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A marijuana industry group wants Oregon lawmakers to push back Oct. 1 deadlines for the state's new cannabis testing, packaging and labeling rules by at least 30 days, calling them an insurmountable challenge.
Many marijuana businesses simply aren't ready to comply, said Amy Margolis, a Portland lawyer who represents the Oregon Cannabis Association. In the meantime, the state should allow dispensaries to continue taking in products tested and packaged under current standards.
"This extension is crucial for the survival of many, many businesses," she told Oregon lawmakers last week.
Legislators on the joint committee that oversees the rules seemed receptive to the idea.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, took the suggestion further, saying he supports a 90-day extension of the deadlines.
"We have actually in good faith tried to get everything together and we know it didn't come together," he said, referring to getting enough labs online to process marijuana so it can move into stores. Moving the deadline to the end of the year offers the industry a "clear break point," he said.
Labeling, testing and packaging are key components of Oregon's efforts to address public health and safety concerns about recreational marijuana.
The Oct. 1 deadline for implementing the policies was initially intended to coincide with the opening of the recreational marijuana market under the authority of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. But instead of opening stores at the same time, the liquor control commission now plans a gradual rollout of retailers beginning next month.
Cameron Yee, owner of Lunchbox Alchemy, an edible and extract maker in Bend, recently halted production and laid off 10 people while he waits for his packaging to move through the state's approval process.
He tossed $8,000 of packaging that didn't meet state requirements.
"It's a disaster," Yee said. "We are trying. We are not going to make it by Oct. 1. We are not going to have product on the shelf."
But lab owners who have poured tens of thousands of dollars into state-of-the-art facilities are pushing back against any delay of the testing rule, which requires new products headed to marijuana dispensary shelves to undergo potency testing and screening for pesticides at accredited and licensed labs. The new rules are far more extensive than what the state requires now.
"That is a playbook right out of big tobacco, like hey, you need to move the rules so we can continue our unregulated commerce of a potentially dangerous product," said Anthony Smith, chief scientific officer of Evio Labs, a chain of marijuana testing labs.
Smith said his company has spent a lot of time and money preparing for accreditation and licensing with the understanding that new rules will go into place in October.
Delaying the rule means marijuana producers and processors may take their product to labs that aren't yet up to state standards.
"We can't compete with them," he said. "This will take the good labs and wipe them off the earth and the nefarious, unqualified labs will completely control the market.
"It will be exactly the opposite of what Oregon actually wants from all of this, which is safety," he said.
Rodger Voelker, lab director at OG Analytical, a marijuana lab in Eugene, agreed.
"It is true that it is a tight timeline and it's a real challenge and it's not a perfect system, but we have also demonstrated that you can do it." he said. "There are labs that are coming along. We have demonstrated that you can meet the deadline. We have done it."
Don Morse, owner of the Human Collective, a dispensary in Southwest Portland, said extending the deadline for the new rules on testing, packaging and labeling only postpones the start of the new market, which is supposed to begin rolling out in five days.
Some businesses "waited too long to start complying" with the new rules, he said.
"Another delay is going to embolden the industry to procrastinate," said Morse, a longtime industry activist. "The time has come where it is incumbent on us to step up and do what needs to be done, to launch the recreational system in a meaningful way."
Rob Patridge, chairman of the liquor control commission, on Monday said the agency is evaluating the industry's request. He said the agency, which oversees packaging rules, must balance public safety and the needs of the market in making a decision.
"I am listening to everyone," he said.
Jonathan Modie, spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees labeling and lab testing requirements, said his agency is discussing the request with the governor's office and the liquor control agency.
"No decisions have been made," he said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
-- Noelle Crombie
503-276-7184; @noellecrombie