Tracking and reporting of medical marijuana inventory and sales begin in Oregon for the first time ever next month. The state is currently in the middle of implementing its recreational cannabis industry which requires a seed-to-sale tracking chip system.
To avoid an increase in black market sales, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is taking steps to ensure the medical marijuana market operates with adequate transparency. The state is requiring medical marijuana growers, processors, and dispensaries to report how much cannabis they grow, process, store, and sell. However, these new regulations are held in place only by the honor system and the OHA currently does not have enough resources to assign inspectors to verify the accuracy of the self-reporting.
Since medical marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 1998, the industry has remained largely unregulated. Now that voters have decided to legalize cannabis recreationally, the state has decided it’s time to bring some structure to the medical side as well.
The OHA, who is in charge of medical marijuana in Oregon, has been pleading for a seed-to-sale tracking system similar to the one that will be used in the recreational industry. They believe it’s the best way to confirm product is kept within the medical market, and it also allows consumers to guarantee they are purchasing a clean product, free of any chemicals, pesticides or mold.
However, Oregon already signed a $1.7 million contract for its recreational seed-to-sale tracking system, Metrc, and the state is not ready to shell out another million quite yet.
Instead, the advanced tracking system Oregon decided on for the medical market is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet… Yep, an Excel spreadsheet. Dispensary owners, processors, and growers are trusted to input their inventory and sales into said spreadsheet every month, which includes mature and immature plants, flowers, edibles, extracts, and topical products.
The justification for this regulation, or lack thereof, is that the medical market has been doing just fine regulating itself for the last 18 years, which is completely true. Oregon has some of the most high-quality medical marijuana in the country, and the green mindset of the state transfers to its variety of organically cultivated medicine. However, since they are making growers choose between medical and recreational, I predict there will be a significant depletion in the growers of medical-grade cannabis, and there is no guarantee that the growers remaining will produce organic, high-quality medicine.
This lax regulation brings up more issues than a black market leak. Medical marijuana is often used by patients with compromised immune systems, in which consuming clean cannabis is of the utmost importance. Medical marijuana patients need access to medicine that they know is free of chemicals, pesticides, and mold because those inputs can end up creating more damage to the patient. In my humble opinion, the $1.7 million tracking system should be implemented into medical, where the quality of the product truly matters. But then again, most politicians still believe medical marijuana is a joke and that recreational will fill all needs of its state citizens.
Opponents of seed-to-sale tracking argue that it is unnecessary and bring attention to the alcohol industry where this type of tracking is not required. Those who oppose seed-to-sale for medical also believe that implementing a tracking system will hike up the prices which will reduce access for low-income patients.
Even with this small step of Excel spreadsheet regulation, medical growers are not having it. According to state collected data, Jackson County, Oregon has 2,993 known medical marijuana grows, yet only seven have applied so far for the new regulated medical system. Jackson County Development Services Director, Kelly Madding said, “It’s a lot less than I had anticipated.” That’s an understatement! seven out of 2,993 growers means that only .002% of known growers are applying for the permits needed to produce medical marijuana this year. Pete Gendron, president of the Sungrown Grower’s Guild in Southern Oregon explains, “The answer is pretty simple. We’re in a legal limbo and it costs $1,563 to apply, there’s been no guidance on how long it will take to get a permit. People right now are taking a wait-and-see approach.” Although the county said they are not out hunting for illegal grows, growers without permits are risking fines up to $10,000 and removal of their plants.
We know from watching Washington State, the idea that recreational will fulfill medical patients’ needs is absolutely absurd and will cause suffering amongst patients who have lost their safe access to affordable medicine. For now, Oregon is at least keeping the medical market alive, but it’s clear which side takes precedence.
