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Potential Cannabis Licensees Form Line Ahead of Ballot Oregon Ballot Decision

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he battle for the chance to sell cannabis in a small Oregon town is at its peak with interested cannabis business people choosing to line up despite the uncertainty of one of this year’s ballot measures. Those waiting in line, which began to form late last week, are hoping that they will be amongst the first to be able to apply for a license if the measure is approved by voters.

Ontario, Oregon’s Measure 23-61 could allow the sale of recreational cannabis with a three percent sales tax in the city. Oregon legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2015, but Ontario banned it temporarily to allow residents a chance to vote on the matter.

“We honestly didn’t expect people to be standing in line at this point,” said Hot Box Farms owner Steven Meland, who is also a chairman on the city of Ontario’s Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee.  “We just wanted to get in line when we saw somebody else start the line.”

The Ontario City Council recently established buffer zones for potential dispensaries to be a thousand feet away from each other and 500 away from residential areas or designated commercial or industrial areas. “On a map, it takes out about 97-98 percent of the area in Ontario,” said City Councilmember Norm Krume. “They are fighting for land, it is first come, first serve so it is not like a new Star Wars movie, this is millions of dollars at stake.”

If the Ontario measure passes, it is expected that licenses could potentiall be issued as soon as Jan. 2. However, the application process potentially is biased toward a first-come, first-served basis.

“The challenge we had was how we can control the applications for the dispensaries and how that process would take place,” said Mayor Ron Verini. “We’re trying to do it as fair as possible, and not play favorites. That’s what we’re attempting to do.”

Dan Cummings, community development director for the city of Ontario explained that the first applicant hoping to establish “that follows all rules, that has property outside all the buffers and it’s complete as far as site plan and information is required, after I review it and their permit is approved—that sets the thousand-foot buffer.”

And the four other applicants within that area would be “out of luck.”

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