Security, testing questions remain for Ore. pot shops

SALEM, Ore. — The committee tasked with drawing up the rules for Oregon’s medical marijuana dispensary program is facing questions about security, marijuana testing and paying for oversight.

Oregon’s legislature passed House Bill 3460 during the 2013 legislative session that approved medical marijuana retail establishments and created a registry for potentially hundreds of businesses that want to sell medical marijuana.

Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Dispensary Law Rules Advisory Committee met Friday with several fundamental questions about the program still looming before the dispensary law goes into effect March 1, The Statesman Journal reports.

Proposed security rules for the dispensaries include round-the-clock recorded surveillance and where the dispensary’s marijuana and cash will be kept while the business is closed.

“No cash or stash is a great way to keep all your windows,” said Noel Bullock, owner of Cherry City Compassion dispensary in Salem. “A safe suggests that’s not an option.”

Shannon O’Fallon, an Oregon Department of Justice attorney, warned that dispensary owners might not get legal protection if they kept their product off the grounds of a registered facility.

The panel was also frustrated by the lack of literature on marijuana testing.

“There aren’t any registered pesticides for cannabis at all in Oregon,” Todd Dalotto, committee member and member of Oregon’s Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, said. “Nowhere exists any standards for pesticides and mold levels for inhaled combustible products … That is probably one of our biggest challenges in drafting (regulations).”

The state also will run background checks on employees, audit stores and conduct on-site safety inspections.

The committee hopes to meet at least once more before its self-imposed deadline in December. The panel hopes to give OHA time to review its recommendations and give lawmakers time to make legal changes during the 2014 legislative session.