It's been an interesting few months for everyone's favorite cannabis and alcohol police, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, commonly known as the OLCC. The state agency oversees all aspects of alcohol and cannabis production, transportation, sales and consumption, after solely having alcohol under its purview before Oregon passed its Adult Use Cannabis program in 2014.
It holds a Thanos-like power over every participant in both industries, setting statewide policy, issuing, suspending and revoking all licenses needed for operations, as well as the education of the rules to industries and the general public.
Some "bad choices" have been made at the highest levels of the agency lately, and daily developments can make details easy to miss. Some readers will pack a bowl of Schadenfreude Kush while we explore how the people in charge of Oregon intoxicants are faring.
OLCC Executive Director Steve Marks resigned in February, after it was revealed that he and five of his managers were participants in "Stupid Bourbongate."
For several years, Marks, his five managers and others allegedly arranged for highly coveted, rare, and expensive bottles of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon to be set aside solely for their purchase. In Oregon, these bottles are only sold by raffle, with odds of 1 in 5,000. A bottle sells for $300, but frequently trades (illicitly) for $2,000. Incoming governor Tina Kotek asked for the resignation of Mark and the five managers, which began the heightened attention on the OLCC.
The next month, through a three-month investigation and subsequent excellent stories by Willamette Week writer Sophie Peel, we learned that over six years, the OLCC had issued 50 licenses to the state's second largest dispensary chain La Mota without, perhaps, doing its due diligence.
As Peel wrote, "The chain and the companies they control have been issued more than $3 million in tax liens over the past five years and faced 30 lawsuits in Oregon circuit courts." Some are from unpaid cannabis product vendors.
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan then abruptly entered the chat when news dropped that she had begun a consulting contract work in February 2023, to the tune of $10,000+ a month, for her new client: La Mota.
(Wait...what? Sorry, I'm high, did you say $10,000 a month, as a side gig? Is Fagan the "I only work 4 hours a month, and make thousands!!" lady?)
Fagan was being paid to help La Mota expand into other markets outside of Oregon and New Mexico, leaving 20 other Adult Use states to explore. She was also going to do legal work for them, after getting reinstated by the Oregon State Bar. (Fagan is a former entertainment lawyer.)
This was more lucrative than Fagan's annual SOS salary of $77K, and after the story broke to much rabble rabble, she ended the deal, and issued an apology.
But, like a bad overdose of edibles, that wasn't the end of it.
It was revealed that La Mota's owners had contributed $45,000 to Fagan's campaign over three years. Then there was the new audit of Oregon's Cannabis industry, addressing modernizing the industry, and creating greater equity. Although Fagan had recused herself from the audit, and has not been accused of breaking any laws or ethics rules, the fallout was immediate.
"It's critical that Oregonians trust their government," Kotek said in a statement. "That is why I am urging the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to immediately investigate this situation. Additionally, I am requesting that the Oregon Department of Justice examine the Secretary of State's recently released audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission and its cannabis program."
La Mota isn't having a great go of it either, abruptly closing two stores in Portland. ENDVR, a nonprofit run by one of La Mota's owners to train students in careers in the extraction of cannabis compounds, was asked by the Bureau of Labor and Industries to return its $500,000 grant.
Reworking the powers and mission of the OLCC could play a pivotal role in fixing the state's broken cannabis industry. This may be a tipping point for needed reform at the regulatory agency, which admits that it needs to prepare for eventual federal legalization.
