How legal cannabis actually made things worse for sick people in Oregon
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Interesting take on how the move to recreational sales has hurt those in need of medical marijuana.
How legal cannabis actually made things worse for sick people in Oregon
Ironically, Oregon’s medical marijuana market has been on a downward spiral since the state legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014. The option of making big money inspired many medical businesses to go recreational, dramatically shifting the focus away from patients to consumers. In 2015, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) took over the recreational industry. Between 2016 and 2018, nine bills were passed that expanded consumer access to marijuana while changing regulatory procedures on growing, processing and packaging.
In the shuffle, recreational marijuana turned into a million-dollar industry in Oregon, while the personalized patient-grower network of the medical program quietly dried up.
Now, sick people are suffering.
“For those patients that would need their medicine in an area that’s opted out of recreational sales, and they don’t have a grower or they’re not growing on their own, it does present a real access issue for those individuals,” said André Ourso, an administrator for the Center for Health Protection at the Oregon Health Authority.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/31/oregon-cannabis-medical-...
Any locals know about this situation?
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: charmskooldropout
Medical was a necessary
Medical was a necessary stepping stone to recreational. Thanks, sick people
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Def. High
Oregon is awash in weed. We
Oregon is awash in weed. We've probably given away a pound this year to medical marijuana users - nobody is having any trouble getting their medicine.
However, legalization has had its downside. Small growers have been forced out of business and the weed available for sale is usually over-dried, over-trimmed., and under-powered. It used to be over-priced as well, but now I see signs advertising 3 dollar grams.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Skitime
Uuuuummmmmmmmmm I would
Uuuuummmmmmmmmm I would disagree in general
Maybe it made it harder for professional growers using the medical system as cover for selling commercial volumes of weed (due to state regulation that came via Recreational Legalization) like testing for pesticides, growsite registration, THC levels etc). My old medical grower got out of the business because she was growing like 50 plants at a time in her basement and the state issued regulations for security, testing, etc.. and she could no longer just stroll into a dispensary with a few pounds and walk out with a few thousand. It used to be more Wild West. And you couldn’t trust the THC amounts of edible labels... that isn’t good for patients
But the medical patient today has way more varieties of products, much lower prices, can still grow plenty of plants for themselves, and can get all kinds of products at way lower prices and still not pay sales tax like the rest of us. 5 years ago, the dispensaries could only serve medical card holders and now it doesn’t matter, just need to be over 21. So the card doesn’t carry the clout it used to, but the prices have dropped considerably and it’s not like the weed is different. The people that it is worse for are growers who used the medical program to grow tons of weed and export it out of state because there is more scrutiny now, not the average patient that just needs lots of low cost medicine.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Bucky Badger
Thanks for the reports on the
Thanks for the reports on the ground.