Medford, Oregon doesn’t want any hippie lettuce shops opening up in their fair city. That would be just plain unlawful in their eyes, despite new state laws expressly allowing dispensaries and a federal policy permitting such state laws.
So the town has written an ordinance banning business licenses to anyone violating local, state or federal law. “I don’t see how you could license unlawful activity,” Police Chief Tim George tells the Yamhill Valley News-Register.
No doubt the law is being fairly enforced. Oh, wait. It isn’t. The law was passed specifically to target Marrjane’s Attic, a medical dispensary that has operated in the town for some time.
We’re still waiting for the town to shut down all other businesses found to be breaking even the most minor of state and local laws, including health code violations at restaurants and businesses that haven’t paid their taxes on time.
State legislators are miffed at the town’s knee-jerk reaction. State Rep. Peter Buckley urged other towns to wait until the new state law allowing dispensaries has been ironed out through rulemaking committees. He also said there may be a legislative fix already in place.
“A wild card thrown into this is that the Legislature also passed a bill to regulate (genetically modified) crops,” Buckley said. “It regulates all products of seeds at the state level. We’re asking counsel to see whether that law would preclude a city or county from regulating medical marijuana.”
Oregon has roughly 55,000 medical marijuana cardholders currently active on their registry.