On February 2, the US Attorney for Oregon, Billy “Stop calling me Lando” Williams held a cannabis summit and invited Governor Kate Brown, law enforcement, the IRS, regulatory agency staffs, and industry professionals to attend. (The press wasn’t allowed at most of it, because fake news, or democracy thrives in darkness, or something.) Major props, though, to Williams for holding the summit and for inviting representation from the cannabis industry. It wasn’t that long ago that those types of invites simply didn’t happen, so it should be applauded.
Williams called for the summit in a January 12 op-ed piece in the Oregonian, in which he addressed the rescinding of the Cole Memorandum by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and ominously declared, “The move gives US Attorneys wide latitude to develop district-specific strategies and deploy department resources without Washington, DC, artificially declaring some cases off limits.” (Ruh-roh…)
Williams went on to list some numbers supporting his argument that “Oregon has a massive marijuana overproduction problem” (he’s right, we do—more on that in a second), which results in crime, cartels, and diversion to other states. He concluded, “I have significant concerns about the state’s current regulatory framework and the resources allocated to policing marijuana in Oregon.”
