The Oregon Senate voted to pass HB 4016 today completing the passage of the bill through both legislative houses. The governor now has five (or in some cases 30) days to sign or veto the bill, but we do not expect that she will veto, meaning the bill is all but certain to become law.
The final version of HB 4016 extends the moratorium on OLCC marijuana producer licenses and imposes a new moratorium on processor, wholesaler, and retailer licenses. That means that OLCC would no longer accept new applications or issue new licenses for those license types.
Further, the bill requires OLCC to inactivate all applications for those license types that were submitted on or after January 2, 2022. The new moratoria do not affect change of ownership or change of location applications. Applications that were submitted before January 2, 2022 will be processed (assuming an approved Land Use Compatibility Statement is submitted for the application within 21 days). However, such applicants may not change ownership or premises location of their pending applications.
The moratoria provisions repeal on March 31, 2024, though the bill gives OLCC discretion to lift the moratorium on one or more of the license types before the repeal date.
Other HB 4016 provisions include a new program by which OLCC can assign expired, surrendered, or otherwise suspended marijuana licenses to “qualified applicants,” which we believe means applicants who meet to-be-adopted social equity requirements, and give OLCC the ability to allow a retailer to re-locate if OLCC discovers that the retailer is within 1000 feet of a pre-existing school.
