From John Sajo

Director Umpqua Cannabis Association

Founder of Voter Power



I have been an activist for legalizing marijuana since the 1970s and have been growing medical marijuana and providing it free to patients for over twenty years. I have given over a million dollars worth of medicine to hundreds of patients for free over those years. But proving that no good deed goes unpunished, I am now looking at the very real possibility that I may not be able to continue.

I have written extensively on how the over regulation of cannabis by the Oregon Legislature, the Oregon Health Department, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and local governments has hurt medical marijuana. This trend has continued and accelerated. I have been struggling with when and how to report on the disaster that the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Committee on Regulating Marijuana has become.

They recently passed SB 1057 which will subject medical growers to expensive seed to sale tracking but does not allow them sell into the legal market. SB 2198 provides some partial temporary fixes but it has not passed out of committee yet.

The Legislature, lead by Portland democrats who live in fear of what Trump will do, and who are corrupted by the campaign contributions from the bigger marijuana businesses who want to drive out family farms and mom and pop stores, are continuing to add expensive, unenforceable, unfair regulation upon regulation.

Millions of dollars are being spent tracking marijuana plants but no one is tracking the results of thousands of patients using cannabis to treat cancer.

No one is tracking which businesses are helping patients through charitable contributions.

No one is tracking the ownership of the big marijuana companies buying up little companies.

On top of all this the OMMP recently released a bulletin stating that they would no longer register medical marijuana gardens that do not have a street address and number. Identifiers that they previously accepted like GPS coordinates or legal parcel descriptions will no longer be accepted. This directly contradicts what OMMP recently told me and could mean that lots of rural medical marijuana gardens will not be allowed.

Obtaining a legal address for some rural parcels from a county planning department is virtually impossible. This is an outrageous decision from the health department. Given that these gardens now will be subject to seed to sale tracking and inspection by the OLCC it is hard to imagine a justification for shutting down even more medical marijuana gardens by creating requirements that cannot be met.

I intend to continue fighting but this isn’t getting any easier. Please join me in writing or calling OMMP and object to this new OMMP bulletin.

Contact the Marijuana Regulation Committee and tell them to pass 2198 and stop killing medical marijuana. Please join me in mounting a new statewide initiative to save medical marijuana in Oregon!

Main image by Allan Erickson Photography. Jack Herer and John Sajo.

Post originally on Facebook. Posted here by special permission.