Lawmakers take first look at implementing marijuana law

By the end of a legislative meeting with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission on Wednesday, one thing was clear to the lawmakers involved: There is a lot of work to be done before recreational marijuana sales start in January 2016.

"The seed has just been planted," Rep. Margret Doherty, D-Tigard, said.

Oregon voters approved the sale and consumption of recreational marijuana 56 percent to 44 percent this November, but the ballot initiative's 36 pages left a lot of the regulatory details up to the OLCC to figure out by January 2016.

That's left some of the state's lawmakers wondering whether they should step in during the 2015 legislative session to modify the law or create additional statutory requirements.

"Can we do away with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program if we are going to legalize marijuana?" Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, asked Jesse Sweet, a policy analyst with the OLCC.

Measure 91 states that it makes no changes to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, but nothing prohibits the legislature from making changes.

Girod doesn't see why the state would need to spend the money on two separate regulatory systems with two sets of personnel. He thinks recreational stores could sell medical marijuana strains.

He'd also like to lower the amount of marijuana a household could possess. Measure 91 set that limit at 8 ounces, which is about 224 joints.

And Girod wants to make sure that giving someone a marijuana infused product, like a cookie or brownie, without their knowledge is a criminal offense.

"I like brownies. I like cookies," Girod said. "I would hate to think at the staff lounge we could have brownies and cookies that are laced with marijuana."

Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, asked the OLCC representatives to develop a list of changes it would like to make to the law and to bring them back to the committee.

"Keep in mind this is a statute, and statutes can be changed," Beyer told the audience gathered to watch the hearing.

He took November's vote in favor of marijuana to mean that Oregonians support recreational usage and not that they support the specific details of Measure 91.

His assumption is that most voters "didn't pay a heck of a lot of attention" to or read all the fine print in the proposal.

One area that interested all the lawmakers on the joint interim task force was that Measure 91 sets no legal limit for driving under the influence. Instead, it tasks OLCC with figuring one out.

The trouble with pot is that unlike alcohol a person can test positive for THC, the psychoactive composite in marijuana, days after he or she got high.

Washington and Colorado set their DUI limits at 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.

The framers of Measure 91 didn't include that standard because the scientific community is divided over whether that's an accurate assessment of a person's impairment, Sweet said.

Critics argue that the 5 nanogram level means most medical marijuana patients would fail a sobriety test.

OLCC plans to work with the Oregon State Police and the Department of Justice to come up with an impaired driving level for Oregon.

The committee plans to meet again in December.