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Oregon: CIAO (The Cannabis Industry Alliance of Oregon) Celebrates Plant Tagging Victory

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The long and short of it is that Oregon growers will be allowed to tag in batches of 100 and not per plant but the kicker is that the new rules don’t kick in until 1 Jan 2024

 

 

Mike Getlin Board Chair writes…

 

Dear CIAO Members, Supporters, and Industry Insiders, 

It’s with deep gratitude for your support over the many years we have fought for this result that I can proudly and definitively report we have finally won on plant tags.

As most of you know from the recent OLCC email, as of January 1st, 2024, we will no longer be required to individually tag plants. The recent rulemaking to this effect was approved by the commission and the new batch tagging rules will go into effect next year.

To me, as a producer going into my seventh year trying to survive the Oregon market, I know the cash savings this change will create for my farm. But after having led this effort for nearly five years, I think this achievement means much more than simply reducing costs.

From the beginning, the fight over METRC tags has really forced a closer look at the core goals of our regulatory system in Oregon. We have a program that was built to keep the feds off our backs and to address a set of concerns that may have been real in 2015 but are now a thing of the past (as they always should have been).

For our industry to thrive, however, we must develop a system of cooperation between the industry and our partners in government that allows for the laws that govern us to evolve fast enough to match the needs of this unique marketplace. That’s what this fight has been about. We needed to answer a simple question: Can Oregon learn from experience and change its system for the better? Today we proved that we can. 

When I first pitched the idea of batch tagging adult plants under one Metrc tag just like immature plants to the OLCC in 2018, Jeff Sessions was still the Attorney General. Needless to say, it fell on deaf ears. Undeterred, my team kept advocating and we were able to slowly start convincing people at the agency and in the legislature to start seeing things our way. Our perseverance finally began to pay off in 2020 when Steve Marks came out to my farm and spent a couple hours crawling around a greenhouse tagging plants. A lot changed after that day.

Soon, instead of us pushing the OLCC to rethink tagging, we moved to a stage where the OLCC was committed to the idea and working hand in hand with us to come up with a solution. This was not as simple as it seems because cutting down on plant tags drastically decreases METRC’s revenue in Oregon, and careful negotiations are necessary to figure out how to do it.

To finally make it happen, the CIAO’s leadership worked carefully, over the last two years, with the OLCC to put this puzzle together, and today’s announcement is the result, victory at last.

Starting January 1, 2024 Oregon Cannabis Farms will be able to batch tag up to 100 adult plants using just 1 Metrc tag.

You can view the whole rule package here – Cannabis Tracking System Batch Plant Tagging – Page 12 is where you can find the language about batch tagging.

For me personally, this is a big win. This is one of the issues that got me involved in public policy in the first place, and has been a core focus of mine for more than five years. I’d be remiss not to thank both Steve Marks and TJ Sheehy for their thoughtful work on this issue. Of course, so much of my gratitude is to all of you who have supported ORCA, FARMS Inc, and OIPA over the years and continue supporting us as the CIAO. Thank you for your contributions, your counsel, your ideas, and your patience. This victory is really yours.

With Gratitude,

Mike Getlin

Board Chair, CIAO



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Latina woman alleges she was denied job with cannabis nonprofit because she’s not Black

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A Latina from Lawndale is suing an organization that bills itself as fighting for “cannabis justice” with a goal to “heal the legacy of racism in America,” alleging she was told she was not chosen for a position with the nonprofit in 2023 because she is not Black.

Briseida Lupercio Chavez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the Hood Incubator alleges racial discrimination, retaliation and wrongful failure to hire in violation of public policy. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

A Hood Incubator representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Jan. 5.

According to the suit, the Hood Incubator’s website states its purpose is to fight for “cannabis justice” and to “heal the legacy of racism in America . . . for the health and prosperity” of everyone.

“However, despite its stated vision of being an anti-racist organization, its blatantly discriminatory hiring practices could not be more contradictory to its stated purpose,” the suit states.

Chavez interviewed for a position with the Hood Incubator via Zoom last July with two organization representatives, one of whom is a managing agent, the suit states. The two representatives remained on the Zoom call after the interview and spent 10 minutes talking about why they were  not interested in hiring Chavez because she is not Black, the suit states.

Both representatives mocked Chavez’s race and for saying she had biracial children, telling the plaintiff they found her comments “off- putting” and falsely implying that she only claims to care about Black people because she has Black kids and friends,” according to the suit.

One of the representatives told Chavez that because she is a Latina, she is used to the Latino community “pulling strings for each other,” the suit states.

Chavez was “embarrassed, ashamed, emotionally broken and in financial desperation” after learning that she was not hired allegedly due to her race, national origin and/or color,” the suit states.

Latina woman alleges she was denied job with cannabis nonprofit because she’s not Black

 



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Man allegedly killed roommate, went back to sleep and bought some cannabis before others implored him to call 911

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It is, of course, a law & crime story..

A Maryland man insisted that he shot his roommate in self-defense, but admitted he only called 911 after going back to sleep, buying some marijuana, and communicating with people who implored him to contact authorities, according to court documents obtained by Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate WRC and Fox affiliate WTTG.

Richard Bennaugh, 38, is charged with manslaughter, assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, and possession of a firearm as someone convicted of a violent felony, show from Prince George’s County show.

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‘There’s only one way to find out’: Man allegedly killed roommate, went back to sleep and bought some weed before others implored him to call 911



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Illegal immigrant cannabis farmer, 30, is allowed to remain in Britain – because being sent back to Serbia would breach his human rights

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The Daily Mail get over excited once again…

A migrant who was jailed over a cannabis farm worth half a million pounds has been granted permission to stay in the UK after successfully arguing he could not be deported as he no longer spoke his native language.

Clirim Kukaj, 30, is ethnically Albanian but was born and brought up in Serbia until at the age of 13 he entered Britain illegally. Seven years later he was granted indefinite leave to remain.

Kukaj and his lawyers have now successfully appealed his deportation on the grounds that returning him to his native country would be a breach of his human rights because he cannot speak the language and can only converse in Albanian.

Immigrational tribunal judge Fiona Lindsley granted the appeal ‘on human rights grounds’, however, the decision has sparked renewed calls for human rights laws to be reconsidered.

A senior Conservative MP told the Telegraph: ‘This demonstrates why we need urgent reform of the asylum system and human rights laws to allow the rapid and effective deportation of dangerous criminals.’

More Blah here

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12941079/Migrant-cannabis-farmer-allowed-remain-Britain-human-right-no-longer-speak-language.html



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