Ballot Measure 91: Early sales and joint stores?

The questions I get most frequently (other than local government questions) are whether early sales to the adult use market through dispensaries will happen and whether a dispensary will be able to serve both markets. The Oregonian discusses both issues  in an article today.

Early Sales: It is hard to tell whether this is a real possibility. Common sense and reason would dictate that dispensaries should be able to serve adult use consumers as early as possible. This issue has come up because, on July 1, 2015, the Ballot Measure 91 possession limits go into effect but people have no retail location to get cannabis. One of two things will happen. First, a robust, low level blackmarket will emerge to supply the needs of non-patients. Or, people will create an amazing sharing economy where they give away cannabis to anyone who wants it. You pick which seems most likely.

There are a few issues the Legislature (and/or OHA) will need to tackle to make this viable including production levels, making sure there is enough medicine for medical patients and whether taxes will be immediately imposed or not. These are certainly not insurmountable problems and could be solved by allowing growers to produce more than their cards allow, creating tracking systems through the already existing POS systems to ensure product never gets below a certain level and make a choice on taxes (there is no “right” decision here) placing the burden on the dispensary to collect. The additional benefit for early production and sales is that it will likely bring more producers into the legal market under less threatening and burdensome conditions than the OLCC will impose. Consider it an intermediate ground for transitioning to a recreational license.

You can find the language for early sales here and click on the -3 amendments.

Medical and Recreation Dispensary: That a dispensary licensed by OLCC will be able to serve both markets seems extremely likely. This is not where the question lies. The real question is which producers, OLCC or designated medical growers, will be able to serve OLCC dispensaries and will they have different licensing requirements.

This article makes it sound a little different than it actually is. OLCC has been very clear that you will need to have an OLCC license to grow for an OLCC store. This blended dispensary model does not change that. What OLCC is suggesting might happen is that a person will not be restricted from maintaining their medical cards while holding an OLCC producers license. When I have explained this to clients, each and every one of them, has wondered why they would go through the duplicative process of paying for cards and paying for an OLCC license just to distribute to the same store. Although many people have discussed maintaining a separate medical garden aside from their OLCC licensed one. That, of course, will be a personal and business decision. But, it is important to remember that nothing in the new laws limit a producer’s ability to donate or give cannabis to another person whether you have a medical card or not. That means a grower would still be able to give medicine to patients with or without a medical card. Finally, much of how this blended OLCC store will function is based on whether or not the Legislature moves the tax from the producer level to the retail level.