Week in Review: New life in Montana, rule tweaks in Oregon & obstacles in New England

By Bart Schaneman andOmar Sacirbey

Montanas medical marijuana industry is reactivated, Oregonadjusts its testing regulations, and New Englands adult-use industry encounters obstacles.

Heres a closer look at some notable developments in the marijuana industry over the past week.

Back from the dead

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Montana will be flipping their closed signs to open after a state judge gave the industry a new lease on life.

Were elated, said Bob Devine, who owns a dispensary in Bozeman and is president of the Montana Cannabis Industry Association. We can get the program up and going.

A district judgelifted a three-patient limitthat was passed in 2011 and implemented in August 2016. That limit, approved by state lawmakers, effectively shut down the MMJ industry.

Last month, Montana voters approved a ballot initiative to set up commercial cultivation operations and dispensaries.

A drafting error in the measure had postponed its implementation until next summer. But the judge ruled the error shouldnt prevent ill patients from getting medical cannabis immediately, meaning dispensaries can reopen.

Devine expects patient counts in the state to rebound and possibly toppre-August numbers, which would help hasten the industrys revival.

As of early this year, Montana had 50-60 dispensaries and 13,200 registered MMJ patients, according to the Marijuana Business Factbook 2016.

Following the three-patient limit, Devine said, the patient count plunged to around 800 because people had trouble finding an MMJ provider or growing their own.People who didnt elect a provider or grow their own were dropped from the patient list.

With the program being legitimized again, youll probably see a lot more patients reregister, Devine said.

The next step is to get through a legislative session and work out the regulatory details of the new program.

Devine said hes already taking the needed steps to reopen his own dispensary.

Were raring to go, he said. A lot of us have stuck this out the whole time.

Change, but not relief

Nice try, but try again.

Thats one way to sum up how Oregon marijuana retailers feel about changes made to onerous testing rules that have created asupply squeezein the state and a drop in sales.

The new rules, announced Dec. 2, lower testing costs and allow marijuana businesses to submit larger and more varied sample sizes for testing at one time.

However, the Oregon Health Authoritys regulations dont address issues related to analyzing pesticides, such as chemical levels, which played a significant role in the failed tests that led to the supply shortage.

Some in theindustry worry that scores of companies still could go out of business if the state doesntloosen the rules further.

The initial changes that they made, they address many things on many levels. With regards to the market being seized up and goods not flowing, I think little has been done to change that, said Beau Whitney, an economist who heads the canna-centric consulting firm Whitney Economics.

The good news for Oregons cannabis business owners, Whitney said, is that the state government started reworking the regulations long before his recent report examining the test-related marijuana supply shortage.

The governors team has stepped up and started trying to moderate this issue, Whitney said. Its a very complex issue to balance public safety and the growth of a regulated industry.

Because the state government has been proactive about altering the regulations, Whitneybelieves Oregon MJ entrepreneurs soon will see another set of policy changes coming out.

While industry professionals should fight for more reasonable regulations, Whitney said, they should be careful not to leave the impression they dont want any cannabis standards.

Theres been testing since before Oct. 1. Businesses should make that clear, he said. Otherwise people think its just a bunch of businesses who dont care about public health.

Hiccups in New England

New Englands first two recreational marijuana markets, Maine and Massachusetts,are ...