This Friday the OLCC Commission is scheduled to meet and act on a few amendments to the recently adopted Temporary Rules for recreational marijuana. Read the full text of the amendments.

Rule 845-025-1030 Application Process

The proposed amendment is intended to provide clarity around when a person who is listed as having a financial interest in the applicant business is required to submit info/fingerprints for a background check and an Individual History. The rule as currently adopted is very broad and applies to anyone with a financial interest in the applicant company, no matter how small. As revised, the requirement to submit fingerprints and History provides thresholds for when the info is required.

New subsection (5)(a) provides the OLCC the authority to require fingerprinting, background checks, and Individual History from persons with a financial interest who do not fall under the amended (4)(b) definition. (5)(b) is a sort of catchall that says the OLCC can require “[a]ny additional information if there is a reason to believe that the information is needed to determine the merits of the license application.”

The practical impact of these amendments is that any applicant for a recreational marijuana license in Oregon should be prepared to have all investors potentially subjected to a criminal background check. The check will be mandatory for those who meet the threshold requirements and may be required for those who do not meet the threshold. It is best to be prepared for either scenario.

Rule 845-025-1045 Qualifications of an Applicant

This rule is amended to include the proposed changes in rule 1030 regarding individuals with a financial interest.

Rule 854-025-2820 Retailer Operational Requirements

Amendments are technical language changes regarding the individual sales limits per day and pricing consistency during the day. The adopted rule uses the phrase “business day”, which the Commission seeks to amend to “day.” The current rule reads as if the per day limits for an individual purchaser only apply on business days, leaving it unclear what the purchase limit may be on non-business days.

Rule 854-025-5740 Failed Test Samples

The amendment eliminates the provisions that allow a licensee to request to remediate a batch of usable marijuana that failed pesticide testing. As amended, if a batch fails a pesticide test the options are either to destroy the batch or retest. If the batch fails the retest, then it must be destroyed.

OLCC will begin accepting applications for recreational marijuana licenses on January 4, 2016. Contact Gleam Law for additional information or questions