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About 255 people turned out for The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board's marijuana forum Tuesday. A panel that included Steven Marks, executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, lawmakers, a marijuana grower and a Washington recreational shop owner addressed taxes, marijuana-infused edibles and the possibility of allowing people 21 and older to buy marijuana from regulated medical marijuana dispensaries starting this summer.

(Noelle Crombie/The Oregonian)

Oregonians 21 and older would be able to purchase dried marijuana flowers from regulated medical marijuana dispensaries after July 1 under a proposal being considered by lawmakers.

Sen. Ginny Burdick, speaking Tuesday on a panel organized by The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board and held at the University of Oregon's George S. Turnbull Center, said recreational consumers would not be allowed to buy marijuana concentrates or cannabis-infused edibles until regulated recreational shops open sometime next year.

The provision would address the lag between the time when marijuana possession is legal and when Oregonians can buy pot from a regulated store. Oregonians 21 and older will be able to possess marijuana and grow it at home beginning July 1, but the Oregon Liquor Control Commission won't launch the regulated retail market until 2016.

"I think there is a middle ground," said Burdick, D- Portland, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Implementing Measure 91. "If you do see this - I am not guaranteeing you will see this - but if you do see it, I think you will see it limited to flowers and maybe plants that people will be able to obtain."

Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, who also serves on the committee studying Measure 91's implementation, said recreational consumers would resort to the black market unless the state provides a legal way for them to obtain cannabis.

"What we are telling those folks is keeping buying in a parking lot or alley because we won't have a regulatory framework until 2016," he said.

Burdick said allowing dispensaries to sell only flowers until next year avoids some of the complex issues around edibles. Edibles on the medical marijuana markets in Washington and Colorado, for instance, are typically more potent -- a potential problem for novice recreational consumers.

Brian Budz, an owner of New Vansterdam, a recreational marijuana shop in Vancouver, Washington, said marijuana-infused edibles in that state's medical marijuana market are "astronomically stronger" than what's in the recreational cannabis stores.

He said a cookie with 100 milligrams of THC, marijuana's psychoactive component, is common in a medical marijuana cookie, while rules for the recreational market cap THC at 10 milligrams per serving.

"One hundred milligrams is an awful lot of THC if you are not expecting it or if you haven't used (marijuana) previously," he said.

The panel discussion, which included William Simpson, a Portland area medical marijuana grower, and Steven Marks, executive director of the liquor control commission, drew about 255 people and touched on the regulation of marijuana-infused edibles, taxes and local control.

Burdick called Measure 91 a "very well crafted bill" that lawmakers will refine and revise this session. Ultimately, she said, lawmakers aim to ensure that recreational marijuana is "fairly taxed and effectively regulated" and "kept out of the hands of children."

Figuring out how medical marijuana fits into the new regulated industry has occupied lawmakers for the past two months, said Burdick. In Oregon, only dispensaries are regulated; marijuana production is not.

Burdick said the committee wants to work out a system that allows medical marijuana to continue "but add a layer of accountability and a layer of tracking so we can make sure the medical marijuana is getting to dispensaries and patients and not to the black market and is not going to end up competing with the recreational market like it did in Washington and to some degree in Colorado."

Ferrioli said he worries medical marijuana patients will end up shortchanged as growers shift to a more lucrative recreational market.

"We are going to be putting a tremendous financial incentive and market forces behind recreational growth," he said. "I don't know how we are going to compensate the medical side."

On taxes, Burdick said she said she favors a "very low" tax in the early years of regulated marijuana.

"If it's too high, then the business will gravitate to the black market," she said.

She said she supports giving local communities the ability to impose a low tax on marijuana, which she views as a potential incentive for local governments to allow marijuana retailers. Burdick suggested a 15 percent overall tax, including a 10 percent state tax and a 5 percent local tax option.

In an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday, Burdick said she used those figures as an example but that the numbers may end up looking different.

Holding up a map of Oregon, Ferrioli pointed out that 14 counties voted for Measure 91 and 22 voted against it. He compared marijuana to cycling, saying that a decade ago cyclists were seen only occasionally on byways of eastern Oregon.

"Today Cycle Oregon is a major feature that people welcome and expect and anticipate and enjoy and support," he said. "That was a cultural shift and it look a little time and it was based on experiences and it was based on ambassadorship.

"If we force people who voted against legalization and lose site of the fact that Measure 91 is permissive but not mandatory," said Ferrioli, "if we force people to make the change, they will bunch up and push back."

-- Noelle Crombie

@noellecrombie; 503-276-7184