PORTLAND, Ore. — Well before Oregon legalized marijuana, its verdant, wet forests made it an ideal place for growing the drug, which often ended up being funneled out of the state for big money. Now, officials suspect pot grown legally in Oregon for medicinal and recreational purposes and other states is also being smuggled out, and the trafficking is putting America’s multibillion-dollar marijuana industry at risk.
In response, pot-legal states are trying to clamp down on “diversion” even as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions presses for enforcement of federal laws against marijuana.
Tracking legal weed from the fields and greenhouses where it’s grown to the shops where it’s sold under names like Blueberry Kush and Chernobyl is their so far main protective measure.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon’s legal market. So far, only recreational marijuana has been comprehensively tracked. Tina Kotek, speaker of the Oregon House, said lawmakers wanted to ensure “we’re protecting the new industry that we’re supporting here.”
“There was a real recognition that things could be changing in D.C.,” she said.
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board says it’s replacing its current tracking Nov. 1 with a “highly secure, reliable, scalable and flexible system.”
California voters approved using a tracking system run by Lakeland, Florida-based Franwell for its recreational pot market. Sales become legal Jan. 1.
