PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — After months of public hearings with pot growers, lawmen, public health officials and others, an Oregon commission is racing to finalize recreational marijuana regulations and issue licenses to hundreds of businesses within a few months.
The commission has been grappling with its massive task, issues that Colorado and Washington state previously dealt with, including the number of licenses initially offered.
Besides Oregon, Alaska also legalized pot in 2014.
Business people have been coming from around the country — lawmakers recently tossed out a residents-only requirement — to try to get a piece of Oregon's cannabis industry that already existed for 18 years with medical marijuana.
The Legislative Revenue Office in May quadrupled its estimate of net tax revenues, from $8.4 million to $35 million, that the state is expected to receive from recreational marijuana through June 30, 2017, according to Malik Mazen, senior economist with the Legislature.
A company named Avitas, which is awaiting a license, began refitting a former cabinet factory in March located less than a mile from the state Capitol in Salem into a 12,000-square-foot "cannabis production facility" and expects to be done by mid-June.
