Cannabis Conundrum
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]J[/dropcap]osephine County filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon in the U.S. District Court in Medford on April 3 over the state’s recreational and medical cannabis laws. Josephine County commissioners claim that the state has violated the federal Controlled Substances Act and is breaking national law by permitting medical and recreational cannabis businesses to operate. However, the county may be using the lawsuit as a strategy to gain more control of the local industry, which in turn would give it the power to call the shots on what happens with local cannabis businesses. After many attempts to work with state land-use officials to regulate farm land used to grow cannabis, the county changed its strategy and moved forward with the lawsuit.
When cannabis was first legalized in Oregon in 2014, entrepreneurs from all over fled to Josephine County to start up cannabis businesses, which created a huge recreational and medical industry in the area. Wally Hicks, Josephine County’s legal counsel, described that time as the “green rush,” because so many people began invest in new cannabis businesses in the county. Currently, there are 125 recreational cultivation sites in operation, as well as hundreds of medical cannabis cultivation sites. Since 2014, 390 businesses have applied for licenses to operate in Josephine County.
Local officials have growing concerns about the rush of new processing facilities and cultivation sites, partly due to complaints from other business owners and farmers in the area that work adjacent to cannabis being grown or processed. Due to concerns of local residents, and a lack of funding for public safety, the county decided to sue the state.
County commissioners may be looking for a way to gain power in the industry, and now they are challenging the state’s entire regulatory system. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, Wally Hicks explained that cannabis regulation in the county is being executed “in the way the people of the county and the governing body of the county have expressed that they would like to regulate it. That’s what is really at issue here. We’re asking the court to declare whether the state lawfully has that ability to limit those options.” State and federal attorneys are still reviewing the lawsuit, and the Oregon Department of Justice is expected to defend the legal industry.
Business owners and many others from the cannabis industry are very upset about the lawsuit, and for good reason. What Josephine County is claiming has far-reaching implications, and if the lawsuit is taken seriously by the federal court, it would negatively affect the state’s cannabis industry. It could also set a precedent for similar cases in other states, since the juxtaposition between state and federal cannabis law has not yet been called into question by the federal court. Supporters of Measure 91 think that Josephine County is wasting funds, and most people in the industry are hoping the lawsuit will simply get dismissed altogether.
