Oregon marijuana industry: Lots of data, few to review it

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon is awash in data on its marijuana industry but has few workers to monitor and check what its legal businesses are doing.

Marijuana businesses licensed in Oregon are required to log into a state database and provide detailed information on their products.

The agency that gets all the information – the Oregon Liquor Control Commission – has only one marijuana data analyst. And it doesn’t have enough people to randomly inspect grow sites and processing facilities to ensure the numbers sent in are accurate.

Oregon is not alone in grappling with tracking marijuana. Washington state recently switched tracking contractors, and quickly ran into technical problems. In California, legal sales began Jan. 1 without a vast computer system for tracking, which won’t be available for months.