OLCC adopts changes in marijuana rules

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission on Thursday adopted changes in the rules regulating recreational marijuana with a focus on tightening licensing and compliance requirements, providing licensees flexibility to conduct business and improving access to medical marijuana for patients.

Under the rules change, Oregon Medical Marijuana Program cardholders or a designated caregiver will be allowed to purchase a larger amount of marijuana during a single transaction.

In August, after noticing suspicious purchase activity in the state’s Cannabis Tracking System, the OLCC reduced the daily purchase limit to one ounce for OMMP cardholders.

The rule changes approved by the commission take effect on Dec. 28 .

Key elements of the rules changes include:

Creating a denial basis for licensees who fail to complete the renewal process, and for license applicants found to have an unauthorized interest in a licensed business; Ending the issuance of new licenses to processors as alternating proprietors (shared kitchen) on the same licensed premises for applications received after January 1, 2019, but grandfathering all current processors in alternating proprietorships; Clarifying camera coverage for waste material and amending the penalty structure for violations based on the amount of missing camera footage and the number of offenses; Redefining the allowable shape of canopy areas a producer may have and including an allowance for producers to obtain a professional survey in lieu of the quadrilateral shape requirement; Allowing wholesale licensees to provide retailers with samples from product lines originating from multiple licensees; Increasing trade sample amounts for cannabinoid products, and allowing licensees to share trade samples with employees as long as the transaction is tracked in the Cannabis Tracking System; Increasing medical patient purchase to eight (8) ounces of usable marijuana per day and no more than thirty-two (32) ounces per month; Clarifying that a retailer can only sell a customer five (5) grams of an inhalant per day; and Allowing retailers to apply for the ability to deliver to patients and primary caregivers throughout the state, even in opt-out jurisdictions.

The new rules can found here on the OLCC Recreational Marijuana website.

The commission also approved a temporary rule that enables industrial certificate holders (hemp producers and handlers [processors]) to continue to operate while the commission completes its permanent hemp rule making.

The OLCC-issued industrial hemp certificates expire one year after issuance; some of the issued certificates were set to expire beginning in January. The commission is set to complete permanent rule making for industrial hemp by the end of February.

The temporary industrial hemp rule takes effect on Jan. 7, 2019 .