labels that clearly identify whether the products are derived from hemp or marijuana. Think, hemp-derived CBD products.
Senate Bill 1555 (Marijuana)
This simple bill temporarily enables the Oregon Department of Revenue to distribute a portion of marijuana tax revenues to community mental health. This is an emergency bill, effective on passage. It also sunsets on July 1, 2019, at which point things revert to the current scheme.
House Bill 4089 (Industrial Hemp)
House Bill 4089 is a multifaceted law brought by the Oregon Hemp Farmers Association. When we first saw this bill last month, we observed that although it was comprehensive in scope, it did not include a provision limiting the ability of hemp growers to sell high THC products, and it did not contain tracking provisions related to the movement of hemp into OLCC channels. Maybe Salem was listening, because the legislature fixed both issues.
Below is everything of note in HB 4089, with comments on the big moves in bold.
- Names the hemp research program operated by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) the Oregon Industrial Hemp Agricultural Pilot Program.
- Clarifies ODA’s authority to administer the program. Specifies that agricultural hemp seed is agricultural or flower seed for the purposes of statutes regulating labeling, testing, or certifying seeds.
- Directs the Director of Agriculture and Dean of College of Agricultural Sciences of Oregon State University to establish a program for labeling and certifying agricultural hemp seed.
- Provides that an accredited independent testing laboratory that has been approved by OHA or ODA may test industrial hemp and industrial hemp commodities and products produced or processed by a grower, handler, or agricultural hemp seed producer.
- Transfers responsibility from the testing laboratory to the registered grower, handler, or processor, for entering hemp, commodity, or product into the tracking system before the hemp, commodity, or product is transferred to a laboratory for testing.
- Requires the OLCC to track the hemp, commodity, or product when it is transferred, sold, or transported to a licensed premises, or area under the control of the premises licensee. This is an expansion of OLCC’s current obligation to track all cannabis in the state, with the exception of home grow and limited medical grow.
- Specifies that industrial hemp products that contain more than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol may not be sold to a consumer by a person other than a retailer, and requires that the OLCC adopt rules to ensure compliance. This shores up a huge gap: until now, ODA growers could theoretically sell these products without oversight.
- Authorizes OLCC actions regarding industrial hemp to enforce and ensure compliance with marijuana laws and provisions of industrial hemp laws that incorporate requirements, restrictions, or other provisions of marijuana laws. More oversight for OLCC.
- Specifies that a person may not produce, process, or store homemade industrial hemp extracts. This further curtails ODA growers’ options, which were nearly limitless under existing state law.
- Changes the description of the limit on production and storage of homegrown cannabis plants.
- Allows ODA to adopt rules establishing a higher average tetrahydrocannabinol concentration limit for industrial hemp if a higher average concentration limit is established by federal law.
- Revises language regarding grower retention of agricultural hemp seed for producing industrial hemp.
- Establishes the Industrial Hemp Fund and appropriates moneys to ODA to implement, administer, and enforce industrial hemp statutes.
Like SB 1555, the hemp bill is “emergency” legislation that is effective on passage. When coupled with the new OLCC rules around industrial hemp passed a few months back, it’s safe to say that the Oregon hemp program is fully formed at last. Like the marijuana programs, Oregon hemp has come a long way.
