Report: Oregon Recreational Marijuana Sales Off to Strong Start
Consumers can now buy recreational marijuana in Oregon.
The state has a long history with the drug, having first approved it for medicinal use way back in 1998, two years after California became the first state to treat marijuana as medicine. Oregon later approved the drug for recreational use in 2014. However, it was only recently that recreational sales were allowed to officially begin in the state. There were some medical marijuana dispensaries (380 statewide) that obtained waivers in the interim to sell products to recreational users.
Today, there are 26 retailers that are officially licensed by the state to sell recreational marijuana. The sales are overseen by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Oregon Health Authority. There was originally some concern that some of these retailers would have to pull a significant amount of inventory off their store shelves because the products failed to meet the latest testing, packaging and labeling standards that were recently approved. However, the two oversight agencies ultimately decided that if stores don’t yet have the pre-approved packaging and labels on their products, they can instead use generic labeling and packaging until their own packages and labels get a stamp of approval. Continue reading