Make Your Measure 91 Input Count!

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission continues to seek public input in advance of the rule making phase of implementing Measure 91, Oregon’s voter approved, adult use, recreational marijuana program.

On  January 6th the Commission offered interested parties a chance to complete a SurveyMonkey-powered questionnaire, which sought public input the Commission said would help them craft their “listening tour” of communities throughout Oregon. That survey closed on January 12th and the OLCC’s first of many planned visits with Oregonians kicked off on January 22nd in Baker City. The Commission has plans to also visit Eugene, Bend, Salem, Portland, Ashland, Klamath Falls and the Oregon Coast.

Attending these informal venting sessions is likely a good idea. It’s a great way to connect with OLCC decision makers, test your rhetoric on both future regulators and community peers and get a feel for how people in your town feel about Measure 91. Assuming, of course, that your town is among the listening tour sites (see table).

If it’s not, there are a few other very important, and quite effective, ways for you to reach out to the people with the most influence over shaping Measure 91.

Whether you attend the listening tours or not, if you care about the future of legal marijuana in Oregon, I strongly encourage you to fully avail yourself of all opportunities to articulate how you feel about Measure 91. If you like the Measure as written, voicing that viewpoint is doubly important to 91’s final disposition.

For the record, my position is that it would be best for Oregonians if our legislature and the OLCC would implement Measure 91 as written. I’m sure all of us see warts in 91 and have what we perceive are solutions that would make the measure better, but I think those kinds of tweaks have more efficacy when implemented remedially. Let’s let it fail before we fix it please.

There’s already attempts underway to alter fundamental aspects of Measure 91, including the residency requirement and various iterations of a medical marijuana and recreational marijuana hybrid industry.

As stated in previous editions of Flip-Side Magazine, I believe the benefits associated with not having a residency requirement vastly outweigh the perceived potential negatives the no residency characteristic presents. And though, for some medical marijuana retailers, the idea of Measure 91 and OMMP/HB3460 marijuana inventory being retailed concurrently through their stores is attractive, I am absolutely certain that it is in the best interests of Oregon’s MMJ community to remain completely autonomous from the Measure 91 program.

Another reason to share your two cents is that some of the people in a position to impact Measure 91 display an alarming lack of awareness regarding the legal marijuana industry and the day-to-day challenges legal cannabis business owners face.

There are two groups with the greatest influence over Measure 91 and the final rules to which Measure 91 stakeholders will have to adhere: the Joint Committee On Implementing Measure 91, (insert reefer joke here) an Oregon Senate-House committee co-charied by, among others, Ginny “I don’t think we are in a position to approve any kind of edibles right now,” Burdick. Equally important is the yet-to-be-defined OLCC rule making committee.

We’ve provided you everything you need to make your voice heard by our legislators and OLCC honchos, now it’s up to you! Use our handy contact list to badger, err, convey your Mesure 91 thoughts and please be aware that there’s a certain tact that works best when communicating with politicians and bureaucrats. Your message is more effective when you’re concise, polite and professional. And for God’s sake, please don’t mention the illuminati or trilateral commission. Really, don’t.