Oregon Cannabis CoalitionWhile Oregon has one of the longest-running, most successful medical cannabis registration system, the lack of a regulated dispensary system has plagued the state and hurt patients unable to attain medicine. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) allows for patients to grow their own medical garden or designate someone else to grow for them. Disabled patients and those without the financial means to take on the relatively-expensive task of cultivating cannabis have been left to the charity of others. Fortunately, a regulated medical cannabis supply system is one step closer to reality for OMMP card holders as the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 3460 this weekend. The bill now awaits Governor Kitzhaber’s signature.

Registered patients have needed to rely upon either the charity of other patients willing to donate their excess cannabis or their designated grower, someone willing to cultivate cannabis without being compensated for his or her labor, as the OMMP only allows growers to be reimbursed for supplies and utilities. To fill the need, medical cannabis dispensaries have operated in Oregon, even before the state’s medical cannabis law passed in 1998, but dispensaries outside of the friendly confines of progressive Multnomah County have often been subject to raids, arrests and prosecutions as state law enforcement has often concluded that these dispensaries were accepting reimbursement beyond just supplies and utilities. Hopefully, the days of these unnecessary persecutions can now end as medical marijuana facilities and growers will be able to recoup “normal and customary costs of doing business.”