Believe it or not, there was some news in 2019 not totally related to the Oval Office. The U.S. Congress (excluding the do-nothing Senate), the Deschutes County Commission and the Oregon state legislature had a busy 364.5 days when it came to crafting, fighting or violating marijuana policy. Federal activity The House Judiciary Committee made history […]
Smoke Signals
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The Year in Hemp
A huge increase in production, a massive increase in sales… and more fuzzy guidance from the FDA in 2019
The year 2019 was arguably the biggest year for hemp since it was criminalized in 1937. The passage of the Farm Bill in 2018, along with the skyrocketing interest in—and availability of—CBD made from hemp has been explosive, yet uneven. Much as with cannabis, rules and regulations for hemp vary from state to state. Federal […]
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YAC buffers and Sex Offenders
Attorneys spar at county hearing
In October, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals decided that the Deschutes County Commissioners’ definition of a “youth activity center” amounted to an unreasonable restriction on marijuana farms. Since then, I have to admit I’ve been anxiously awaiting another Deschutes County Board meeting to put marijuana land-use on their agenda. On Dec. 11, I […]
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What a Long Strange Trip
A survivor of the 1960s shares his experience buying legal weed in Bend for the first time
“Be sure to hide the roaches.” —”Pre-Road Downs,” Crosby, Stills & Nash The year was 1969. Crosby, Stills & Nash were flying high on the music charts and I was a 16-year-old in a suburb north of Boston. The band’s message about “hiding the roaches” (the remains of a marijuana cigarette after most of it […]
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Congress takes historic step to full legalization; OLCC affirms right to ban adulterants
Could national legalization be ahead?
For the first time in U.S. history, a congressional committee approved a sweeping reform bill that would remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Controlled Substances list, effectively creating coast-to-coast legalization. The bill would also expunge convictions for a number of marijuana-related crimes and re-invest funds—through a tax on the legal cannabis industry—into communities hardest […]
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Testing Federal Pot
We had the federal government’s test pot evaluated for potency and safety. The result? Worse than the worst.
In my last column, I interviewed Elvy Musikka, one of two remaining Americans to receive medical marijuana from the federal government, grown at the University of Mississippi. We were both curious about the potency and terpenes in the 6 pounds of cannabis pre-rolls the feds provide her every year, so I took a few to […]
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Prescription Pot
The ups and downs of being a test case for the federal government’s Investigative New Drug program
Over the years of writing this column, I’ve gotten to meet and interview a lot of great people. One of my all-time favorite subjects to spend time with is Elvy Musikka, who I profiled in 2017 for being one of the last remaining Americans approved to receive cannabis from the federal government for medical conditions. […]
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Heads Up from the Feds
USDA breaks silence on hemp rules
After years of state governments greenlighting hemp production, and following several appeals from numerous members of Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week issued its (paradoxically titled) interim final hemp rules for nationwide hemp farming. Hemp cultivation was (sort of) legalized nationwide by the 2014 Agricultural Act (“2014 Farm Bill”), wherein many states developed pilot […]
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LUBA Fires First Shots Across Deschutes County Bow
Will it be the first of many?
For the first time since marijuana production has been legal in Deschutes County, the Board of County Commissioners received some feedback from the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals about how their interpretations of marijuana land-use rules square with state law. The feedback was pretty simple: Try again. In a unanimous opinion filed Oct. 17, […]
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Memories of the Volcano
The OG vaporizer that pre-dates those you hold in your hand
Many have used a Volcano vaporizer at some point. It’s arguable the company that makes them, Storz and Bickel, set the platinum standard for precise vaporization. Markus Storz, a German graphic designer, used a heat gun to develop the first Volcano in his basement in 1996. In 1998, he received a patent for his soon-to-be […]