A pair of proposals in the Oregon legislature would take aim at the illicit cannabis operations that have troubled law enforcement and local governments in the southern part of the state.
Both the state Senate and House have recently approved legislation that “would increase scrutiny of legal cannabis licenses and water deliveries,” according to the Capital Press in Oregon.
Oregon voters passed a measure in 2014 that legalized recreational pot use for adults, but the underground operations have persisted, reaching what some officials have described as a crisis.
One bill that was unanimously approved by the state House on Monday would establish new “record-keeping requirements [that] would be imposed on water sellers and haulers,” the report said.
The bill, HB 4061, would “require water sales and delivery records to be available upon request, which would make it easier for law enforcement personnel to investigate suspicious activity.
The other bill, SB 1564, easily passed via a floor vote in the state Senate last week. It would enable counties throughout Oregon to suspend licenses for hemp licenses.
Originally, the bill “would have imposed a two-year moratorium on new hemp licenses statewide and allowed the Oregon Department of Agriculture to restrict licenses based on supply and demand for the crop,” according to the Capital Press, but the legislation was tweaked in order to give counties the discretion.
That’s because the illicit cannabis crisis is largely concentrated in the southern Oregon counties of Jackson and Josephine.
Law enforcement and county governments there have been overwhelmed as of late with the number of illicit cannabis operations, many of which are cloaked as hemp farms.
In October, the Jackson County Board of