2018 Legislative Session and Proposed Concepts
It’s also that time of year again already where another legislative session is right around the corner. This one, like every session we have here in Oregon during even numbered years, is a ‘short session’, which means it only runs about 35 days in total. Not only that, but this will also be the first time since 2014 that there will NOT be a legislative committee designated specifically for handling cannabis policy. That means we’ll be competing for bandwidth in the normal policy committees – against a great deal of other commercial and business interests looking to get their bills passed instead of ours. There’s a lot that our association is planning to do to help educate additional lawmakers about the nuances of cannabis policy, and about how the work they do at the capitol impacts business owners in the industry. While there’s many issues we are discussing with lawmakers as we proceed – hopefully sewing the seeds for a productive 2019 session – there are three main areas of policy where specific concepts have been at the fore of discussions about the upcoming short session:
Given it’s limited duration, barring catastrophe it’s unlikely that we will see any other major legislative efforts mounted in 2018 – and some have speculated that not even the above-mentioned concepts will have the bandwidth needed to get through in time. We’re going to be talking about these legislative concepts, where they are at in the process, and where they are likely to wind up, at our monthly meeting this coming Monday on Jan. 29th – so that’d be a great place to bring any questions you have. |