OCC Aug/Sep 2017

Another gorgeous flower from Roganja Farms in Eagle Point, Oregon. Pineapple Pomegranate

Aug/Sep 2017 Vol. 8 Issue 4

C h u rc h & S t a t e : U p d a t e s fr o m t h e C a p i t o l Taxm an s Steal s Deposi t!

M o r e Pe s t i c i d e R e c a l l s G oi n g G reen West Loses Case N ews N u ggets from O r e go n a n d t h e N a t i o n Food & Reci pes: Waterm el on G azpach o, B u t t e r s co t c h C a n n a - l o l l i p o p s & M u c h , M u c h M o re !

A l s o I n Th i s I s s u e :

FR E E

Image: Keith Mansur, OCC

Connecting Oregon's Marijuana Community Since 2010

In This Issue

Aug/Sep 2017

Oregon News

Oregon Cannabis Connection

Food & Recipes Infused Bi-color Watermelon Gazpacho – Butterscotch Canna-lollipops – Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies – Infused Lemonade

Compassionate Oregon: Working To Protect Patients

4

RICO Lawsuits Threaten Industry

4

Medical Marijuana Bill Signed Into Law

5

Pesticide Products Recalled by ODA

5

At Church & State: Updates From The Capitol

6

From Nature's Control

Going Green West: Going, Going, Gone!

6

The Conscious Cannabis Consumer - Green Source Gardens

17

Oregon News Nugs - News From Around The Beaver State

7

Taxman Steals Deposit

18

8

Protect Your Outdoor Marijuana Plants From Mammals and Rodents

Pete Pontificates: by Pioneer Pete

9

16

Cultivation Bug Bites: For Bigger Buds — The Pest: Grasshoppers

Business Classifieds

17

19

National News NJ Senator Booker Files Grounbreaking MJ Legalization Amendment

10

Cannabis For Homeless Vets

10

Sessions' Anti-cannabis Initiative Trimmed

11

Sessions Issues Asset Forfeiture Guidelines

11

National News Nugs - News From Around The Nation

12

California Produces Too Much Weed Say Some Experts

13

Colorado MJ Entrepreneur Indicted in Cannabis Diversion Operation

13

Uber and Lyft Drivers Get a Boost in Business From Legal Marijuana

13

OREGON CANNABIS CONNECTION is a bi-monthly publication for the entire cannabis community in Oregon. Published by K2 Publishing Co. in Southern Oregon, we strive to inform the public on the value of medical marijuana, as well as provide news, information, and opinions concerning marijuana laws, legalization, and medicine.

All information in OCC is intended for legal use by adults only. OCC is advertiser supported and over 20,500 copies are available FREE at over 380 locations across Oregon.

FOR A DISTRIBUTION LOCATION NEAR YOU, GO ONLINE TO WWW.OCCNEWSPAPER.COM OCC Staff:

OCC Contributors:

Keith Mansur

Anthony Taylor ­ at Church & State

Cheryl Smith

"Pioneer" Pete Gendron ­ Writing Rogue

Advertising/General Inquiries

Nathan Jackson - Bug Bites: For Bigger Buds

Publisher/Managing Editor/Writer Copy Editor/Writer OCCNewspaper420@gmail.com

Compssionate Oregon

Omnibudsman Enterprises

Ladybug Indoor Gardens/Natures Control

Nick and Elizabeth Mahmood Green Source Gardens

Medical News NM Secretary of Health Blocks Cannabis Use For Opioid Addiction Treatment

14

Courts Forcing Youth Into Marijuana Treatment

14

Another Study Finds That Cannabis Use Is Not Independently Linked With IQ Decline

14

Cannabis Tinctures — Four Reasons They Are Better Than Edibles

15

Subscriptions are available within the U.S.A for 30.00 per year.

Please visit www.OCCNewspaper.com to subscribe.

Correspondence to: K2 Publishing P.O. Box 5552, Grants Pass, OR 97527 For more information contact us at 541-621-1723. Email us at occnewspaper420@gmail.com Next issue is Oct/Nov 2017 advertising DEADLINE IS SEPT 25, 2017!

Oregon News

Page 4

Oregon Cannabis Connection

the adverse effects of so many pharmaceutical drugs.”

Compassionate Oregon is an organization that has been working tirelessly in Oregon to defend patients from rollbacks in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). The nonprofit has been an almost singular voice in Salem, fighting against all the changes that would hurt patient access, which have been proposed or implemented over the past several years, while also promoting education and information for physicians, patients and growers.

The organization was incorporated March 5, 2015, as a 501(c)(4) educational organization, although it had existed for the previous two years as a Political Action Committee (PAC). The organization was originally founded by Anthony Taylor and Cheryl K. Smith.

Taylor has been working on marijuana reform in Oregon since 1978 when he was the representative of Clackamas Community College NORML. He got his first exposure to the legislature in 1983 when he worked as a lobbyist through a Portland State University political science department internship with the Oregon legislature. Later, he would be hired by the Oregon Marijuana Initiative in 1985. On that campaign he worked with Sandie Burbank, John Sajo and other Oregon cannabis activist legends.

After 1989, Taylor look a leave from lobbying. He returned again in 2011 when activists were contemplating the next moves after the defeat of Measure 34, a medical marijuana dispensary initiative. Since then, he has been back at lobbying for cannabis causes surrounding medical marijuana, patients and physicians. His experience in Salem has been a key, even though he says much of it can be chalked up to luck.

“I have been really lucky in my lobbying Although Compassionate Oregon lobbies, career,” Taylor explained. “Like [getting] Taylor and Smith believed that a nonprofit PTSD [added to qualifying conditions]… was more suitable because they wanted to that was just perfect timing. All I did was focus on patient advocacy and include an make sure it got to the right place at the educational component. The goal was to get more physicians and other medical professionals educated about medical cannabis • Added PTSD to qualifying conditions and assisting their • Reduced fees for Veterans to $20. patients with its use.

“Anthony has been the major driver of Compassionate Oregon,” explains Smith. “Although mostly unpaid, he has worked tirelessly to get medical marijuana accepted by the medical community, patients in need and the general public. As a patient and a Vietnam era veteran, he understands well how this medicine can be so effective for various medical conditions without

Image OLIS Video

right time. But, I was so lucky because my Senator is a special forces combat vet and is a Republican who sits at the head of a Democratically-controlled Veterans Committee, and he introduced it. It was one of those elevator pitches where in the time it took me to walk from his office to the elevator with him, he agreed to do it.”

Compassionate Oregon helped to achieve a number of victories over the past few years, including lowering the administrative cost for an OMMP card to $20.00 for veterans, adding PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions, and helping to reduce penalties for possession of larger quantities of cannabis. (See below) Cont. on Page 7

• Reduced penalties on larger possession amopunts • Created provision to allow residential care facilities, home health care and hospice organizations be designated as a secondary caregiver.

• Supported and lobbied for adding "pervasive and degenerative neurological conditions" which would include Autism,ALS,Parkinson's, Lupus, Fibromyalgia and more.

• Supported ending discrimination for organ transplant lists based solely on the use of cannabis.

• Integral role as a voice of the patients concerning most of the important legislation in Salem • Developed and passed HB 21 98 which provided needed changes and created the Oregon Cannabis Commission.

• They unsuccessfully lobbied the Early Learning Council to allow for cardholders apply to become daycare providers but did manage to let daycare providers administer medications to pediatric cannabis children in their care.

• Represented patients on Rules Advisory Committees for both OLCC and OHA.

In Beavercreek, Oregon, sits a beautiful patch of 11 acres with horses and forestland that is adjacent to two properties that cannabis producers have been using to cultivate crops since late 2014. Now the owners of the land have filed suit in Federal court against their neighbors over the alleged nuisance and threatening behavior by the cannabis growers.

It may seem like a relatively small thing, the type of neighbor-to-neighbor squabble that happens every single day across the country. But the lawsuit filed by Erin and Rachel McCart threatens to open a relative Pandora’s box of legal complexities.

The McCarts’ case is unique because they’re attempting to use Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes to go after 43 defendants, including growers, processors, dispensaries and even their financier, Bank of America.

The strategy goes like this: growing marijuana may be legal under Oregon state law, but it remains a violation involving the cultivation of a schedule one drug federally.

Therefore, without even requiring the Feds to do a thing, the plaintiffs can use RICO (which was designed to ensnare everyone involved in an organized crime outfit) to rope in everyone in the supply chain from the producer to the consumers.

This isn’t the first time the clever strategy has been used, and the first time, it survived some fierce litigation. The case, also brought by ranch owners against nearby farms, in Colorado was dismissed, however it came back to life via the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower court decision this past June. The way is now clear for the case to be heard, which could have enormous ramifications for the whole industry.

In both the Colorado and Oregon cases, the crux of the claims rests on the idea that the cannabis farms are lowering the ranches property values. Setting a precedent here, especially using RICO, would be ground Cont. on Page 8

Aug/Sep 2017

Oregon News

Page 5

What does HB 2198 do?

• Establishes the nine member Oregon Cannabis Commission to oversee the OMMP Program. (See At Church and State on next page for more information).

The most important bill concerning Oregon's medical marijuana program passed the legislature and is headed for the Governor's desk. House Bill 2198, which passed the House on Wednesday cleared the Senate on Thursday as the Oregon legislature wrapped up its legislative session for the year. The bill creates a cannabis commission that will oversee the state’s medical marijuana program (OMMP), as well as a number of other significant modifications to the state’s beleaguered medical marijuana system. The Senate passed the bill 18–12.

“The passage of House Bill 2198 gives the patients and their growers a great future,” said Anthony Taylor, the bill’s main advocate.

Taylor is President of Compassionate Oregon, a patient advocacy organization. He drafted a much more complex bill originally, but the final bill was a shell of the original, with many progressive changes left out, including having the Oregon Department of Agriculture (DOA) oversee medical marijuana grow sites. Taylor kept fighting and still managed to get a bill through with many important changes.

“We would really like, at some point in the future, to have all the agricultural aspects of the cultivation and production of cannabis overseen by the Department of Agriculture, the state agency best equipped to handle that sort of task,” Taylor explained about the provisions he drafted in the original language of HB 2198. “That would free up resources devoted to that by the OHA and the OLCC.”

• Allows registered and reporting OHA grow sites to sell up to 20 pounds of cannabis to the OLCC recreational system.

Image: Gov. Brown Flickr

designated to produce marijuana by a registry identification cardholder, an attending physician, a person representing the OHA, a person representing the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC), a local health officer, a law enforcement officer, and Aa person knowledgeable about research proposal grant protocols.

Taylor explained that a new commission would be a welcome change to the past administration of OMMP being ruled by the OHA. He told Oregon Cannabis Connection, “We look forward to having an administrative body overseeing the medical marijuana patient program that will be responsive to the needs of the patients and report back to the legislature.”

In addition to the new commission, the bill makes a number of other changes. Most significantly it will allow for a registered marijuana grow site to transfer up to 20 pounds of excess cannabis into the OLCC recreational marijuana system. Currently there is no provision for medical cannabis to be sold in the Oregon recreational system—only the OMMP system. A grower may be part of the reporting program and registered with the OHA, but the new bill will provide an avenue to the market for medical excess and help prevent diversion to the illicit market.

The bill mandates that the new Oregon Cannabis Commission be comprised of eight members appointed by the Governor, as well as the Public Health Officer (ordesignee).

Each member will serve a four-year term and the commission must meet quarterly. It will oversee most of the OMMP, rather than the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and will remove much of their decision-making.

Other important changes affect grow sites.

One will be to allow two medical patients to grow their full complement of 12 mature plants at a single address, but more significantly, it will allow for unlimited immature plants under 24 inches tall.

Another important fix is to allow tax lot numbers, GPS coordinates and means other than an actual address to be a legal “address” for a grow site.

In addition to the Public Health Officer, the make-up of the commission will include: a registry identification cardholder, a person

Governor Kate Brown signed the bill on August 2nd.

• Allows a designated primary caregiver to assist patients with any matter regarding the use of medical marijuana, including production and processing.

• Allows 12 immature plants, defined now as over 24 inches high, per registered patient at a grow site.

Oregon retailers have been directed by Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) to remove the popular insecticides Azatin O, Neemix 4.5, Azatrol Hydro Botanical Insecticide and Azatrol EC Insecticide from their shelves and stop selling it. Similar to the situation with other stop sale orders issued by the department, the products were found to contain ingredients that were not listed on the label.

• Increases the mature plants allowed on one property to 12 (two registered patient allowance) before the grow site must be registered and reporting as a OHA-licensed grow. (Currently only 10 are allowed (one patient allowance and one recreational allowance as per SB 1057, which passed earlier this session).

• Prevents the Oregon Health Authority or the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to require a marijuana grow site to use a security system or any component of a security system, such as video surveillance, an alarm system, sensors or physical barriers.

• Allows additional forms of evidence to establish a grow site address (beyond the actual physical address): a tax lot number, an assessor’s map number with map attached showing grow site location, or an exact location using longitude and latitude, township coordinates, or Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.

• Reduces the setback distance from a school to 500 feet, instead of 1000, for a dispensary and allows an exception to the 500 foot limit if “The Oregon Liquor Control Commission determines that there is a physical or geographic barrier capable of preventing children from traversing to the premises.”

Get Cannabis News That Matters, Read the OCC Newspaper!

A Stop Sale, Use or Removal Order (SSURO) was issued and sent to the product manufacturers. It instructs the companies to immediately cease all sales, offers of sale or other distribution of these products in Oregon.

A derivative of neem seeds, azadirachtinthe is listed as the active ingredient both Azatrol products. But, according to the ODA, their laboratory tests determined that five other pesticides were found: permethrin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, cyfluthrin and chlorpyrifos.

PBI/Gordon Corporation issued a response to the Oregon Stop Sale order. They denied using most of the products in the manufacture of their product, and questioned the ODA definition of “adulterated”. Their response said, in part: “It is important to note, pending the results and validity of the lab tests, the levels of the five active ingredients (all insecticides) found by ODA all fall below the EPA PR Notice 96-8 standard for toxicological significance. As such, PBI-Gordon urges the ODA to reexamine how it defines ‘adulterated’ products.”

Cont. on Page 9

Page 6

Oregon News

Oregon Cannabis Connection

no one gets confirmed until November making the deadline for submitting a report to the Legislature by the December deadline difficult.

What the Commission is Required to Do. “The Oregon Cannabis Commission shall: “

Anthony Taylor is the President of Compassionate Oregon and has unique access and insights into Oregon's lawmaking process, much of which takes place in the Capitol building, near the corners of Church and State streets in Salem.

The New Oregon Cannabis Commission Now that Governor Kate Brown has signed HB 2198 into law, Oregon has a brand new Cannabis Commission.

The creation of the commission did not come about easily and is a combination of the original bill and Sen. Feriolli’s SB 300 which was a separate, stand-alone bill. In the original bill, it was not even a cannabis commission but the “Medical Use of Cannabis Board.” There was some relief when it was changed to the cannabis Commission, because proponents of the bill didn’t want it to become known as the MUCBoard.

The original composition was heavily weighted with patients and other OMMP participants but was not really what was needed to advance the goal of not just oversight for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, (OMMP) but the ability to move the use of cannabis as medicine into the mainstream.

Who’s on the Commission.

“The Oregon Cannabis Commission is established within the Oregon Health Authority. The commission consists of:" • The Public Health Officer or the Public Health Officer’s designee; and • Eight members appointed by the Governor as follows: A registry identification cardholder, as defined in ORS 475B.410; A person designated to produce marijuana by a registry identification cardholder, as defined in ORS 475B.410; An attending physician, as defined in ORS 475B.410; A person representing the Oregon Health Authority; A person representing the Oregon Liquor Control Commission; A local health officer, as described in ORS 431.418; A law enforcement officer; and A person knowledgeable about research proposal grant protocols.

All appointees must be confirmed by the Senate. However, due to the length of time it took to get the bill through the process, the deadline passed for getting candidates into the queue for Senate confirmation during September Legislative Days and may mean

• Provide advice to the Oregon Health Authority with respect to the administration of ORS 475B.400 to 475B.525; • Provide advice to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission with respect to the administration of ORS 475B.010 to 475B.395, insofar as those statutes pertain to registry identification cardholders and designated primary caregivers, as those terms are defined in ORS 475B.410; • Develop a long-term strategic plan for ensuring that cannabis will remain a therapeutic option for persons with debilitating medical conditions as defined in ORS 475B.410; • Develop a long-term strategic plan for ensuring that cannabis will remain affordable for persons with debilitating medical conditions as defined in ORS 475B.410; and • Monitor and study federal laws, regulations and policies regarding marijuana.

The OHA has never unless requested, reported to the Legislature on the status of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, its patients, caregivers or growers. This is not necessarily unusual unless of course it concerns marijuana. The OHA and DHS before were never particularly enamored with having the responsibility of overseeing the “marijuana” program and over the length of their tenure they have been slow and unresponsive to the needs of patients.

The Cannabis Commission, although still a part of the OHA, now reports to the Legislature bypassing some of the administrative red tape often plaguing effective change.

What the Future Holds for the OMMP “[t]he Oregon Cannabis Commission shall determine:“ A possible framework for the future governance of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, including: • Proper oversight and regulation of each of the following, (as defined in ORS 475B.410): (i) Registry identification cardholders and designated primary caregivers; (ii) Attending physicians; (iii) Marijuana grow sites; (iv) Marijuana processing sites; and (v) Medical marijuana dispensaries.

• Necessary amendments to the laws of the state pertaining to cannabis, including any necessary amendments to ORS 475B.010 to 475B.395 and 475B.400 to 475B.525; and • The future role of the commission with respect to the possible framework.

Cont. on Page 8

“I’m Cynthia George, I’m the owner/operator of Going Green West at 41 Olalla Rd. and you guys are all real familiar with me…”

So began Ms. George’s impassioned testimony before the Board of Commissioners on July 19, 2017, in the matter of Going Green’s battle to stay open.

As covered previously by OCC in February, the Lincoln County board of Commissioners has been locked in a protracted legal battle with Going Green over their right to operate in the space they currently occupy. On the night of the Board of Commissioners meeting, George was responding to the recent decision unofficially handed down by the judge in her ongoing dispute. After nearly five months of sitting on it, the judge was granting Lincoln County’s February 24th motion for summary judgment.

“Although the judgment has yet to be signed,” says David Moule, attorney for George and Going Green, “the judge advised counsel that he was granting summary judgment to the County to enjoin Cindy George and Going Green West from operating the medical marijuana dispensary. He also ruled their landlord will be enjoined from allowing a dispensary to operate on his property. He did not provide any explanation for his decision, just saying he was granting the motion.” In short, Going Green would be ordered to stop operating a dispensary at that location.

The crux of the case is the county’s contention that the owner’s of the land the dispensary sits on, which is removed from residential areas in rural Toledo, Oregon, were bound by a 30 year old agreement to get approval for a business change on the property.

Notable was the fact that one of the commissioners on the board attempting to shut down the dispensary, Douglas Hunt, actually lives right next door to the location in question.

Last time we talked to George in February, it was just before their first scheduled court appearance and she was optimistic about their chances. Since then, the court date was delayed, a motion for summary judgment was granted and the business is teetering on the edge of oblivion.

“I was ready to appeal it to the court of appeals and ask for a change of venue,” says George about receiving the email from the judge that the judgment was granted, “I went to a sun dance ceremony to deal with the loss of my daughter, and I come home to an eviction notice from the landlord that we’re evicted as of August 10th, 2017.”

George’s daughter, Angelica Kenney, was killed in a car crash, last November, in Philomath, Oregon. She was only 22. In one bit of uplifting news for the family, Going

Image Facebook

Green did just release a new strain in her honor, called Angie’s Gift.

“I thought we’d get past the summary judgment stage,” said Moule, “a genuine issue of fact needs to be determined, the court is not supposed to grant it.” Moule is referring to both the issue with the land use permit and the conflict-of-interest issue with Commissioner Hunt.

“The judge sat on it for a long time, and if it was so obvious, why couldn’t he rule on it sooner,” Moule added.

The eviction from landlord Craig Kelson came at a critically inopportune time for George and Co. “It was always the case that the landlord needed to be on board,” said Moule regarding the need to keep Kelson part of the team. For one thing, if the eviction goes through, the other points become more or less moot. It’s irrelevant what the Board of Commissioners will allow if the landlord won’t rent them the space. Fortunately for the time being, it appears Going Green has received a brief stay of eviction; Kelson cashed the rent check they sent in, so they’re not going anywhere for now. But that’s just the beginning of their financial woes.

“If the County has to sue you and you’re violating zoning laws, then attorney’s fees can be awarded,” says Moule. So now Going Green is facing a steep bill from Miller Nash, Graham & Dunn, the pricey outside counsel retained by Lincoln County, in addition to moving expenses and their own legal fees. The appeal of the summary judgment will occur within 30 days, however it could be a year before it’s decided. During that time, Going Green will be rolling the dice.

“Who knows? It could be trouble,” says Moule of George’s current plan to keep the doors open pending appeal. Essentially Going Green will be operating in the gray area.

“Cindy is determined to fight. She’s a stalwart,” says Moule.

George is exhausted but unfazed. “Now where is there justice in that?” She asks incredulously about the idea that summary judgment would be awarded without her getting her day in court.

“I pay myself $800 a month, working my ass off for four years. We built this thing. It was empty when we took over,” says George.

As George prepared to speak on July 19th, there was an awkward politeness between her and the commissioners, despite the incredible seriousness and stakes of the issue at hand. She then went on an extended rant, listing off the many reasons she had to be upset and the many ways the commissioners were letting down their constituents in a sometimes-rambling speech. The board seemed unmoved by the speech.

Cont. on Page 9

Aug/Sep 2017

Oregon News

Oregon News Nugs

businesses in the state to voice their opinions and offer advice to the agency that has been regulating the cannabis market. Per the OLCC: “You are invited to participate in a short survey to help evaluate our public service over the past year. Your participation will help the Oregon Liquor Control Commission evaluate our performance and find areas for improvement. The survey should take fewer than 10 minutes to complete.”

Golden Leaf Holdings Finalizes Chalice Farms Purchase In a strategic move by the Oregon dispensary chain Chalice Farms, they agreed to sell their four retail outlets to Golden Leaf Holdings, Ltd. (GLH) earlier this year. Few details divulged were about the value or make-up of their agreement at the time, but it indicated movement in the industry toward possible exit strategies already.

But on 7/10, a Marketwired press release went out noting that the value of the purchase is over $19 million, in a combination of cash and common stock.

Also in the deal, Chalice Farms owner William Simpson becomes the new president of Golden Leaf once the deal is finalized.

The merger could be a sign of things to come in the burgeoning cannabis industry everywhere.

Don Robinson, CEO of GLH, commented in the press release, “With a strong branded platform that includes flower, edibles and oil products in addition to an established leading retail dispensary chain, the acquisition of Chalice Farms brings real strategic and financial value to GLH and our shareholders.

We look forward to progressing with the integration of the two companies and the expected strategic benefits.”

Golden Leaf Holdings is also Oregon-based and publicly traded as GLDFF on the US OTC market. It is the parent company of GoldenXTRX, an extract supplier of vape cartridges and concentrates in the state.

Their stock traded at around $0.22 recently, down from over $0.65 per share in October of last year.

Bump-up Canopy Eliminated The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has decided to eliminate the “bumpup” canopy they approved in April. The sudden move comes after not a single recreational grow site took advantage of the unusual program that would have allowed the growers to produce additional cannabis in their garden, though 75% of the crop had to be donated to patients.

At the time, OLCC director Steven Marks indicated it was an important solution to providing medical cannabis to patients that need substantial amounts of cannabis to treat their illnesses. Marks said in April, “This approach strikes a balance in that it will cover the need of the majority of OMMP cardholders. At the same time the OLCC wants to help patients who are seriously ill be able to obtain whatever amount of

cannabis-derived medicine they need to treat their illnesses and help them maintain or improve their quality of life.”

But, the program relied on recreational growers to give away such a large portion of the added canopy that in the 90 day period they began accepting applications, not one grower stepped up. As a result, even less cannabis will be available for patients going forward as growers switch to recreational licenses or drop patients to get their plant counts to the 12 plants limit that does not require reporting on their crop.

New Public Safety Director for OLCC The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has named a new Public Safety Director. Shannon Hoffeditz was promoted to the position from her previous role as the Portland Metro Regional Manager.

She has been with the OLCC for 22 years.

The Public Safety Director manages enforcement of Oregon's liquor and marijuana laws. The Director is charged with working with licensees, law enforcement and communities to further education and enforcement surrounding the laws.

Hoffeditz's previous positions before the Regional Manager position included serving as a Compliance Specialist and Liquor Inspector. She was praised in the press release as an “adaptable” leader, and those skills will undoubtedly play a significant role in her new position.

“I’m fortunate to have very talented and motivated staff,” says Hoffeditz in the OLCC Press Release. “With alcohol compliance established and the implementation of recreational marijuana at OLCC, there is a lot of opportunity for development, growth and change. I want to lead the division to help business be successful by promoting economic development within safe communities.”

She is a current resident of Oregon City and is an Oregon native.

OLCC Seeks Input With Public Survey The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC), the state agency tasked with administering the Oregon liquor and cannabis markets, is asking for public input by way of a survey available to the public. It’s another chance for cannabis consumers and

This is an informational survey only.

Feedback about specific issues or processes is desired. Please do not use this survey to report suspected criminal activity or license violations. Survey results are separated from identifiers which makes following-up complaints impossible.

You can complete the survey here: https://www.research.net/r/2017_OLCC_Cust omer

First Ever Oregon Public Cannabis Auction The Oregon SunGrowers Guild held Oregon's First Cannabis Auction on June 27th, 2017.

This historic event in Medford, Oregon saw people fly and drive in from all over the state to witness history being made. Dozens of growers were on hand, both OMMP and OLCC, to showcase their wares for the Dispensary owners and OLCC retailers and wholesalers who came for the day. The OLCC had four inspectors there for the day as well, to make sure the rules were followed to the letter.

All of the participants were new to the auction format, and it was a learning experience to say the least. The Guild found out what to expect in the future relating to buyers habits and preferences, and how to provide our sellers with the best atmosphere to engage their new partners. Medical sales were predictably low, with smaller lot sizes and few dispensaries left open under the new rules. Some producers were able to make great contacts, with a number selling out their entire harvest, and even arranging the advance sale of this season's fresh sun grown crop.

Local media provided coverage for the evening news, and the biggest story about the event may have been how uneventful it was, especially considering that it was held in Jackson County with their strict anticannabis stance. The OSGG was thankful to all that attended and they are looking forward to bringing this new sales platform back to the cannabis community even bigger and better in the future!

Page 7

Compassionate Oregon And it's more than just Taylor. He is the first to admit he has received support from others in the organization, especially from Cheryl K. Smith, the co-founder. She has been integral to their efforts.

"Without Cheryl's help in all of this, our message and mission would not have been as clear as it is,” Taylor told Oregon Cannabis Connection. “Her work as a Director of The Compassion Center in Eugene really helped us focus on the patients’ needs beyond just access and her writing and editing skills really helped us get our message out, especially in the early days. We are sad she is no longer active on the Board but pleased to still have her in an advisory role.”

Compassionate Oregon was effective recently, even in the face of a gauntlet of opposition that had formed in Salem against medical marijuana. The belief that the medical marijuana system was a gateway to the illicit market was a difficult obstacle to overcome, but Taylor worked diligently to quell those fears and developed legislation that protected patients rights.

“Spending many years working at the Capitol gives Anthony an edge I think these new lobbyists don't have because they haven't been there long enough,” explained Brent Kenyon of Southern Oregon Alternative Medicine. Kenyon has been a longtime supporter of Compassionate Oregon and one of the few financial supporters of the nonprofit.

“Even though the legislators seemed to turn a deaf ear to anything medical last time I was in the building with him, it's amazing to me in the amount of time we had left that Anthony was able to spearhead a pretty good coalition of [cannabis leaders] to back up his ideas on what needed to change and what needed to be done,” Kenyon said further.

Compassionate Oregon has always been professional. Smith and Taylor both bring cool and calculating heads to the table. Both are helpful skills in Salem. Taylor, in particular, has a very comfortable relationship with lawmakers and administrators. He has often strongly disagreed with Oregon Health Authority policy changes, but still is able to cultivate respectful and professional relationships with administrators.

“Anthony is a sincere and genuine advocate for medical marijuana patients,” explained Andre Ourso, Manager of the OMMP. “Anthony has not always agreed with the way the program has been administered and the implementation of the laws that govern the program, yet he always listens, approaches issues with an open mind and makes a real effort to understand a differing point of view. I respect that he always has patients’ best interests in mind. He has worked hard to ensure medical cannabis will remain an accessible and affordable therapeutic option in Oregon.”

With the millions of dollars flowing into Oregon right now, virtually none will be Cont. on Page 9

Image OCC Newspaper 201 0

Page 8

Oregon News

Rico Case

Cannabis Commission

shaking for the industry, and could start a scramble for new land to cultivate.

Currently, anyone with a few acres of arable land can get in on the growing and potentially sell to local dispensaries or keep it for personal use. Now imagine there’s a legal precedent that allows neighbors to sue because the smell lowers their property values, and they can extend that suit to everyone in the supply chain that has touched the product And since it’s a RICO case, the plaintiff can collect damages in treble. It would threaten to eliminate all residential and small grow operations located anywhere even close to another property owner.

This allows the Cannabis Commission to propose legislation not just for the OMMP but for OLCC as well. The issue here is that everything the adult use market does affects patients. This provision provides the Cannabis Commission some say in what the OLCC might propose. This works in tandem with the allowance to provide advice to the OLCC “insofar as those statutes pertain to registry identification cardholders and designated primary caregivers,…”

“In determining the possible framework for the future governance of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program under subsection (1)(a) of this section, the commission shall consider:“ • Potential factors that could prevent access to cannabis for medical use; • Potential laws and rules that will facilitate access to cannabis for medical use; and • The impact of federal laws, regulations and policies on the possible framework.

“This is basically a road map for people who own property that is near (a marijuana facility) … for how to bring a federal suit to get relief,” Brian W. Barnes, an attorney for the ranch owners in the Colorado case, told The Cannabist in an interview after their big appeals win.

In the case of the McCarts, the suit names two of Portland’s larger dispensary chains, Chalice Farms and Nectar. It shines a light on the dangerous levels of vertical integration in the industry; if someone were to trace the financials back up the chain, they’d find Oregon’s dispensaries are owned by a much smaller number of people than they think. A lot of investors own multiple seemingly competing dispensaries in the same market-space, and a successful precedent like a RICO suit winning in Federal court could have a domino effect, toppling the entire industry.

A new frontier in the legal hurdles the cannabis industry faces may have just emerged. The outcomes of the cases in the Oregon and Colorado Federal Circuit Court systems will undoubtedly be closely observed by the entire industry.

“Steps that the state must take, whether administrative or legislative in nature, to ensure that research on cannabis and cannabis-derived products is being conducted for public purposes, including the advancement of:” • Public health policy and public safety policy; • Agronomic and horticultural best practices; and • Medical and pharmacopoeia best practices. “[t]he commission shall consider: • Potential factors that could prevent access to cannabis for medical use; • Potential laws and rules that will facilitate access to cannabis for medical use; and • The impact of federal laws, regulations and policies on the possible framework.

These last three provisions provide the tools the new Cannabis Commission will need to assess the current status of the OMMP and protect a future for the program and patients that has not seemed so sure during the process of creating a regulated adult use market.

Oregon Cannabis Connection

Adding yet another crazy reason the marijuana banking system is ridiculous, a medical marijuana dispensary in Klamath Falls, Oregon, had their cash tax payment stolen … by the tax man himself!

On Tuesday, Salem Police arrested Theodore Raymond Paulsen, 55, an employee at the Oregon Department of Revenue for first degree theft, mail theft, first-degree official misconduct and possession of methamphetamine. He was released on his own recognizance with orders to appear in court July 12.

Ed Medina, a dispensary owner, mailed his deposit certified mail with signature required on January 17, 2017, to the Oregon Department of Revenue in Salem. They received the payment on January 20.

“I didn't know until Department of Revenue sent me a letter [that] it was never received about a month later,” Ed Medina told Oregon Cannabis Connection.

It contained Western Union money orders, which he is forced to purchase because federal regulations make normal banking almost impossible. Almost all cannabis businesses operate with cash and money orders.

The authorities were unhelpful initially, and Medina got the runaround from a couple of different law enforcement agencies.

“After multiple contacts with the Department of Revenue explaining the situation, and getting no help whatsoever, I contact multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Postmaster General, Oregon Department of Justice, Klamath Falls Police, Oregon State Police, Marion County Sheriff's department and Salem Police. Each of those agencies claimed it wasn't their jurisdiction,” Medina explained. “I got the runaround for two days straight. I explained that I had copies of all of the documents, including copies of the signer for the certified mail, and copies of the forged and cashed money orders.”

After the Salem Police told him that they could do nothing without a Klamath Falls Police report being filed, he convinced the Klamath Falls PD to file a report. Eventually they started to investigate, but Medina found them less than helpful about the theft.

“All in all, it felt as if all [the agencies] involved did not feel this was a priority, or something they wanted to deal with,” Medina said. “It was obvious that they all expected me to just drop it, but I persisted.”

He finally mailed all the documentation he had, including the mail receipt with Paulsen's signature and the money order documentation showing the deposits. Once

Image: Ed Medina

they did finally investigate, they quickly moved to make the arrest within a few weeks.

“I e-mailed all of the copies I had to the Salem PD officer, and that was that,” Medina explained. “Several weeks later they contacted me to say an arrest had been made, and that it was an employee of the Oregon Department of Revenue.”

The problem with cannabis business banking is a serious issue nationwide, and thousands of businesses are subject to discrimination due to the status of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance. Having that designation—which means the drug is treat the same as narcotics such as methamphetamine and heroin—has been the main barrier to federal approval in many areas, including banking regulations.

“If we were allowed to have a bank account, all of this could have been avoided,” said Medina. “I also believe this exemplifies the dangers of our industry due to the unfair laws and regulations ... It shows the double standard imposed on cannabis businesses, and the jeopardy it puts us in.”

In the end, Medina won the fight but he feels like a second class citizen simply because he runs a medical cannabis dispensary. They authorities did not believe him, even though he had all the documentation to prove it.

“I do feel vindicated, since the Department of Revenue treated me as if I was the criminal, and threatened legal action if I didn't pay up,” he said. “They did not take my case seriously, and I am still waiting for an apology.”

At least two other individuals are being investigated in the case and may have colluded with Paulsen in the fraud. The search warrant also indicated other tax theft incidents may have occurred. The investigation is ongoing.

Oregon News

Aug/Sep 2017

Pete Pontificates

Going Green West “I followed the law from day one. They didn’t.

Let them look in the mirror for a while,” said George bitterly. But she wasn’t alone at that meeting. Defenders from within the community were there too, including Heather Mann, Executive Director at Newport-based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. Her family lives in Siletz and her husband is a Going Green patient.

"Pioneer" Peter Gendron is a longtime cannabis grower, activist, and patient. He is the founder of Omnibudsman Enterprises and is the President of the Board of Directors for the Oregon SunGrowers Guild

All Grown Up Many are decrying the death of the OMMP after the passage of SB 1057, SB 56 and HB 2198 this last legislative session—and these bills did make major changes. I'd like to take a contrarian view on what is happening, and talk about our cannabis programs in Oregon and how they have grown up.

Image Going Green

“He’s had many doctors happily prescribe him opioids, he chooses to manage his pain with cannabis instead to avoid becoming addicted to pills,” said Mann in a passionate speech defending their access to cannabis as medicine. “I cannot describe to you the stunning disbelief I have had about your decision to target this business and force them to close.” Mann’s husband has been an OMMP patient of over 15 years.

“There is literally no reason not to keep this business open,” said Mann. She also highlighted the fact that Going Green is allmedical, with no intention of ever going recreational, just another reason she feels the dispensary should be embraced by the community.

George has given her whole side of things a million times. To reporters, lawyers, friends, family, the Board of Commissioners... but still not the one place she wants.

“I haven’t had one day in court,” said George, “I haven’t been able to stand up and say any of it.”

The other three Going Green locations will remain open in Sweet Home, Grande Ronde, and Albany.

The OMMP celebrated its 18th birthday last November 3 to little fanfare. That is surprising when we consider that 18 is the age of maturity in our society. I can't tell you how many parents are delighted when their little one, all grown up, is done with school and ready to move out of the house and get a job.

That's exactly what the State legislature did with the OMMP. They said: “You're all grown up now, we gave you the keys to the car and you got your first job, and now it's time to be an adult, move out and earn a living!” These references are to the passage of bills prior to M91, which allowed patients to grow more plants, retail sales to occur under the OMMP dispensary system, and producers to be compensated for their labor.

Our baby's all grown up! A full adult by society's standards (although it can't smoke itself yet), and ready for the responsibilities that go with maturity (we hope). Not to that mention the guardians of our favorite child, —OHA—treated our baby terribly, alternately neglecting and abusing the OMMP since infancy. When caught stealing from our offspring, the response of the OHA was: “You live in our house, so we keep the money you earn and spend it how we want.

It's ours now, and there's nothing you can do about it.” That’s no way to raise a responsible adult, if you ask me.

Many have decried M91 as the death of medical marijuana. But the legislature was about to change the program whether or not

the voters—the parents—chose to. “Wake up!

You need to make money!” was the cry in the statehouse. (My apologies to 21 Pilots for that last line. I'm the parent of teenagers and young adults, too.) So the newly 18 and wageearning part of the OMMP moved into new digs. The OLCC had space, so medical sales packed up and moved out for a new, bigger job opportunity.

But they didn't take everything with them.

Much like the bedroom that your collegebound kiddos never really empty, or the stuff left in the garage they'll be back for later (I promise, Mom.…), many good parts of the OMMP remain as more than memories.

While the legislature essentially gave the retail program to the OLCC, for dispensary owners it was a business decision to make the switch from medical to adult use.

Patients represent only about 10% of sales, so business owners chose to cater to a larger market while still being able to provide medicine to patients tax-free.

Please, don't forget while you're dissecting my flawed analogy that 80% of OMMP growers are not affected by the new rules.

You read that right. Over 20,000 mom-andpop growers of 6–12 plants (1–2 cards) will face no major changes as a result of this year's legislation Only the 20% of growers—those with three or more cards—are required to scale back their gardens or start reporting into the METRC system. For some, who have had significant problems with the OMMP reporting system, this is not a bad thing. Because medical growers have no path to market right now (at least within Oregon), about 5000 OMMP growers have the ability to sell some of their produce into our retail outlets.

What about the remaining patients? The OHA had taken over $9 million a year from our poorest citizens (48% of OMMP participants qualify for means-tested, reduced card fees) and spending it on other programs. This, too, stopped this legislative session. Veterans pay a reduced card application fee of $20 (what are you vets waiting for?). A medical card provides taxfree medication and higher concentration products for medical patients at all stores, and allows patients to continue growing for themselves or have a medical grower.

The ACMM (also long ignored by the OHA) is being replaced with a new Oregon Cannabis Commission that will report directly to the legislature, and the OLCC is printing new stationery that reflects a name change to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

So instead of mourning the death of our child (it'll be home on weekends to do laundry and eat all the food in the house), let's look at ways to help our newly-minted adult in the next stage of life while making sure our most vulnerable patients are taken care of.

Pioneer Pete hit his funny bone at the Omnibudsman Enterprises office, and will be indisposed for the duration of this vape pen.

by r e d an s u t s H o Dog M M ad

Page 9

Pesticide Recall Cont. From Pg. 5 The other stop sale on Azatin O®, manufactured by OHP, Inc., of Pennsylvania, and Neemix 4.5®, manufactured by Certis USA, LLC, of Maryland also had ingredients not listed. Both products were determined by ODA to have bifenthrin and fenpropathrin in their mix; the Azatin O® also had lambdacyhalothrin.

Both consumers and resellers were advised against distribution and sales. All of the detected pesticides in the four products are types of pyrethroids except chlorpyrifos, which is an organophosphate.

Compassionate Oregon Cont. From Pg. 7 spent to defend patients’ rights. All the focus is now on making money, and patients seem to be left behind. There are plenty who have profited from the lobbying efforts, and many new lobbying positions with lobbying groups and associations have sprung up since adultuse legalization occurred. Pick any particular cannabis industry—dispensaries, extractors, growers—and there's a new association lobbying for them.

“While we have seen so many advocating for political positions that increase their income (often at the expense of individuals), Anthony and Compassionate Oregon have not wavered from their stance of protecting patient rights and keeping the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program alive,” Smith explained.

Their motives are exemplary, but few have been financially supportive of their efforts. It is not cheap to lobby in Salem, and it takes a lot of hours on the ground to pull it off. Big business with big money interests can easily afford to pay for a lobbyist to advocate for their bottom line, but medical cannabis patients have few resources and little organization so they could be left without a strong voice to advocate for them. That's why Compassionate Oregon is there.

“Raising money for a nonprofit organization is probably one of the toughest tasks that they face and Compassionate Oregon is no different,” said Taylor. “Compassionate Oregon has just started a membership drive for the first time in its history, and we hope with our membership structure to be able to not only bring more patients in, but to create involvement among the membership to help further the goals of Compassionate Oregon.”

If you are a medical cannabis patient, then you should support Compassionate Oregon if you have the means. For a small donation each month you can help support the one organization that truly defends the OMMP and medical cannabis patients’ rights. Take the time to visit their website at www.compassionateoregon.org to donate and learn more.

Page 10

National News

Oregon Cannabis Connection

some Senators from legal recreational cannabis states, like Democrat Diane Feinstein of California and moderate Republican Susan Collins of Maine, also came out in opposition to the bill.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, an outspoken advocate for cannabis law reform, recently introduced a new bill to the US Senate. Titled the Marijuana Justice Act, the bill would completely remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. Unfortunately, many Senators have already voiced their concern over the bill, believing that it may go too far for them.

Booker made an announcement on August 1, 2017, on Facebook live, before he officially introduced the bill.

“My bill does a number of things,” Booker said in the video. “First and foremost it deschedules marijuana from the list of controlled substances, thus making it no longer illegal in federal law.”

Only a few hours later, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas commented on his own Twitter account, “Big mistake.”

The Senator immediately began to receive reply after reply from his constituents who took him to task over his comment ... without a single comment in support of his post 24 hours later.

Senators from prohibitionist states were not the only ones to question the bill. Even

"I'm not there. I think there's a lot about marijuana we don't know," Feinstein told Rolling Stone. "I think marijuana has potential dangers to it. I think they need to be looked at—calibrated. I think we need to be concerned about young people, without judgment, particularly in cars.

Particularly on Saturday night, smoking marijuana, candidly.”

"I do not support a national, a federal effort to decriminalize marijuana," Collins also explained to Rolling Stone. "We're in the midst of an opioid crisis in this country and I think the last thing we need is for the federal government to send a signal that marijuana should be legalized across this country."

With all the cannabis legislation in Congress this year, this new bill is hands-down the furthest reaching. It would completely remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as well as expunge convictions of people previously convicted of cannabis possession and use. It goes a step further and punishes communities that have a disproportionate arrest or incarceration rate for marijuana convictions against minorities or the poor by removing federal funds for prison and jail construction and staffing.

It would even allow for restitution to adversely affected areas with an “incentive pool” of federal funds. Booker explained in his announcement, “[S]ome communities devastated by marijuana laws will be able to apply for reinvestment funds, to help pay for community centers, public libraries, youth centers and other infrastructure and social needs.”

It’s a big deal. It is the strongest bill ever introduced in Congress to end marijuana prohibition, by almost every account.

Salon's article on the Act was entitled, “The First Serious Federal Weed Legalization Bill Ever Just Hit Congress.”

And, even Forbes magazine supports Booker's efforts, saying, “Senator Cory Booker's bill, the Marijuana Justice Act, is a good step toward legalization nationwide. But it needs to go further.”

"This is the single most far-reaching marijuana bill that's ever been filed in either chamber of Congress," explained Tom Angell, founder of the Marijuana Majority, in a statement. “More than just getting the federal government out of the way so that states can legalize without DEA harassment, this new proposal goes even further by actually punishing states that have bad marijuana laws. Polls increasingly show growing majority voter support for legalization, so this is something that more senators should be signing on to right away."

Download the Marijuana Justice Act at: https://www.documentcloud.org and search Marijuana Justice Act.

An intrepid group in Tucson, Arizona, is trying to conquer one of our nation’s most glaring health service shortcomings— underserved military veterans—with cannabis access. Led by controversial figure Jon McClane, Veteran Rescue Mission (VRM) is a group whose goal is to help homeless veterans with the services they need, be it food, security, a place to sleep, hygiene or, their current main focus, health care.

VRM teamed with Dr. IV:XX (that’s the Roman numerals 4:20 in case you missed it), a Tucson-area medical marijuana certification center, to get homeless vets the appointments they need, and to pay for the fees associated with attaining a medical marijuana authorization card in Arizona.

So far, they have helped four homeless veterans get through the program and obtain medical cards. It’s somewhat unclear in the plan how the veterans will be able to afford to actually purchase cannabis at a dispensary. Still, this is a big win for a number of key reasons, not the least of which being that vets are a group among the most vulnerable to victimization by opioid over-prescription.

While frequently having a very low or fixed income—in this case being homeless—veterans served by the Veterans Administration(VA) may be left in pain with no shortage of dangerous and

VA director David Shulkin M.D. Image Stripes

powerfully addictive pills. Meanwhile, the VA still won’t officially green-light cannabis as an accepted treatment.

A July piece in the Washington Post noted that VA director David Shulkin didn’t mention cannabis research a single time in his “State of the VA”

speech in Washington, DC, on May 31 of this year. When asked about it in the press conference after the speech, he gave less than enthusiastic endorsement.

"There may be some evidence that this is beginning to be helpful, and we're interested in looking at that and learning from that,” Shulkin was quoted as saying, “but until time that federal law changes, we are not able to be able to prescribe, you know, medical marijuana for conditions that may be helpful."

A recent attempt by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) to make it okay for VA doctors (in states where it’s medically legal to do so) to authorize marijuana was blocked from a vote, despite broad support in both parties. The amendment to the 2018 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill would have also prevented the Feds from using funds to attempt to block or enforce cannabis rules against the VA in those states.

Thus, there is still a pressing need for McLane and Veteran Rescue Mission’s plan—which hopefully could be adopted in other states with medical cannabis programs, as well.

The controversy surrounding VRM’s McLane is well-known to residents of the Tucson area. A newly-ordained Christian minister, McLane has previously been in the news for a variety of reasons. Starting with his role as an organizer of the Occupy Tucson protests in 2011, McLane has campaigned, protested and organized on behalf of homeless people, and veterans in particular.

After winning a $20,000 payout from the city for a lawsuit he brought regarding his arrests at the Occupy protests, he created the Safe Park project. The initiative placed lockable wooden living pods all around a Tucson downtown park, transforming it into a homeless encampment. The project eventually ended with a protracted legal battle and the tenants and their pods evicted. But McLane has also been in the news with accusations of abandoning his family financially—owing thousands in child support for his three children, while basking in a warm glow of public praise.

In addition, he has been arrested for selling marijuana.

Regardless of how McLane has been portrayed in the media, or his seeming comfort in front of a camera and a microphone, Veteran Rescue Mission is helping homeless vets get access to safer medical care. It’s an idea worth saluting.

Aug/Sep 2017

National News

Sessions’ Anti-Cannabis Initiative Trimmed

Somewhat overlooked in the recent raft of negative press for the Trump administration and several of the president’s key appointees is the fate of those appointees’ initiatives.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made waves in the canna-business community, not to mention the wider world, this past April when he testified before the Senate Caucus on Narcotics. “[S]end that message with clarity, that good people don't smoke marijuana,” said Sessions in a sea of other testimony as to the negative effects of marijuana. It certainly seemed, and Sessions was saying explicitly, that the Federal government was going to be going after legal weed.

Nearly every media source in the country, including OCC, had envisioned potentially apocalyptic outcomes for the legal marijuana industry. But now?

What a difference a few months makes.

Among other problems mounting for the beleaguered Sessions, his self-assembled Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety has returned a report saying basically nothing new on the subject—and nothing old either—just a lot of vagaries and recommendations to stay the course. With no recommendations for ways to combat the scourge of legal cannabis (a scourge netting states millions in new revenues), Sessions’ hands aren’t exactly tied, but they’re not exactly holding tools for bludgeoning.

The report, not officially released yet, but obtained by the Associated Press, has recommendations such as one that the Justice Department “should evaluate whether to maintain, revise or rescind,” Obama-era policies. That’s sounds like non-specific and probably toothless talk about policies that have largely allowed recreational and, particularly, medical industries in states that have chosen to legalize them, to exist unmolested.

Page 11 to keep the property seized. It can include real property, automobiles and other items of value associated with a person or organization that is merely suspected of committing a drug crime, including marijuana-related crimes. It is so prevalent that in 2014, using this arcane law, America's police forces stole more property than burglars did!

“President Trump has directed this Department of Justice to reduce crime in this country, and we will use every lawful tool that we have to do that,” Session's also stated in the memo. “We will continue to encourage civil asset forfeiture whenever appropriate in order to hit organized crime in the wallet.”

on Flickr

Some are less surprised about the new developments than others, though. While many had dire predictions due to Sessions’ bellicose statements, those in investments, who are putting statistics behind their wagers on markets, still saw only growth for legal cannabis. An article from last month in The Motley Fool touted nearly 300,000 new cannabis jobs in the next three years, and growth of the recreational channel by 300% over the next four years to over $21 billion annually. And that’s all from before the nonnews from the Sessions Task Force.

Add to all that the larger uncertainty in Sessions’ job security, and the winds are blowing very favorably for those in the industry. Many see the Attorney General’s resignation as imminent, if not long overdue at this point, after weeks of being him on the outs with President Trump himself. Seeing as this was never a tent-pole policy initiative in Trump’s platform before adding Sessions to the team, it seems unlikely it will be after he’s gone.

Still the word on Federal legality lies in cannabis’s designation as a Schedule I drug with no medicinal benefit. Until that issue is dealt with, the best news will continue to be no news on the horizon for the legal marijuana industry.

Sessions Issues Asset Forfeiture Guidelines The United States Attorney General has come out with new policy guidelines that will increase the use of asset forfeiture in drugrelated cases. On July 19, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions reiterated his earlier position with a policy memorandum that explains why he thinks it is effective.

He makes it clear in the memo that the new guideline will take effect immediately.

Sessions stated: "As any of these law enforcement partners will tell you and as President Trump knows well, civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement defund organized crime, take back ill-gotten gains, and prevent new crimes from being committed, and it weakens the criminals and the cartels. Even more importantly, it helps return property to the victims of crime.

Civil asset forfeiture takes the material support of the criminals and instead makes it the material support of law enforcement, funding priorities like new vehicles, bulletproof vests, opioid overdose reversal kits, and better training. In departments across this country, funds that were once used to take lives are now being used to save lives."

It's arguably unconstitutional to take property without due process. Of course, regional drug enforcement teams nationwide have used asset forfeiture for their own gains for decades and still use on medical marijuana grows and dispensaries in states that have legalized medical use. Recent years have seen a decline in the practice surrounding state licensed marijuana cultivation and distribution, but the promise to increase the tactic is making the cannabis industry in legal states take notice.

The practice has been a profit motive for local law enforcement agencies, which are allowed

Even though fully 20% of forfeiture cases are challenged in court, Sessions believes the practice of asset-seizing is appropriate and effective. But, he did show a modicum of concern for people who may be victims of police overreach, stating, “Even so, we must take every precaution to protect the rights of claimants in that small minority of cases.”

Fortunately, 13 states now require a conviction before seizing assets from individuals. But, with the Department of Justice pushing this tactic hard, it will be interesting to see how states respond.

In one example of overreach, Michigan authorities raided a medical marijuana business, suspecting they were out of compliance with the state’s medical marijuana laws. According to testimony before a Michigan legislative committee in 2015, all the property they took was from a woman who was essentially a “soccer mom.”

"After they breached my door, at gunpoint, with masks," Annette Shattuck said in the hearing, "they proceeded to take every belonging in my house. And when I say every belonging, I mean every belonging."

Michigan legislators have been working to change the forfeiture laws, but have not made the progress many would like. State Representative Peter Lucido is one of those lawmakers and he posted a guest article on M Live explaining the problem: "Let's take a second and think about that concept. We live in a country that says you are innocent until proven guilty, but we can take someone's property before they are even convicted, much less charged with a crime, and then make them pay to maybe get it back? This is not justice, this is cruelty, disproportionately impacting lower-income individuals."

All the legal marijuana states should have asset forfeiture laws that require conviction, at a minimum. The practice is draconian and goes against the civil rights of people and the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Check your state’s asset forfeiture laws and, if needed, contact your local legislator to get changes made. It's time law enforcement was held accountable for their actions and not profiting from unnecessary and unwarranted overreach.

Page 12

National News

National News Nugs

I have a sneaking suspicion that a cartridge supplier in LA had their product stolen, and this fool just got caught in Indiana with a felony amount of weed. In the end, it seems like justice to me!

Largest Cannabis IPO in North America A major score was made in the marijuana business world June 1 when a Canadian company raised C$110 million ($75 million USD) in their Initial Public Offering (IPO).

It was the largest IPO for a cannabis stock in North American history. MedReleaf, based in Markham, Ontario, surpassed CanniMed Therapeutics, Inc., which raised C$69 million in December.

The company priced their stock at C$9.50 per share, which would give the company a total valuation of C$895 million, second only to Canopy Growth Corp., which will begin trading on June 7. The sales consisted of C$80 million in shares from the treasury and another C$20 million in existing private stockholder shares.

The company will trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker LEAF. GMP Securities led the offering, which is expected to be eclipsed soon by other offerings. Some of the currently listed companies went public through reverse takeovers, rather than IPOs. According to an analyst in Toronto, the medical marijuana market increased to over 153,000, which is a 300% increase from last year. The country is poised to have a legal market start operation by July 1, 2018.

“Production is struggling to catch up,” Vahan Ajamian of Beacon Securities told Bloomberg.com. “Then you throw on recreational in 12 to 13 months from now and obviously that’s going to give more traction for shareholders.”

$1.25 Million Cannabis “Vape Tube” Bust in Indiana From Weed News

It is finally happening. The illicit cannabis market is turning to prefilled vape cartridges as their produc—likely driven by demand. In a major bust along Interstate 70 in Indiana, a man was caught carrying over 30,000 vape cartridges prefilled with cannabis extract that contained high amounts of THC, the compound in marijuana that makes you high.

© 2017 Weed News. Used by special permission.

All rights reserved.

From Gold Rush to Green Rush For CA Ghost Town The police placed a very reasonable value on the “vape tubes” of $1.25 million, or about $40 per cartridge. The Indy Star reported: Officers from the Morgan County P.A.C.E. team pulled over a vehicle along Interstate 70 on Wednesday, and during the stop officers suspected criminal activity.

During a search of the car, found an estimated 31,000 vape tubes containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Police say the drugs have a street value of approximately $1.25 million.

From Weed News

A tiny ghost town in the desert of southern California was purchased by an Arizonabased cannabis company for a cool $5 million. Located just 50 miles from Las Vegas off of Interstate 15, the small town had been for sale since 2015. The purchase includes the town and 120 acres of surrounding land which includes a massive solar electrical array nearby.

The suspect was from New York, a legal medical marijuana state. He told Fox 59 news that he was doing nothing wrong when the police stopped him … except carrying $1.25 million in cannabis extracts in his car! Fox 59 reported: “I’m doing 67 in a 70. Doing nothing wrong. Got pulled over,” said the New York City man. “I pulled over. I seen the lights. I pulled over and I said, ‘Did I do something wrong?’...

The PACE Team, its training, equipment and overtime financed by a $25,000 grant from the Morgan County Substance Abuse Council, is on the lookout for traffic infractions that can lead to drug investigations.

“They’re looking for inconsistency in stories,” said Sheriff’s Captain Brent Worth. “Where the people are coming to and from.”

The suspect, Ryan Ferrand, claimed the cartridges were for his own use—all 31,000 of them. But he couldn't remember where he bought them, or how much he paid for them and also claimed that they were simply legal liquid flavors valued at only $6 per cartridge in Los Angeles, where he was coming from. But, even at $6 each, that would be $180,000 worth of cartridges!

Owned by Gerald Freeman and his family since 1984, the town boasts a small store, a bed and breakfast, an RV park, and the Whistle Stop Cafe, whose name pays homage to the rail road line that still sees trains pass through town, though stops must be pre-arranged with the rail road.

American Green, the Arizona based publicly traded penny stock company (ERBB – U.S. OTC), intends to invest as much as 2.5 million into the town over the coming years to update the buildings and tie into the massive Ivanpah solar array that was recently built and is located only 10 miles from the town. If successful, their plans will create a green, green town—one that is both ecologically smart and cannabis friendly.

According to the companies project manager, Stephen Shearin, they plan to use existing buildings as well as build new structures. “The Gold Rush built this city,” Shearin told Bloomberg.com. “The Green Rush can keep it moving the way people envisioned it years ago.”

They intend to have a number of cannabis related businesses and offer products and services. A facility to infuse water with Cannabidiol (CBD), have an edibles manufacturer on site, and more. The will also include an artist in-residence program if things go as planned.

Their ultimate goal, according to Shearin, is a model recreation spot for cannabis enthusiasts that can be duplicated in other localities. “We thought that showing that there was a viable means of having a cannabis-friendly municipality and further making it energy independent could be a way of really inspiring folks to say, ‘Why can’t we do that here?’” he said.

American Green’s stock was up 40% on Friday August 3, 2017, to 0.0017 cents, up from 0.0011 on Wednesdays close. A bargain at that ultra low price? Hard to determine in the volatile cannabis penny stock scene. They have over 643 million shares outstanding giving them a current stock valuation of only around $1 million. © 2017 Weed News. Used by special permission.

All rights reserved.

Oregon Cannabis Connection

Amendment in Congress Would Allow VA Doctors to Discuss Medical Marijuana From Weed News

Marijuana has been proven to be an effective medicine for all types of ailments.

Any patient who may benefit from the use of medical marijuana should be allowed to discuss the matter with their doctor, and military veterans are no exception.

Military veterans have served (or are currently serving) our country proudly, and as such they should be given the highest level of medical care and attention possible. That includes having constructive conversations with any and all of their doctors about medical cannabis, including those at VA facilities.

An amendment was introduced in the fiscal year 2018 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act which would lift the current gag order at VA facilities that bars doctors from even mentioning medical marijuana to patients. Below is more information about the bill, via a press release from Friday, as highlighted in the Marijuana Moment: U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) successfully included an amendment in the FY 2018 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act that protects veterans’ ability to discuss with VA physicians the use of medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

The amendment would allow for parity between VA and non-VA facilities in states like Montana and Oregon that have medical marijuana programs. It does not change current laws preventing the possession or dispensing of marijuana on VA property, but simply allows veterans to discuss all options that are legally available in their state with their VA doctor.

“When a veteran walks into a VA facility and speaks with their doctor they should be able to discuss all options available to them,” Daines stated.

“Many in the Capitol say that we should stand up for veterans because they have stood up for us. This amendment provided a real opportunity to stand up for veterans by allowing them to discuss the full range of legal treatment options with their VA providers,” said Merkley. “An overwhelming bipartisan majority of Senators on the committee took that opportunity, so I hope this amendment isn’t stripped out in back room negotiations as it has been in the past.”

Daines and Merkley previously secured this amendment during the mark up of the FY 2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. On June 28, 2016, Daines, Merkley and nine members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives urged Congressional leadership to include a provision in the final funding bill sent to the president that protects veterans’ ability to discuss the use of medical marijuana with VA physicians in states where it is legal. Although, the provision passed both chambers of Congress, the provision was removed in the conferenced appropriations for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies. © 2017 Weed News. All rights reserved. Used by special permission.

Aug/Sep 2017

National News

Page 13

We are producing too much,” Allen said, adding that state-licensed growers “are going to have to scale back. We are on a painful downsizing curve.”

He said some marijuana growers may stop, while others just won't apply for state permits.

The head of a state cannabis growers group said that growers in California are producing a marijuana excess, which will lead to problems down the road for many growers. He said that California growers produce up to eight times the marijuana that is consumed in the state, and there is no interstate trade allowed with cannabis, due to current federal laws.

On July 26, 2017, the Sacramento Press Club

The panel discussion also included Lori Ajax, of the newly formed state Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, and Joseph Devlin, Chief of Cannabis Policy and Enforcement for Sacramento.

Devlin explained during the panel that he understood the overproduction rate was closer to five times the need for the state.

Scott Pack, a Colorado marijuana entrepreneur with 14 cannabis business licenses, has been indicted, along with a former Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division (Colorado MED) officer Renee Rayton and as many as 19 others. The operation is believed to have illegally transferred millions of dollars of cannabis over state lines.

An unexpected boom is happening in Nevada for Uber and Lyft drivers and it is due to legal marijuana. According to drivers in the newly-legal marijuana state, they are experiencing more business than ever before. The boom is being driven by auto-less tourists whot are staying in hotels across the state, and especially in Las Vegas.

The investigation resulted in 16 indictments in March, which were the result of a year long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). On March 16, over 200 law enforcement officers raided 19 locations and arrested 15 people in the suspected ring.

Image SPC

held a discussion panel that included Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the California Growers Association which represents a large group of growers in the state, many of them from the state’s “Emerald Triangle” in Northern California. His warning was ominous, as reported by the Los Angeles Times: “Some marijuana growers will stay in the black market and continue to illegally send cannabis to other states, which is also not allowed under federal law,” said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers’ Association.

But an audience member claimed that it was much higher, putting the rate at 12 times the state’s consumption levels.

Ajax agreed with Allen and Devlin, explaining during the discussion, “For right now, our goal is to get folks into the regulated market, as many as possible … [but] there are some people who will never come into the regulated market.”

Production of cannabis on the West Coast is at high levels. Oregon produces substantially more than they can consume and, of course, California has been producing weed for many decades, and even more since they legalized medical marijuana in 1996. It will be interesting to see how the two states cope with the overproduction and try to curb the unregulated market. License limits, plant and canopy limits, and enforcement actions, of course, will all play a role.

Barbra Roach, Special Agent and head of the Denver DEA office, said in a press conference in March, “We do have more criminal organizations coming in to do marijuana trafficking and then taking it out of state.

We’re seeing ourselves as a larger source of supply for all our outer lining states than we were before.”

Pack hired Rayton within weeks of her leaving the enforcement job, which requires a six month “cooling off” period before employment by a marijuana licensed business. Her nearly $100,000 annual salary included substantial proceeds from the illegal operations. Two of Pack's businesses, Harmony Green LLC and HGCO LLC, also were charged in the indictment.

Michael Stonewall was one of the original people charged in March and was the organizer of the illegal operation. Although he was never a licensed cannabis worker and never operated a licensed business in Colorado, half of the 16 arrests in March were people that were currently or previously licensed to work in the state-regulated industry.

The DEA reported that they were able to get $3,500 per pound for the illegal crop, which went to states like Arkansas, Illinois, Texas and Missouri. Cash from the operation was apparently laundered through a legal and licensed food truck operating as Dos Locos Mexican Food, according to Roach.

Considering that many tourists visiting Sin City have flown there and often not rented a car, they are in need of ride services to get to one of the dispensaries. Almost every dispensary is off the "Strip" where most of the hotels are located. This has created a perfect situation for the drivers. KTNV reports: "State regulators predicted 63 percent of the recreational marijuana industry in Nevada would come from tourists, and Keith says that's got to be right on point.

He spends nearly half of his time on the clock driving from the Las Vegas Strip to a dispensary, back to the Strip, and so on.

"Swear to god it's the best job I've ever had," said Keith. "I'm making now more than I was before, and I'm more relaxed."

Uber has not tracked the increase specifically. Lyft drivers are making more due to three factors, according to Keith, the driver interviewed by KTNV: longer rides, incentives from cannabis shops and tips from happy passengers.

Keith is making $300 a day in income, which is more than he was making before.

He has now started driving full time for Lyft.

And, it's not just happening in Nevada.

In Colorado this year, Lyft teamed up with the Colorado Department of Transportation to curb stoned driving on the unofficial stoner holiday of 4/20. In conjunction with the Colorado "Get High, Get a DUI" campaign, they offered discounted rides to people who were to high to drive safely.

Uber and Lyft will likely become integral partners with legal states by offering a solution to impaired driving. Their service is widespread and is located in cities that do not have sufficient, or any, taxi service.

Uber issued a statement to KTNV on the increase in Las Vegas, explaining: "We have continued to see a steady growth in trips throughout Nevada. Marijuanaimpaired driving is 100% preventable. By providing people with safe ride options, we believe we are empowering people to make better, safer choices. With our technology, we want to help everyone have a safe ride home."

Looks like a win/win partnership for ride services and cannabis. Just another example of the positive economic impact of legalization. Legal weed ... creating more unexpected economic benefits in a marginal economy.

Image from Flickr by Stephen Kelly. Used under creative commons license.

Get you r copy of OCC now at over 380 locations ac ross Oregon!

Page 14

On June 15, 2017, the Secretary of Health denied the recommendation of the Medical Advisory Board to add opioid use disorder as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis in New Mexico. The Secretary’s decision flies in the face of the overwhelming support of the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, which recommended approving both conditions when the petitions were presented in Fall 2016. The board is a group of expert practitioners who are appointed by the Governor and are tasked with review and evaluation of conditions for the NM medical cannabis program. At the board meeting November 4, 2016 members voted to recommend approving opioid use disorder (OUD) (5-1). Board members are all clinicians licensed to practice medicine in NM and, as a condition of eligibility they are also nationally board certified in their specialties.

Medical News

have enough hurdles and barriers to care.

Requiring people to get a secondary diagnosis of chronic pain in order to access medical cannabis is a form of discrimination; it reinforces stigma and stops people from seeking help for their addiction.”

Among psychiatrists of addiction medicine and in drug treatment settings, cannabis use for combatting addiction is gaining traction, with findings indicating that cannabis can act to calm symptoms related to opioid detoxification including anxiety, nausea, insomnia, lack of appetite, and pain in people detoxing from opioids.

Furthermore, compared to most FDA approved drugs, cannabis has an excellent safety profile, a lethal dose has never been demonstrated.

In the midst of the national opioid overdose death crisis raging across the U.S, lawmakers and the media have increasingly highlighted strategies that treat drug use as a public health issue.

But despite the rhetoric, the overwhelming emphasis of New Mexico drug policy remains on criminalization, and deaths from opioid related drug overdose continue to rise.

Image State of NM

For more than two decades, New Mexico has suffered from a disproportionate rate of opioid overdoses compared to nearly every other state in the nation. It is the leading cause of accidental death in New Mexico, far outpacing gun deaths and traffic fatalities.

“We have an urgent and ongoing crisis of opioid addiction and overdose deaths in New Mexico and the treatments and tools available are not enough.” said Jessica Gelay, policy manager with the Drug Policy Alliance. “It is troubling and disheartening that Secretary Gallagher ignored the recommendation of the medical experts whose purpose is to review the evidence and make suggest qualifying conditions. Cannabis should be a first-line treatment option for people who are suffering from addiction. It can alleviate withdrawal symptoms that come with decreasing or stopping opioid, alcohol, or use of other drugs. It makes eating and sleeping easier, has calming and pain relieving effects. People should be able to qualify for medical cannabis with a clinical diagnosis of substance use disorder. People suffering from addiction

The Drug Policy Alliance recently released a report, A Public Health and Safety Approach to Problematic Opioid Use and Overdose that outlines a set of steps to address this crisis. One of the steps is to evaluate the use of cannabis to decrease reliance on prescription opioids and reduce opioid overdose deaths. Although limited, for reasons mentioned, there are credible findings that show medical cannabis is not only an effective pain treatment, it can also reduce the use of opioids and interact with them safely. According to published works in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Journal of Pain, states with medical marijuana laws are associated with a significant reduction in mortality from opioid abuse, substance abuse admissions and opiate overdose deaths are also lower in these states.

A new study recently published in the journal Substance Use & Misuse reported that the criminal justice system refers over half of all young people (ages 12 to 20) to treatment for marijuana use.. The study covered a 17 year period and was done by the University of Iowa and Binghamton University in New York.

There was a dramatic increase in admissions over the period studied, which covered the period from just before California's legalization of medical marijuana in 1996 up to adult use legalization in Colorado in 2012. Data from treatment admission records of youth showed an increase of 65% during the study period—from 52,894 annual admissions in 1995 to 87,528 admissions in 2012.

Paul Armentano, the deputy director of NORML penned an article for Alternet.org that breaks down the study and analyzes the facts and data surrounding the increase. Armentano explains: "Perhaps most importantly, the authors of this new study acknowledge that many of the teens now being mandated to attend drug treatment don’t appear to belong there because they exhibit little evidence of having suffered from any deleterious mental or physical health problems specific to their cannabis use. In fact, since 2008, 30 percent of all young people in treatment for alleged marijuana dependence had no record of having even used pot in the 30 days prior to their admittance—much less exhibiting signs of being dependent upon the herb. Another 20 percent of the teens admitted had used pot fewer than three times in the past month. “Our findings indicate that the severity of drug use involved in those admissions has decreased,” authors concluded. “This study highlights the importance of identifying youth in actual need of treatment services.”

Oregon Cannabis Connection, Your Trusted Source for Cannabis News, Not Culture

Cannabis use by teens is not independently linked with adverse changes in intelligence quotient or executive functioning, according to longitudinal data published online ahead of print in the journal Addiction.

A team of investigators from the United States and the United Kingdom evaluated whether marijuana use is directly associated with changes over time in neuropsychological performance in a

Image Wikimedia

nationally representative cohort of adolescent twins. Authors reported that “family background factors,” but not the use of cannabis negatively impacted adolescents’ cognitive performance.

They wrote: “[W]e found that youth who used cannabis … had lower IQ at age 18, but there was little evidence that cannabis use was associated with IQ decline from age 12 to 18. Moreover, although cannabis use was associated with lower IQ and poorer executive functions at age 18, these associations were generally not apparent within pairs of twins from the same family, suggesting that family background factors explain why adolescents who use cannabis perform worse on IQ and executive function tests.”

Investigators concluded, “Short-term cannabis use in adolescence does not appear to cause IQ decline or impair executive functions, even when cannabis use reaches the level of dependence.”

The Secretary also declined to add neurodegenerative dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease as a qualifying condition, also recommended for approval by the advisory board on a vote (5-0, with 1 abstention).

News release from Drug Policy Alliance: The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization of people who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. DPA fights for drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights.

Oregon Cannabis Connection

Their findings are consistent with those of several other studies – including those here, here, here, and here – finding that cannabis use alone during adolescence does not appear to have a significant, direct adverse effect on intelligence quotient.

So, as our nation deals with a pandemic opioid abuse crisis, we have criminal justice systems forcing young people into treatment for a non-existent problem in the majority of cases. At the same time, legislators in Washington and in almost every state are dealing with funding problems for the treatment of opioid addiction. Maybe our illustrious leaders should stop wasting money on cannabis and start focusing on real addiction problems with a drug that actually makes you addicted.

A widely publicized and still often cited New Zealand study published in 2012 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the persistent use of cannabis from adolescence to adulthood was associated with slightly lower IQ by age 38.

However, a follow up review of the data published later in the same journal suggested that the observed changes were likely due to socioeconomic differences, not the subjects’ use of cannabis. A later study by the initial paper’s lead investigator further reported that the effects of persistent adolescent cannabis use on academic performance are “non-significant after controlling for persistent alcohol and tobacco use.”

Aug/Sep 2017

Medical News tincture of dronabinol that is now approved by the FDA. They call it an “oral solution”, but it’s basically the same as a tincture. The main difference is that it is synthetic THC instead of a cannabis extract, which contains a mixture of cannabinoids.

Cannabis edibles come in many forms: tablets, capsules, pretzels, cookies, brownies, gummies, etc. However, cannabis tinctures are fundamentally different—they are a liquid form of cannabis. Tinctures are alcohol based extracts of cannabis that can be drunk by themselves, or added to other drinks or food.

The Problem With Edibles Dosing of edibles can be challenging. It is difficult to determine when the maximum effect has been reached. Did you dose too low, or has it just not kicked in yet? Absorption of the THC in edibles is different for everybody and is often unpredictable.

As part of the development of this product, they did several studies comparing the capsule and solution (i.e. tincture) forms of THC. One study was under fasted conditions and the other study was after a high-fat meal.

These studies give us a great opportunity to see how tinctures differ from edibles in controlled clinical trials. Read below to see what we have learned!

Tinctures can solve many of the above issues. Read on to find out about new science that proves tinctures are the way to go!

New Scientific Studies Compare THC Tinctures With THC Capsules Dronabinol is a capsule of synthetic THC that is approved by the FDA as an appetite stimulant in AIDS-related anorexia and to treat chemotherapyinduced nausea and vomiting.

Due to some of the above issues (slow and inconsistent absorption) INSYS Therapeutics has recently developed a

#4 – Tinctures Have More Consistent Absorption From Time to Time

within 15 minutes (empty stomach) or 30 minutes (with food). It took several hours to detect THC in the blood of 100% of patients who took the capsule, whether on an empty or full stomach.

Imagine you take the same cannabis edible 10 times in a row (well not literally in a row, but on different days).

You would hope that the same amount of THC is absorbed each time, but realistically it will always be a little different.

#3 – Tinctures Have More Consistent Absorption From Person to Person

Reasons Tinctures Are Better Than Edibles #1 – Tinctures Provide Better THC Bioavailability In one study, both the tincture and capsule were given on two separate occasions. This allowed an assessment of how consistently THC was absorbed for each person.

Finally, it matters whether you take edibles on an empty stomach or after a meal. Taking edibles on an empty stomach changes the ratio of THC to CBD absorbed and can predispose people to experiencing greater anxiety.

However, there is one major disadvantage of taking edibles after a meal. Food will extend the time it takes to start feeling the effects of edibles. It also adds to the variability since what you eat will impact the rate and extent of THC absorption

Page 15

There will always be some variability from person to person in how they absorb THC no matter what form they take it in.

However, the ideal edible will have as little variability as possible so that there are predictable effects.

With tinctures, you get more bang for your THC buck. Specifically, 18% more THC was absorbed with a tincture than with a capsule. Not a huge difference, but enough to give it a little extra kick!

The caveat is that this only happens on an empty stomach. A fatty meal will increase THC absorption enough that it won’t matter what form you take THC in. #2 – Tinctures Have More Rapid THC Absorption With edibles, THC has to dissolve in your gastric fluid before it is absorbed. Since the THC is already in solution with a tincture, this step is not a limiting factor.

After taking the tincture, THC could be detected in the blood of all of subjects

The tincture had a time-to-time variability that was 63% less than the capsule!. This shows that the effects of a tincture are likely to be more consistent each time you take it.

Conclusions on tinctures vs. edibles

Studies show that the person-to-person variability in the total amount of THC absorbed was actually similar between tinctures and capsules. However, there were drastic differences in the amount of THC absorbed within the first two hours after dosing. The variability at 30 minutes after dosing, for example, was 3 times higher with capsules than with edibles!

One limitation of these studies is that dronabinol capsules and solution contain pure THC – so they could not assess the absorption of CBD or other cannabinoids from tinctures.

Nonetheless, these two studies provide us clear scientific evidence of the advantages of tinctures compared with edibles. Tinctures give us more rapid and consistent THC absorption.

This shows that if two people take the same dose of a tincture, they are more likely to feel the same effects come on at the same time and with the same intensity. With a capsule or other edible, the same two people may feel the effects come on at completely different times or one person may feel it much more intensely.

For all the study links please see the original article at www.profofpot.com. © 2017 Professor of Pot. All rights reserved. Used by special permission.

Food & Recipes Infused Bi-Color Watermelon Gazpacho

By Jeff The 420 Chef www.jeffthe420chef.com

Butterscotch Canna-lollipops Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Dani B.

By Keith Mansur

Page 16

WARNING: Medical cannabis consumption can be unpredictable. Always start with a quarter serving and give it time. Effects can take up to an hour and sometimes longer. If you have doubts, you should contact a cannabis clinician about dosage.

Infused Lemonade

By Stash Jones

Aug/Sep 2017

The Pest: Grasshoppers First signs: Holes in leaves, brown blemishes on buds, chirping noises at night.

They conjure up images of doom and gloom, death and destruction.

Plagues of grasshopper have been known throughout history. They show up in huge numbers and literally wipe out crops for hundreds or even thousands of miles, causing mass starvation on a biblical scale. Luckily, here in Oregon we are not expecting a large scale grasshopper attack anytime soon, but they regularly show up in large enough numbers to do serious damage to plants.

They love to eat many species of vegetables and plants, including cannabis.

Both nymphs and adults are voracious feeders—eating leaves, stems, buds and anything else they can get in their mouths. They grow up to 2 inches long and come in an array of colors ranging from green, to brown to reddish yellow.

They have powerful jaws, large hind legs used to jump long distances and wings.

After mating in the late summer, they lay eggs in the soil. The eggs stay in the soil until the following spring. As the young nymphs hatch, they immediately start feeding on plants. They migrate and look for food, and over the course of about 60 days they molt up to six times, finally becoming full grown adults. These adults continue to feed until the weather eventually gets too cold and they die.

Control: Some beneficial insects can help with grasshoppers, but not to the point of being a strong control. Predator nematodes can attack some in the soil when they first hatch, but grasshopper eggs have a protective covering around them that makes it difficult for nematodes to attack them. Praying mantises love to eat grasshoppers, but they won't eat enough to give noticeable results. Physical barriers such as row covers can be very effective at keeping grasshoppers off your plants. The drawback is that you have to remove the covers to feed and water, and as they plants rapidly grow you must frequently raise the row cover. If you see a grasshopper on your plant, squish it!

One of the most effective grasshopper controls is products made from Nosema locustae, such as a popular one called Semaspore. Nosema locustae is a single celled protozoa that is deadly to grasshoppers. Its action is specific to

Cultivation grasshoppers and crickets, and does not harm people, pets, beneficial insects or anything else not related to a grasshopper. It is best to apply a product such as Semaspore early in the spring; but it can be helpful throughout the outdoor grow season. The Nosema locustae come colonized on wheat bran, which can be sprinkled around the edge of your property or the edge of your grow.

You do not need to apply it directly to the plants. Grasshoppers eat the bran, and the Nosema goes to work. It attacks them from the inside out. Within 10 days the grasshoppers become lethargic, and feed up to 75% less than a non infected grasshopper. They soon die.

Grasshoppers are cannibalistic, so as they eat other dead grasshoppers, the Nosema spreads to the remaining population. This continues for weeks, and eventually their numbers are significantly reduced. Fewer grasshoppers left at the end of the breeding season means fewer hatching out of the soil next spring.

One last interesting fact: Grasshoppers are very accurate at telling temperature.

The next time you are chilling in your garden at night smoking a doobie, listen for the ominous chirping (they chirp by rubbing their wings together, not their legs). Try to pinpoint one chirping grasshopper. Count how many times it chirps in 14 seconds. Do it a few times to get a good average. Take the average number of chirps in 14 seconds and add 40. The total wil be within a few degrees of the current temperature.

Don't let a grasshopper attack wipe out your garden. Be proactive and get some Semaspore on the plants now, and reapply next spring. Your plants, patients and customers will thank you.

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the medicine.

Nathan Jackson is the owner of Nature’s Control and Ladybug Indoor Gardens. Located in Phoenix, Oregon, Nature’s Control has supplied growers with beneficial insects for over 35 years. He can be reached at 541-245-6033 or nathan@naturescontrol.com.

More cultivation on next page!

The Conscious Cannabis Consumer

Cannabis and the future of its industry will be determined by one thing—the consumer.

The power to make changes in our system is to vote with your dollar. By becoming conscious of the environmental state of the earth, we as consumers can begin to learn how to make responsible purchases and support companies with shared values and concerns, rather than continue to mindlessly buy from companies that are only in it to make a dollar.

Business and industry need a serious makeover in order to finally address the amount of environmental degradation that has occurred for many generations.

Petroleum-based extractive practices, which have caused the destruction, are represented in nearly all products on every shelf in the US today. Modern agricultural practices driven by capitalism and environmental neglect have led us to a decrease in many valuable and important resources such as clean water, fertile topsoil and a stable climate. The answer to all these problems will be revealed sooner if consumers demand that what they buy supports environmental regeneration. All agricultural production will shift methodology if consumer pressure is strong enough. We have to start to be very discerning about how we spend our dollars.

The more information available about environmentally responsible practices—which start at the production level—the more conscious choices people will make to find a product that comes from a mission-driven company that prioritizes purpose over profit. The cannabis consumer must do research—most importantly on agricultural methodology—as a way to determine what products to purchase from

Page 17 a cannabis retailer. Research might include questions to budtenders about the farms that grew the cannabis or practices they use. But, to take it further, a quick search on a farm's website should provide consumers adequate material and information to help them discern what products are available. A farm should use their website as a place to share their purpose for doing what they do. If the website is limited, and very little information is made available, I would move on to the next farm until I was satisfied with the representation of information found.

As we move forward in the evolution of this industry we, as consumers, need to do our research especially if we have concern for the ecology and climate of our planet. I highly encourage those who are concerned about the environment and pollution to look at the best agricultural practices.

Regenerative agricultural practices that aim to increase diversity and integrate ecology into the farm system is the direction that cannabis production, as well as all agricultural production, needs to go.

Recognizing DEM Pure certified farms is a good step. These farms are working to close loops and become more aware of lowerimpact farming methods.

Do your work as a consumer and be sure to research the companies you support. Start by checking out greensourcegardens.com.

We are doing our best to help inform and educate the public about responsible earth care and ecological integration as priority for production.

Cultivation

Page 18 Animal pests

Your young marijuana plants that have not yet grown a hard, protective stem are at a constant risk of being destroyed by critters like rodents, rabbits, and raccoons who might be passing through and looking for a tasty snack. Because your plants are so delicate, and because these animals are so crafty, you might need to take some extreme measures to prevent them from eating up your precious plants.

Just imagine: you have spent hours and hours finding and preparing a site for you to securely and successfully grow your marijuana plants. Your seeds germinated, and your plants are now maturing and healthy, and you are having visions of beautiful, flowering plants that will produce an amazing harvest. You can finally sit back and relax, enjoying the fruits of your labor.

And then you return to your site one day, only to be confronted with a horrible site: chunks missing out of your plants’ stems, leaves disappeared or lying half-eaten on the ground, the soil disturbed and dug up.

There is only one way to explain this sight: animals.

Depending on where you are located, you could have problems with animals such as rabbits, hares, wombats, and wallabies (especially in Australia). Each animal presents its own new set of issues.

Wombats are smaller and cause the most problems underground due to their burrowing behavior. They will eat up your marijuana plants’ roots. Rabbits and wallabies, on the other hand, cause problems from above ground.

It is yet another thing to think about, but it is equally important to be proactive about potential pests. The payoff of having safe, undisturbed plants is huge – they won’t waste valuable energy growing back leaves that have been eaten off, or repairing a damaged stem. If worst comes to worse, the plants could even die, meaning all your hard work is lost completely.

In this article, we will cover the different animal-related risks to your plants, as well as the specific ways to combat those risks.

used some sort of pen made out of chicken wire. This, unfortunately, won’t work for cannabis growers because of security, but using a coffee can is a highly effective alternative. It is not as visible from far away, and it is also inexpensive and simple. You have to make sure you do it early in your plant’s life, however, or else it will become dangerous when you’re placing it since it could accidentally cut the stem.

Rabbits and wallabies love to trample and eat leafy plants that they come across.

Luckily, there are some easy ways to prevent this without also attracting human attention to your grow site. To keep rabbits away, try purchasing blood meal powder, which you can find at a nursery. You simply sprinkle it around your plants and grow area to repel animals who live above ground. The only issue with blood meal powder is that it could draw in carnivorous animals that might damage your plants when they dig in search of flesh to eat.

To prevent both the herbivores and carnivores from taking an interest in your plants, try using urine from a predatory cat (i.e. lions or mountain lions) and, just like you would with blood meal powder, pour the urine around your plants. This will repel small mammals as well as deer, who smell the urine and instinctively identify it as a predator’s urine, so they stay away. You can buy this kind of urine in a nursery or online. If you find it too hard to find or it is too expensive, you could also try using human urine – humans are the most dangerous predators on the planet, after all.

Identify the problem

Preventing animal damage The way to prevent burrowing animals is to form some sort of shell around the bottom of your plant’s stem. You could use a coffee can that had both ends taken off, or any other object that can form a hard barrier. This should prevent most burrowing creatures from getting to your plants.

If you do experience some sort of pest problem, first remind yourself not to panic.

You need to be cool-headed when inspecting the damage, as it is the only evidence you have for what kind of animal you are dealing with. You need to be able to find out which animal is causing the problem since that will help you know exactly how to deal with the issue.

If you have done any type of (legal) gardening before, you may have already

Don’t count your harmed plants as finished until after you have surveyed the damage.

Oregon Cannabis Connection Unless they are clearly wilting because of the damage, they will probably solve the problem on their own and heal as they grow older. If the damage is more superficial, don’t be concerned at all – new leaf growth is a constant in the plant’s life anyway, as it wants to get more sun exposure throughout its life to perform photosynthesis. Check this Marijuana symptom checker and see what kind of pest or disease is affecting your marijuana plants

Stopping a pest invasion A way of stopping the problem before it starts is to become familiar with the nearby plants that are naturally growing there. It is possible that they are also infested with some sort of pest, which could mean those pests might stumble across your cannabis plants and have an entirely new source of delicious food. You can use information, such as the types of plants and the type of damage they are experiencing to figure out which pests are causing the problem, and how to prevent them from getting to your plants too.

If the problem becomes too much to handle, and chemical insecticides appear to be the only way, make sure you inform yourself about the benefits and unnecessary damage that comes with using such a product. The problem with chemical insecticides is that they don’t kill specific species – they simply kill anything, including insects that are advantageous to plant growth, along with harmless mammals that live near that location.

The chemicals can also have a negative effect on your own health. This means that you have to be very careful when spraying insecticides and when harvesting. Make sure the chemically active period has already come to an end before you harvest the weed. This should be obvious when you buy the product, as it is information that should come from the manufacturer, but as with any product you should do your own research additionally to ensure the safety and effectiveness. New studies are always coming up that go against any previous information, so this is crucial.

Whatever your preferred form of preventing or fighting against harmful pests, if you do it correctly you shouldn’t be confronted with too much trouble. The key is to always be observant, informed, and proactive.

With these values, you can be sure your marijuana crop will succeed.

Thanks for reading.

Please leave comments or questions below and don’t forget to download my free grow bible at www.ilovegrowing marijuana.com Robert

Business Listings Next Page

Aug/Sep 2017

DISPENSARIES GOING GREEN 4 Locations: Albany, OR 1 225 S. Commercial Way S.E. (541 ) 405-8856 Toledo, OR 41 Olalla Rd. (541 ) 635-0078 Sweet Home, OR 925 Main St. (541 ) 405-8071 Grande Ronde (Willamina), OR 2571 5 Salmon River Hwy (541 ) 241 -4363 GRATEFUL MEDS OF OREGON www.gratefulmedsoregon.com 2 Locations: Springfield, OR 1 401 Market St. (541 ) 636-3489 Talent, OR 630 S. Pacific Hwy (541 ) 636-3489 HIGH TIDE WELLNESS CENTER 1 5957 S. Hwy. 1 01 Ste. #4 Brookings, OR 9741 5 (541 ) 81 3-1 976 facebook.com/ hightidewellnesscenterllc OREGON FARMACY 1 00% Five Four One Specializing in OR Sungrown Cannabis 1 West 6th St. Downtown Medford, OR (541 ) 81 6-4620 (OMMP Only) SACRED FLOWER MEDICINALS™ 1 8248 Redwood Hwy. Selma, OR 97538 (541 ) 291 -2639 www.sacredflowermedicinals.com THE GREENER SIDE 1 553 Oak St. Eugene, OR 97401 (541 ) 345-8904 e-mail: info@keepeugenegreen.org

DISPENSARY PRODUCTS CANNARELIEF Feel Better Fast www.cannasafety.com Pioneerpete@cannasafety.com CBD NATIONAL Cannabis Business Development Licensing, design, security, IT & more (844) 442-0249 www.CBDNational.com HONEY BADGER SUNGROWN Oregon's Finest Sungrown Cannabis Available at GroHi Station PDX (503) 569-2267 honeybadgersungrown.net GREEN SOURCE GARDENS Providing Quality Medicinal Cannabis.

No Till Grown Artisan Cannabis!

Available at OR Dispensaries GreenSourceGardens.com MASSIVE SEEDS "He who sows the seed shall reap the fruit" Supplying Oregon Growers with the finest strains available @massiveseeds ROGANJA FARMS The Finest Cannabis From Sunny Southern Oregon @Roganja

CLINICS & ORGS AFFORDABLE INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE Dr. Darryl George, DO. Medical marijuana evaluations 2031 NE Diamond Lake Blvd.

Roseburg (541 )-672-8366 www.doctor-george.net

Business Classifieds COMPASSIONATE OREGON Oregon's Premier Patient Advocacy Group.

Protecting the Rights of MMJ Patients And Their Families! www.CompassionateOregon.org

DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE 925 1 5th Street NW, 2nd Floor Washington, DC 20005 (202) 21 6-0035 www.drugpolicy.org

OREGON ALTERNATIVE REMEDIES A Collective CoOp - OMMP Only 9081 Old Hwy. 99 S Dillard, OR 97432 (541 ) 863-41 73

EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES

OREGON SUNGROWERS GUILD Growers Uniting To Help Growers & Patients! Join Today! www.oregonsungrown.org SOUTHERN OREGON ALT. MEDICINE 836 E. Main St. #3, Medford, OR 97504 (541 ) 779-5235 Fax (541 ) 779-0479 www.southernoregon alternativemedicine.com UMPQUA CANNABIS ASSOCIATION umpquacannabisassociation.com "Protecting the Oregon cannabis industry in the Umpqua Valley and beyond"

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CENTER OF GRAVITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY Wholesale Grow Supplies Distributor of The BUDD EZ Harvester (503) 593-1 787 www.thecdgc.com CERTIFIED KIND Garden Inspection & Certification www.certified-kind.com 1 -844-GRO-KIND We are your local certifier!

ENERGY TRUST OF OREGON Want to Grow More Grams per Watt?

Free technical assistance and cash incentives www.EnergyTrust.com/cannabis/ EVERGREEN LAW GROUP, LLC. Natalie Wetenhall, Attorney at Law, 541 -471 -2222 www.evergreenlawgroup.net GRABER INSURANCE 420 Friendly Insurance www.Agent420.biz (503) 999-5551 GREEN LEAF LAB The Northwest's Premier Cannalysis™ Laboratory OR (503) 250-291 2 & WA (253) 772-8771 www.greenleaflab.org KENYON & ASSOCIATES Informed Cannabis Consulting Have questions? Need answers? informedcannabisconsulting.com (541 -) 662-8238 OG ANALYTICAL Oregon Grown, Oregon Tested Portland, Eugene, & So. Oregon (541 ) 735-3328 www.oganalytical.com PAUL LONEY, ATTORNEY Practicing Medical Marijuana Law Portland (503) 234-2694 Southern OR (541 ) 787-0733 paultloney@gmail.com SYNERGISTIC PESTICIDE LAB Cannabis Pesticide Testing ORELAP Certified Portland, OR (503) 641 -0500

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS NORML AND THE NORML FOUNDATION 1 600 K Street, NW Suite 501 Washington, DC 20006-2832 (888) 67-NORML (888-676-6765) (202) 483-5500 www.norml.org

DRAGON HERBARIUM 4638 S.W. Beaverton- Hillsdale Hwy Portland, OR 97221 (503) 244-7049 www.dragonherbarium.com EMERALD KINGDOM GREENHOUSES Frame Kits, Custom Builds, Blackout Serving all of Oregon and Beyond (530) 241 -5670 emeraldkingdomgreenhouse.com ENERGY TRUST OF OREGON Offering discounts for efficient lighting and equipment.

Technical services and cash incentives! www.energytrust.org/cannabis LADYBUG INDOOR GARDENS The Shoppes at Exit 24 205 Fern Valley Rd, Suite X Phoenix, OR 97535 (541 ) 61 8-4459 MAGIC MUSHROOM / OREGON GIFTS "Look For The Giant Mushrooms" Next to I-5, Exit 1 36 Sutherlin, OR 97479 (541 ) 459-7481

Page 19

SOUTHERN OREGON GREENHOUSE & GROW SUPPLY 1 47 Main St. Wolf Creek, OR (541 ) 866-2801

southernoregongreenhousesandgrowsupplies.com VICTORIA'S STATION/THE STATION Pipes, accessories, adult novelties 1 20 Galice Rd. Merlin, OR 97532 (541 ) 471 -1 396

LIBATIONS & CUISINE DUB'S ST. JOHNS Home of Mack n Dub's Excellent Chicken and Waffles!

9520 N. Lombard St. John's Portland, OR (503) 998-8230 THE GYPSY The BEST Bar in Meddy!

205 W. 8th St. Medford, OR 97501 (541 ) 770-1 21 2

ENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION

MICRON 71 0 Rosin Extraction Tea Bags "Whats Your Micron?"

1 00% Food Grade Polyester www.micron71 0.com

BLAZING TRAILS Educational and entertaining cannabis tours in Central Oregon Book today, blaze tomorrow! www.blaxingtrailsbend.com 541 -31 8-6488

NATURES CONTROL Hired Bugs to Eat Your Pests www.naturescontrol.com (541 ) 245-6033 (800) 698-6250 PO Box 35, Medford, OR 97501

GODDAB RADIO A podcast for progressive thinking people.

On iTunes and more Fridays at 3:00pm PST www.goddabradio.com

OREGON HEMP WORKS Body Care, Clothing & Accessories www.oregonhempworks.com 971 -231 -Hemp

MACK & DUB AND THE SMOKIN' SECTION Medicated Hip Hop/R&B Incorporating Live Instrumentation and Harmonies for that Mack & Dub Sound www.mackanddub.com

PIRATE GLASS SMOKE SHOP 865 W. Central Sutherlin, OR 97479 (541 ) 767-8846 thebigbear1 3@gmail.com

ROCKHORSE PARK AT HORSE RANCH Camping, Cabins, Store and more!

74543 Highway 31 at Fort Rock Junction (541 ) 576-2488 @rockhorsepark

SILVER SPOON 8521 S.W. Barbur Blvd.

Portland, OR 9721 9 (503) 245-0489 www.silverspoonpdx.com

THE HIGH DESERT CO-OP RADIO SHOW Monday Nights 8 to 1 0pm Hosts: Stacie Dread & Tristone Listen online at KPOV.org or 88.9 near Bend "Your place for all things Ganja"

SKY HIGH SMOKE N' ACCESSORIES So. O's Premier Pipe Shop 2 Locations: Medford, OR 91 2 S. Central (541 ) 622-81 81 Coos Bay, OR 11 65 Newmark (541 ) 808-3030 SMOKIN DEALS 4 Locations to serve you: Medford 1 246 S. Riverside Ave. (541 ) 767-8636 Ashland 300 Main St. (541 ) 767-831 0 Klamath Falls 1 939 S. 6th St. (541 0 767-8909 Grants Pass 61 3 SE 6th St. (541 ) 767-8597

Get a Business Listing with any display ad in the Oregon Cannabis Connection! learn more at

THE SPACEMAN SHOW Hope Mountain Radio www.TakilmaFM.com (541 ) 592-4799 Friday Nights from 8 till late!