Robert of @Elitegrowers in #Oregon shares to you updates on the State of Oregon Cannabis as of November 2018. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program was established by Ballot Measure 67 in 1998, passing with 54.6% support.

It altered state law to allow for the cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana by doctor recommendation for patients with certain medical conditions.

Fast-forward 20 years and we find the program on its’ Death Bed.

Here is my take on how it happened and why it won’t be revived.

Considered, by some, to be the source of Oregon’s black market, medical marijuana is swiftly falling victim to a combination of bad (new) regulations and the recreational market where prices have collapsed for all grades of cannabis, making it easier, cheaper and more simple to just buy at your local dispensary.

To believe that the small medical growers were responsible for the enormous black market that it is estimated by some to be 3 times as large as the legal market.

You have to believe that thousands of small medical growers somehow colluded to consolidate their products for the local illicit market of course the export market to the East Coast where the product sells for 3 times the Oregon price… Not happening!

Everyone knows who’s responsible, but no one wants to talk about that…

The number of patients registered with the OMMP (Oregon Medical Marijuana Program) is half of what it was a year ago.

Statewide it dropped 40 percent, from 59,000 to 35,000.

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The number of registered growers also dropped simultaneously.

Statewide it went from 23,000 to 14,000 a decline mirroring the patient drop out rate.

Patients are unable to find a local grower to supply them.

In years past it was relatively easy for a patient to find a grower to provide free or very low-cost cannabis specific to his or her symptoms.

The new regulations have made it much more difficult to care for other patients, therefore the number of growers willing to comply has dropped precipitously and will continue the downward spiral!

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The new cannabis tracking system (CTS) is onerous, not user friendly and designed for large commercial grow operations.

It is sure to chase more medical growers out of the business and the patients will lose again!

Author Bio: Robert Demes manages The Elite Growers. The Elite Growers was founded in December of 2016 as a premiere medical marijuana grower. The farm is located in Brownsville, Oregon a rural farming area 25 miles Northeast of Eugene. As part of “giving back to the Humanity” they operate an animal sanctuary for orphaned farm animals.