County cannabis policy should focus on supporting the businesses trying to do the right thing—and that shouldn’t include a zero-tolerance policy for minor infractions
Right now, the Deschutes County Commission is weighing whether to change its rules on growing cannabis in the county.
In order to operate a recreational marijuana grow in Deschutes County, licensed under the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, growers have to follow an almost-exhaustive list of guidelines.
They’re required to install an odor control system to stave off the threat of neighbors catching the “offensive” smell of marijuana. (Mind you, pig farmers are not required to do the same.) They’re also required to maintain tight security in order to keep people from stealing their product, as well as diligently tracking and weighing all product—oh, and maintaining a video record so officials, if requested, can spot any potential deviations from the numerous county and state regulations put upon marijuana producers. In Deschutes County, growers are also subject to an annual inspection—something businesses in almost no other industry are required to do, as local code enforcement officials pointed out during a recent meeting of the Deschutes County Commission. When the marijuana is delivered to local dispensaries, more regulations are put in place to keep pot out of the hands of kids. During a recent spot check of local dispensaries, Deschutes County received a 100 percent compliance rating for checking IDs and ensuring that people who were buying pot at dispensaries that day were over the age of 21.
Now compare that multitude of regulations to what happens on the black market. Last month, an explosion occurred at an unlicensed, illegal operation in Bend, where two people were allegedly attempting to manufacture butane hash oil. A three-year-old child was in the home at the time of the explosion, according to Bend Police. Since that explosion took place inside a residential duplex, it’s safe to assume the home did not have nearly the safety, odor control and theft protection measures you’d find in one of the legal operations mentioned above.
Still, with so many requirements put upon legal cannabis businesses at the state and county level, is it any wonder that some people attempt to fly under the radar and remain on the black market?
Recently, local officials, including Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson, have made statements indicating that they’d like to stop issuing new permits for growers in Deschutes County. The reasons county officials have given to review their cannabis rules include a goal of stopping the illegal activity that some residents in rural areas believe is happening.
Of the 14 cannabis businesses operating in the rural county, all were found by code enforcement officers to be operating within the law, with odor issues being among the only sources of complaint.
It’s the people who are not operating within the law that county officials are worried about, yet it’s the folks who are attempting to stay within the letter of the law who are currently impacted. To fix this problem, the county seems to be working backwards at the moment, opting to halt approving new licenses, saying the county lacks the resources to further enforce county codes.
Another fly in the ointment for local cannabis businesses: the market is flooded. Local growers report avoiding operating at full capacity because of it. That’s certainly a problem for the industry, but it shouldn’t be one shared by the county and the sheriff. The concern for them should be in safety and compliance, and in ensuring that businesses that aim to open and to comply with the law are able to do so.
During that April 2 county meeting, county code enforcement officials shared the results of their annual inspections, and agreed that there are “growing pains” with a new industry—but also that cannabis represents a new economic opportunity—and to us, that means an economic opportunity that has already brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into county coffers.
If the county’s issue with the industry lies in its capacity to regulate its rules, the county could do one of several things, besides halting growth of the industry. The county could allocate more funds toward compliance, using funds garnered from marijuana sales to do so. The county could also relax the (self-imposed) regulations that forces it to operate beyond capacity—and with the current review of its rules, now would be the time to do so.
The concern of the county and the sheriff should be in safety and compliance, and in helping more businesses avoid seeing the black market as an attractive alternative to the legal one, fraught with so many regulations. If neighbors and rural residents are so concerned about odor and safety issues that come with marijuana production, they should welcome the businesses that aim to stay within the letter of the law—and county officials should, too.
This article appears in Apr 11-18, 2018.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
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My husband and I own a vegetable farm in Alfalfa. I have been attending local neighborhood meetings where people of our community have been very concerned about a number of issues surrounding the cannabis growing here and in other farming areas in Deschutes County. I have also attended meetings sponsored by the county commissioners, since November, trying to understand what is happening and why.
I believe that Deschutes County should move the cannabis grow industry to industrial / commercial zoning, and off farming land.
Just some of my concerns:
As organic vegetable farmers, we live in the High Desert and water is power, water is life. With so many marijuana grows in Alfalfa, many people have had their wells run dry. To redrill is extremely expensive running into several thousand dollars. Our overall water supply is diminishing at a rate, according to Kyle Gorman’s testimony at a commissioners meeting, of at least a foot a year over the last 25 years. We do not really know how much water the cannabis industry uses, except for what they have told us. I have heard and read very different statistics:
According to http://www.theganjier.com/2015/07/02/how-m…
“After playing with a number of different formulas over the years and trying to find what fits, the best figure weve come up with is one gallon of water per day per pound of processed flower, i.e. a one-pound plant needs one gallon of water per day, whereas a five-pound plant needs five gallons per day, and a 10-pound plant needs 10 gallons per day.
One Acre-Foot = 325,851 U.S. gallons
The 1:1:1 ratio was determined by polling numerous cannabis farmers about their water usage. Emerald Growers Association and Mendocino Cannabis Policy Council conducted the polls.”
Along with a majority of the voters, I voted to make recreational pot legal because, although I don’t smoke it personally, I don’t feel that the government should criminalize people for smoking pot, or spend tax money to use the court system and then incarcerate for victimless behaviors. When I voted on that, however, I did not ever think that what is essentially an industrial manufacturing business would be taking over and be changing the very nature of farm country. This is not a traditional farm product at all. This is more akin to a factory. According to the testimony, they don’t grow it in the ground, but in pots, which surely could be located in a factory. They are similar to a business, now located on 2nd Street, in Bend, called Volcano Veggies. Volcano Veggies also doesn’t need a farm–they grow organic lettuce and other greens, hydroponically and with artificial lights in a warehouse.
A very good Bend Bulletin article that speaks to growing marijuana in an industrial zone, where I firmly believe it belongs, is found here. http://www.bendbulletin.com/business/59048… and I quote:
“…Deschutes Growery,(off American Lane) a familiar brand in local marijuana retail shops, now located in about 8,000-square-feet of floor space in two warehouse buildings in a southeast Bend industrial park, the company has created a method of growing recreational marijuana rooted in energy efficiency….The company grows its cannabis only inches high and gives the plants only enough light to mature. That practice saves money on utility costs and produces a more consistent product in a shorter amount of time, Clapick said. The plants need only enough micromoles, a measure of light quantity, for photosynthesis. Why give the plant more light than it can process? he said. From now through the end of the harvest, we use a 300-watt (lamp) on average, because the plant cant use 600 watts of power. It can only use 300 because thats the right micromole for the plant height….Deschutes Growery set a goal of becoming carbon-neutral offsetting the energy it consumes with conservation measures in three years….Deschutes Growery applied for incentives based on their installation of LED lighting, according to an email Wednesday from Susan Jowaiszas, senior marketing manager for commercial and industrial programs at Energy Trust of Oregon. The companys application is under review. This project would achieve the largest kilowatt-hour savings of any cannabis grow operation in Deschutes County and is also among the largest (to date) through our program, Jowaiszas wrote. Its not the largest cannabis project completed through Energy Trusts program; some metro areas have pretty large facilities….By switching 5,000 square feet of growing space to LED, the company expects to save about 1,400 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, Clapick said. The company also installed rooftop solar panels, generating another 59 MWh in 2017 to offset its own power consumption. The wattage Deschutes Growery says it saves would power 132 homes for a year. It also claims to be the first solar-powered indoor cannabis farm in the state.” Please read this entire article if you haven’t already.
Pot is an extremely well funded industry, as you know, unlike traditional farming, whereby, when you choose to grow food, you know you are not choosing a profession which will gain you a big income. You are lucky to squeak by, but you choose it because of the way of life it gives you. Right now the average age of farmers in Oregon is 60 years old. Not many young people are choosing farming because it is expensive to buy and maintain farm property and it is a chancy business. We depend upon the whims of nature to help provide. We are NOT making $500-$1000 per pound for our produce, as pot growers are. And we cannot afford the lawyers necessary to fight for our way of life. We also chose to farm because of the peace and quiet; not to listen to constant drone of machinery/fans/ etc. We were drawn to the birds, the animals, the big skies, sunrises, sunsets, and bright stars; not the light pollution because of the 7am to 7pm hours, as opposed to a dawn to dusk timing. We love our views of mountains and juniper, the fragrance of healthy nature, not the constant stink of “skunks” when you pass by a pot farm. EFU zoning is supposed to limit development that could conflict with farming practices. Pot “farming” is not traditional farming, but manufacturing of a medical and/or recreational drug. It definitely conflicts AND DEGRADES a rural lifestyle.
The website, https://preservedeschutescounty.org/, a group of concerned citizens of Deschutes County, has researched and written an excellent report. They say it best–and I would like to second, all that they said in regard to marijuana grows in our county. I believe the applications all need to be rejected until they are moved to an industrial zone. We already have too many grows in our little community of Alfalfa. It is obvious to me that More should not be approved, especially in Alfalfa.