By Adam J. Smith

Billy Williams, the United States Attorney for Oregon, recently outlined five prosecution priorities for his office related to cannabis, including overproduction and interstate trafficking, protection of children, public safety, organized crime and environmental protection.

If Williams wants to take the lead in effectively addressing all of these priorities, he should consider entering into a conversation on making licensed transfer between legal states a low enforcement priority for his office.

In doing so, he might also help Oregon avert an economic calamity.

If U.S. Attorneys in legal states declared such transfers a "low enforcement priority," it wouldn't make them legal under federal law. But it would represent nearly the same level of protection that allowed early adopter states to launch successful medical cannabis programs.

Oregon is indeed suffering from an overproduction of cannabis in the regulated market. Wholesale prices have collapsed, making it nearly impossible for licensed producers to earn a profit. This has created a strong disincentive for illicit growers to become licensed, significantly increasing the amount of cannabis flowing into illegal states.

Oregon has been an exporter of cannabis long before the regulated system. The state's near perfect growing climate, fertile soil, access to water, reasonable energy costs and generations of knowledge and experience make it one of the best places in the world to grow cannabis -- indoor and out. This has earned Oregon cannabis a global reputation that will one day support a multi-billion dollar interstate and global export market.

New markets would lead to a significant reduction in the number of Oregon growers operating outside of the regulated system, reducing organized criminal activity and the environmental degradation so often the hallmark of illegal grows. And less cannabis in the illicit market -- where no one checks customers' identification --means less access for young people.

The coming economic collapse of the Oregon cannabis industry will have some very predictable outcomes. Chief among them is that the vast majority of locally-owned companies, many among the best cannabis producers in the world, will go under or be bought out for pennies. At the same time, a small group of deep-pocketed, out-of-state and international corporations, will dominate the Oregon industry. They're already buying up farms, brands and retail outlets.

In addition to thousands of jobs, this will destroy hundreds of millions of dollars in Oregon-based capital. The loss of a significant ownership stake in its own cannabis industry will cost Oregon tens of billions of dollars over generations.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans favor regulated markets. And, with more states soon to go legal, state-to-state transfer of cannabis is inevitable. But even now there is no good reason to prosecute licensed interstate transfers -- other than to maintain the fiction of prohibition in a region of the country that has already moved beyond it. Particularly if those transfers can be accomplished without crossing through unregulated states.

Oregon's U.S. Attorney does not have the authority to change federal law, nor can he tell other U.S. attorneys what to do. But Williams does have broad prosecutorial discretion, and an important opportunity to show leadership.

Making state-recognized transfers a low priority would set an important precedent that could lead to significant progress on every one of the important priorities he has outlined. It could also have a tremendously beneficial impact on Oregon's economic future.

-- Adam J. Smith is the founder and executive director of the Craft Cannabis Alliance.