If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
Posted on 01/06/2018 10:15:05 AM PST by NobleFree
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams on Friday said he's troubled by the overproduction of marijuana in Oregon and the black market exportation of the crop to other states, though he declined to detail how his office will carry out a new federal directive stripping legal protections for marijuana businesses.
In his first public comments since Thursday's announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, Williams told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he's awaiting additional guidance from federal officials. He offered a cautious response, saying he doesn't "believe in overreacting."'
"I want to be methodical and thoughtful about what we do here in the District of Oregon," he said.
His answer is likely to frustrate Gov. Kate Brown, who held a press conference in front of the U.S. District Courthouse, where Williams works.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama-era policy that allowed legalized marijuana to flourish in Oregon and other states without much federal interference.
The governor vigorously defended the state's legal marijuana market and accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of "ripping the rug out from underneath the marijuana industry," which she pointed out has generated thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue for the state.
Brown's staff continues to press Williams for a guarantee that he won't meddle in legal pot sales and production.
"We want assurance that nobody is going after lawful Oregon businesses operating under Oregon law," Jeffrey Rhoades, Brown's marijuana policy advisor, said Friday.
State officials pointed out new state laws aimed at cracking down on the black market and additional police assigned to a law enforcement task force in southern Oregon to curb the illicit market as evidence that Oregon takes federal concerns seriously.
Sessions roiled Oregon's cannabis industry when he released a memo saying he would let federal prosecutors decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law in states where the drug is legal.
Under President Obama, the federal government took a largely hands-off approach to recreational and medical marijuana provided states developed robust regulations targeting illegal distribution.
In a document known as the Cole memo, federal enforcement officials spelled out their marijuana enforcement priorities, which included cracking down on the black market, violent crime and keeping the drug from minors. Those guidelines served as a roadmap for states as they crafted rules.
Under federal law, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug, a category of drugs that includes heroin and is defined as substances that have a "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use."
Oregon was the first state to decriminalize personal possession of marijuana in 1973 and legalized medical marijuana in 1998. Voters overwhelmingly approved its recreational program in 2014, becoming the third state behind Colorado and Washington to do so.
The state's industry employed more than 20,000 people last year and generated close to $450 million in sales, according to Beau Whitney, a senior economist with New Frontier Data, a market research firm.
Yet Oregon's seed-to-sale regulation of marijuana has done little to reduce the state's notorious role as a black market source, said Williams, who on Friday called it a "huge problem."
"That has been my concern for months," he said.
He questioned why Oregon has failed to contain marijuana production by limiting the number of licenses it issues. According to the latest figures from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, the agency that regulates marijuana, the state has licensed 892 marijuana producers. The agency is in the process of reviewing another 766 applications for producer licenses.
"There is currently no cap," Williams said. "Why not?
He said he remains unconvinced that Oregon has taken adequate steps to address problems identified in a draft report obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive last year. The report, later criticized by the governor as inaccurate and biased, concluded that Oregon has an "expansive geographic footprint" on the black market, with a half-dozen counties leading the way in supplying much of what is shipped out of state.
"I assume that has only grown in the last 12 months," Williams said.
Even as the new federal directive injected uncertainty into an already risky business, some in the industry said many entrepreneurs seem to be taking the announcement in stride.
Vince Sliwoski, a lawyer who advises Oregon marijuana businesses, said "it's full speed ahead" for his clients.
"Regardless of what Jeff Sessions does with policy guidance, I believe this ship has sailed and they'll keep doing what they are doing," Sliwoski said.
Cannabis activists also point out that Sessions seems to have galvanized a broad swath of politicians from states with recreational and medical marijuana -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- who blasted the announcement.
The policy shift was announced days after retail pot shops opened for business in California, creating what industry analysts say will become the world's largest market for legal marijuana.
Since 2012, eight states and Washington, D.C., have voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. A total of 28 states have legalized pot for medical purposes.
"It's just so enormous at this point," said Amy Margolis, who also advises cannabis clients in Oregon. "When you bring California online it really does feel like it's game over for federal prohibition because it's such a vast cannabis economy."
Until the Cole memo, issued in 2013, police raids of large-scale marijuana farms in southern Oregon weren't uncommon. Previous U.S. attorneys fired off letters to dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries informing them they were breaking federal laws and raising the specter of prosecution and property seizures.
Amanda Marshall, the former U.S. attorney for Oregon who resigned in 2015, said the memo prompted a clear shift in priorities away from marijuana enforcement.
Marshall said Williams is likely hearing from law enforcement officials and others around the state and in Washington, D.C., who take issue with legal marijuana.
Those perspectives, she said, are bound to shape his response.
"He has different people pushing him," said Marshall, "including his boss, Jeff Sessions."
Michelle Obama wants it added to the school lunch program.
They had a person in a shop saying...Sessions wants to spoil our party. Have no doubt....these are dopers.
Sedition and Treason should take a back seat to a State deciding the pot is no big deal right Jeff?
“Oregon’s top federal prosecutor reserving judgment on Sessions’ pot memo”
I’m not...it sucks. Will just create more hatred of the government. Many of us who don’t even partake see it as oppressive fearsome government.
Lol! And her husband wants to go back to school!
How about we offer the libtard stoners a trade: hitlery and owebama in handcuffs and leg irons in exchange for all the weed you want.
We live in Washington, the first state to legalize marijuana. In our neighborhood consumption has gone through the roof. We can’t open the front door without the skunk like smell of marijuana wafting from the walking path a hundred feet a way wafting into our house. We can’t drive down the street without the smell of marijuana from the car ahead of us getting into our car.
The police say that they cannot do anything about people smoking pot while they are driving. They have been given no tools to accurately judge how much pot someone has been smoking. It is ridiculous and out of hand here. Maybe you will someday be fortunate enough to have your neighbors who “see it as oppressive fearsome government” be able to smoke as much pot as they want in plain view without any fear of prosecution or harassment from the authorities. Then you will be able to celebrate the libertarian utopia that my wife and I now find ourselves living in the middle of.
Two schools of thought here:
1. Crack down on every use or sale of marijuana, every where, maximum sentences, federal prison, no parole, hard labor. Jail them all, our children, bothers and sisters, parents, cousins, friends, everyone. Put otherwise honest, hardworking family members in prison with murderers and rapists.
When we are sick of that absolute letter-of-the-law enforcement, may our gutless leaders will do the right thing and stop equating it with heroin and cocaine.
Just for catching less of a buzz than the drunk driving that kills about 20,000 people a year and accounts for about 10% of all criminal arrests.
2. Legalize it. 97.7% of America has chosen to do so in some form that is against federal law. Check it out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis_in_the_United_States
Only 4 states (2.28% of the US population) completely outlaw marijuana and are in full compliance with federal law.
Book ‘em Dano......
If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
Book ‘em Dano......
So Sessions has declared war on 46 states. The President really needs to shut this old fool down - ideally by using the executive's statutory authority to remove marijuana from the controlled substances schedule.
Go away, Jeff. You have screwed the pooch in every orifice.
Hyperbole much? I’m in Oregon. The scenario you describe would. R reaver egged even if you substituted tobacco for weed.
Be exaggerated. And that consumption in your neighborhood didn’t start with legalization.
Ping, in case you’re not on the OR list
I live in rural SW OR. It’s beyond insane here. Way beyond insane.
We have basically NO LE. Gunshot victim? Wait time 30-40 minutes. What to speak of anything lesser.
About 1000 grow ops in MY VALLEY ALONE. What to speak of the rest of the county. Total LEGAL grow ops in county - 120.
Crime through the roof.
ROTFLMAO.
Pot smoking/consumption is not harmless, benign or beneficial, but the exact opposite.
Exhibit A:
0bola who admitted to being a pothead his whole life.
Exhibit B:
President Trump has never taken any drugs or even smoked tobacco, drunk alcohol or even coffee.
I rest my case.
I don’t know if I am nor not....
AFAIAC, the entire OR state gov can go to hell (except the few enfeebled and outnumbered Rs that may be decent), but then, they’re on track for that location anyway. Problem is they’re turning OR into hell before they leave.
I can only assume that the majority of people who think Sessions is wrong on this must be making $ growing dope.
“....millions in tax revenue for the state.”
Get ready to share the wealth or they might end the party.
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