Central Oregon Communities Deliberate Marijuana Laws

While Bend’s marijuana industry is thriving, following a one year moratorium period city officials in Madras, Prineville and Redmond continue preparing for the impact of measure 91. City officials have been attempting to determine the best course of action for bringing businesses into town to help serve their local medical marijuana card holders. Locating businesses where they can thrive, but are also a safe distance away from schools, churches, neighborhoods and parks is among the most prevalent concerns.

Meanwhile, medical marijuana business owners opening dispensaries to serve each community find the process moving slowly.

Madras

Madras Community Development Director Nicholas Snead said, “It’s always exciting to have new businesses opening. Like any other business, the City would like to see them thrive.” However, Madras has faced challenges permitting marijuana businesses. Snead explained that each dispensary is “required to obtain from the City a site plan approval, medical marijuana dispensary license and a business license.”

It is challenging coordinating the reviews and approvals with the three required permits between the City, county, police, fire departments and the applying business but Snead said there is understanding that “we need to work together to make sure these businesses have all the required permits and the proper measures in place to operate safely.” Snead said each application has “different review timelines and requirements, so it’s been difficult to issue the permits in a timely manner and at one time so the business is able to open.”

The City of Madras does not have a medical marijuana shop but will likely have two by the end of July. Plantae Health owner Jocelyn Anderson will be opening two shops the first in Prineville and the other in Madras. She comes from an agricultural family and moved to Central Oregon to start her own business. She chose these smaller towns because the Bend market was oversaturated and said the moratorium period actually motivated her to serve the communities of Madras and Prineville. She found a qualified space and worked closely with the City following all the rules throughout the process. She said that the goal with her shops is to “set a high standard of quality, provide good service and provide customers what they need.”

Anderson has joined the commerce in both towns and wants to be involved and proactive in the communities. Part of the joy for her is “helping people feel comfortable, answering questions, supporting medical cannabis patients in small communities and representing the industry well.” She said she will consider selling recreational marijuana if Prineville and Madras allow recreational sales.

According to the Oregon Health Board there are 384 medicinal card holders in Crook County and 348 in Jefferson County. Plantae Health hopes to serve as many of those patients as possible while helping the cannabis industry and the community.

Reid Gannon, owner of a glass shop in Madras called The Pieceful Place, has an interest in selling medical marijuana but is waiting until the state gets the laws and regulations in place. Gannon is preparing his business for the future by selecting a location that fits the town’s restrictions and hopes to open a dispensary next to his current glass shop. Until then he expects that Measure 91 will increase his glass sales as a result of “closet smokers and an older generation coming out and buying glass products.”

He said that with the passing of Measure 91 “people are starting to feel more comfortable to go into a smoke shop” and it is his responsibility to offer a nice ambiance and welcome feeling in order to help break the negative stereotype.

Prineville

Prineville has also been busy planning and preparing for Measure 91 and new businesses. Phil Stenbeck, the planning director for the City of Prineville, said that there are currently three marijuana related shops planning to open businesses. Jocelyn Anderson, owner of Plantae Health, was just approved as was Mike Boynton, owner of Central Organics. The city will begin processing a third dispensary application shortly.

Prineville initially elected for a one year moratorium but when Measure 91 passed the City only had six months to make formal preparations. Prineville began preparing with an information outreach event which gathered several communities to talk about Measure 91 in order to craft land use laws and requirements. One result is an effort of reducing marijuana exposure to youth by requiring legal recreational marijuana be out of sight and under lock and key.

Stenbeck added Prineville decided “marijuana shops can’t be within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and home owners” among other criteria used in locating businesses. If the law changes regarding the selling of recreational marijuana the City will consider allowing those types of facilities. However, House Bill 3400 passed allowing communities to opt out if they are against the selling of recreational marijuana which allows Prineville to ban it if they choose.

Redmond

Meanwhile, some businesses are slowly emerging in these towns while others are forced to wait. The City of Redmond currently does not have a medical marijuana dispensary so card holders must drive to Bend to receive their medication. Jim Eitzen is the owner of Visions Smoke Shop in Redmond. He has acquired a lease on warehouse space with the hopes that Redmond will allow medical marijuana shops following the one year moratorium so he can serve the people of Redmond. He is waiting for the city to finalize their approach to Measure 91 before beginning this business venture.

Eitzen said he is passionate about the community and would like to see these types of small niche businesses thrive for the sake of the town. He claimed that when recreational marijuana is legalized people who visit resorts near Redmond will be venturing out for recreational marijuana. They will go into Bend where they will likely eat dinner and do their grocery shopping. But if they could travel the shorter distance to Redmond for their recreational marijuana needs, they will find a thriving downtown area, quality restaurants, breweries and money will stay in Redmond.

Sisters and La Pine have not seen any medical shops opening. Potential businesses are waiting until recreation shops are allowed due to all of the paperwork and hoops to jump through.

In these early days of legal medical marijuana sales and the ability to grow and use marijuana, it is important for everyone involved to know the law and be informed. The OLCC released an educational campaign called www.whatslegaloregon.com to clarify what is and is not permissible under measure 91. OLCC Acting Communications Director Tom Towslee addressed the impact of Measure 91 on towns in Central Oregon saying, “every county in Central and Eastern Oregon except Deschutes voted against it. A lot of people are not particularly excited about retail marijuana in their communities and counties that voted a certain way have the opportunity to opt out of selling recreational marijuana. However, people in those communities still have the right to possess, grow and use under home grow personal possessions of law. Each city can ban sales but not private use.”

With medical marijuana card holders now having more convenient locations in their communities and still others without a local dispensary, businesses, patients and city officials have several challenging decisions in the future to decide how they are going to handle the impact of Measure 91.

(Photo above: Plantae Health | Photo by Jocelyn Anderson)