Nobody else in Oregon has the same job as Erich Berkovitz.
Berkovitz is the owner of PharmEx, a medical cannabis processing company in Salem. Licensed medical growers and patients bring their plants to PharmEx, where the cannabis is infused into oil concentrates, edibles, suppositories, and other forms that make it possible for patients to take their medicine in high doses. Those products are then either given back to growers and patients, or sold at one of Oregon’s three cannabis dispensaries that only serve medical marijuana patients.
In January 2018, Oregon had 13 licensed medical cannabis processors. Now, PharmEx is the last one standing—and Berkovitz isn’t sure if his business will make it to 2020. It’s not that he doesn’t want it to, but according to Berkovitz, he’s stuck in a bureaucratic system that’s designed for failure: the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP).
“They’re making it more and more difficult to participate in the system,” Berkovitz says. “They’re basically forcing out the mom-and-pop farms and making it impossible for people to stick around. So I’m really just the holdout here. It’s not a very profitable place to be.”
Berkovitz’s declining profits are a symptom of a bigger problem with OMMP: Growers, a key link in the supply chain of medical cannabis, are being driven out of the system by increased regulation and fees, making it harder for patients to access affordable cannabis. And a lack of sustainable funding for OMMP makes this a difficult problem to solve.
