Oregon’s recreational cannabis industry strives, and often succeeds, in following the letter of the law. When growers, producers, and dispensaries face judgment, it’s on two fronts—the electronic public square of social media, and the more fearsome regulatory agency smackdown, which can add stiff financial penalties to the scarlet “C” of public opinion.
But what constitutes an infraction? Is it something intentional and deliberate—like shipping 300 pounds of weed to Ohio—or something that could just be a matter of lazy record keeping, or even legitimate confusion regarding the complex system of frequently changing rules and regulations that make up our cannabis tracking system?
Recently, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has been bringing the hammer down hard on a few cannabis businesses in Oregon, imposing fines of thousands of dollars, and—perhaps of greater financial impact—suspending or revoking their licenses. (The OLCC keeps a record of violators in their online News Room.) It’s true that the agency is tasked with enforcing the rules, and that enforcement helps keep bible-thumpin’
retro racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions from interfering in our cannabis programs.
But sometimes the punishment doesn’t always fit the “crime.”
