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When Oregonians voted to legalize cannabis in 2014, there were high hopes for a thriving legal industry in the Beaver State\u2014and an end to big police raids on growers. Over the past three years, however, a market glut has driven prices down in the legal sector. At the same time, law enforcement has repeatedly carried out raids on impressively large illicit operations\u2014especially in the south of the state. What explains this illicit cannabis market paradox?<\/p>\n
An overview of some recent raids in Southern Oregon\u2014especially the adjacent counties of Josephine, Jackson and Klamath\u2014quickly makes clear the scope of the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On July 6, the Josephine Marijuana Enforcement Team (JMET)\u00a0served search warrants<\/a>\u00a0at two properties in Wolf Creek, uncovering some 14,000 cannabis plants in multiple greenhouses and indoor grow facilities. The JMET said detectives also found about 7,000 pounds of processed marijuana. Two people, identified as Chen Fengzhi and Liang Shao, were arrested.\u00a0<\/p>\n On June 23, the JMET joined with the Oregon State Police Drug Enforcement Section to\u00a0execute a search warrant<\/a>\u00a0in Cave Junction, confiscating 3,944 plants in seven \u201cindustrial-sized\u201d greenhouses.<\/p>\n On June 22, the JMET\u00a0raided a <\/a>property<\/a>\u00a0in Grants Pass, seizing 700 plants and 2,500 pounds of processed marijuana, as well as a pound-and-a-half of methamphetamine and multiple firearms. A man identified as Tung Ming Chen was arrested.<\/p>\n On June 8, the JMET and Rogue Area Drug Enforcement (RADE) team\u00a0searched properties<\/a>\u00a0outside Selma, finding some 22,000 plants in 34 greenhouses. One man, Juan Valdovinos Tafolla, was arrested, and several others \u201ctemporarily detained for officer safety,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office said. In addition to marijuana offenses, Valdovinos Tafolla was slapped with charges of \u201cappropriation of water,\u201d for allegedly using a pump to divert water from a nearby creek.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last harvest season saw a spate of impressively big raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Nov. 18, the Oregon State Police\u00a0seized<\/a>\u00a0an estimated 500,000 pounds of processed marijuana in Jackson County\u2019s White City. More than 100 people were temporarily detained. Many were migrant workers living on site in \u201csubpar living conditions without running water.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sept. 14, the Basin Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (BINET) in Klamath County\u00a0raided<\/a>\u00a0a large marijuana grow operation near the town of Bonanza, reportedly destroying more than 50,000 plants.<\/p>\n Jackson County actually\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d on Oct. 1, with commissioners formally calling on Gov. Kate Brown to deploy the National Guard to help shut down illegal cannabis market\u2019s grow operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Board of Commissioners said local law enforcement was overwhelmed and\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0of an \u201cimminent threat to the public health and safety of our citizens from the illegal production of cannabis in our county.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oregon Legislature\u00a0held hearings<\/a>\u00a0on the question Nov. 16, taking testimony from law enforcement and licensed cannabis growers alike. Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler attributed a local spike in violent crime to the profusion of illegal grow operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had stabbings, robberies, thefts, burglaries, homicides, sex crimes, motor vehicle accidents, DUIs, all related to the influx of the marijuana-cannabis industry in our in our valley,\u201d Sickler said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly an issue we deal with on a daily basis here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Local authorities especially stressed illegal water use by outlaw growers\u2014a particularly pressing concern amid a megadrought across the Western states.\u00a0<\/p>\n A\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0on the question by the\u00a0Cannabis<\/a> Research Center<\/a>\u00a0at the University of California, Berkeley,\u00a0found<\/a>: \u201cBecause peak water demand for cannabis occurs in the dry season, when streamflow is at its lowest levels, even small diversions can dry streams and harm aquatic plants and animals.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oregon\u00a0Water Resources Department\u00a0has only four full-time employees to handle complaints in Jackson and Josephine counties, and their workload is rapidly backing up.<\/p>\n Media and law enforcement are increasingly\u00a0raising fears<\/a> up\u00a0of a heavy presence of organized crime and even foreign drug cartels in Oregon\u2019s illicit cannabis market.<\/p>\n In January,\u00a0Politico<\/a> up\u00a0ran an in-depth look at the question, finding: \u201cOver the last two years, there\u2019s been such an influx of outlaw farmers that southern Oregon now rivals California\u2019s notorious Emerald Triangle as a national center of illegal weed cultivation.\u201d Jackson County\u2019s Sheriff Sickler was cited as putting the number of illicit grow operations in the region at upwards of 1,000. The Oregon Liquor & Cannabis Commission (OLCC<\/a>), which oversees the state\u2019s legal industry, places the number of illicit cannabis market grow operations statewide at double that.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Politico account stressed fears by local law enforcement that international organized crime has targeted the region as a center of outlaw cultivation: \u201cCartels roll in and offer long-time residents as much as a million dollars in cash for their property, and hoop houses follow soon after the sale is complete. Residents have become accustomed to hearing Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew spoken at the grocery store.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTwo weeks ago, we took down a Bulgarian operation and in the same week an Argentinian operation,\u201d Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel told Politico, adding that his office has also recently dealt with Chinese and Mexican-run operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n But recent arrests have included seemingly \u201crespectable\u201d executives accused of covering for the illicit cannabis market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last October, John A. Magliana III, scion of a prominent Oregon family,\u00a0pleaded guilty<\/a> in US District Court in Medford to a felony charge of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, admitting that he managed an unlicensed Selma grow operation that produced for the out-of-state market. Links to a distribution ring in Indiana were claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n That same month, the Josephine County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u00a0arrested<\/a> a Grants Pass realtor on charges of arranging purchases of property for illegal cultivation. Tyra Polly Ann Foxx of RE\/MAX real estate agency is accused of conducting more than two dozen such transactions, converting ownership of properties from individuals to LLCs in order to cover illegal activity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And, playing right into conservative fears and stereotypes, the OLCC reported in September that some licensed hemp farms in the region are actually producing marijuana. In an audit dubbed \u201cOperation Table Rock\u201d (after a volcanic plateau<\/a> in the region), the OLCC and the Oregon\u00a0Department of Agriculture tested plants at 212 registered hemp grows in Jackson and Josephine counties. No less than 54% were found to be growing illegal cannabis. There were another 76 farms that declined to allow inspectors on the property, and a further 23 where inspectors were unable to establish contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI believe from my experience down there, there are more illicit grow operations than there are registered grows,\u201d said Richard Evans, OLCC senior director for licensing and compliance, speaking to local\u00a0Jefferson Public Radio<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Adjoining these counties on the south is Northern California\u2019s Siskiyou County, where ethnic tensions are rising following similar hype about foreign cartel involvement in cannabis cultivation. Hmong immigrants from Laos have been getting in on the cannabis economy\u2014sparking a xenophobic backlash, and blatantly\u00a0racially targeted enforcement<\/a>. This, in turn, has\u00a0sparked protests<\/a> by Hmong residents.<\/p>\n This points to the potential for ugliness if the situation in Southern Oregon continues in its dystopian trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Politico account contained one passage that cut to the heart of the dilemma: \u201cOregon\u2019s weed is some of the cheapest in the nation, and Oregonians predominantly purchase weed from licensed dispensaries. But most of the illicit weed grown in southern Oregon is leaving the state, heading to places where legal weed is still not available for purchase such as New York or Pennsylvania\u2014or where the legal price is still very high, like Chicago and Los Angeles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The OLCC has taken some steps to lift the regulatory burden on the legal sector, which could help make it more competitive. Late last year, the agency\u00a0promulgated<\/a> changes that double both the purchasing limit on cannabis flower and the THC maximum for edibles and extracts. As of Jan. 1, customers may buy two ounces of weed at a time\u2014up from one ounce. As of April 1, THC limits for edibles increased from 50 to 100 milligrams per package, and that for extracts from 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams per package.<\/p>\n Very significantly, home delivery is now permitted across municipal and county lines\u2014with the approval of local authorities. Previously, dispensaries were limited to deliveries within the locality where the retailer was located.<\/p>\n But whether these welcome measures are sufficient to meet the enormity of the illicit cannabis market problem is dubious at best. Industry advocates have been\u00a0pressing for a legal interstate market<\/a> to relieve the\u00a0glut in Oregon\u2019s licensed sector<\/a>. As long as licensed producers are confined to an in-state market, it\u2019s hard to see how they can compete with illicit producers bound by no such restrictions.<\/p>\n This points to the necessity of a national market in order for legalization to really be effective at bringing cannabis in from the cold. Proposals have been floated even by state governors for a \u201ccommon market<\/a>\u201d among states that have legalized. Whether the federal government will acquiesce in this, of course, is the big question.<\/p>\n The post Oregon\u2019s Illicit Cannabis Market is Booming<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When Oregonians voted to legalize cannabis in 2014, there were high hopes for a thriving legal industry in the Beaver State\u2014and an end to big police raids on growers. Over the past three years, however, a market glut has driven prices down in the legal sector. At the same time,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":56029,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,16346,4928,170,9799,687,185,16347,1138],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56030,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56028\/revisions\/56030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Wolf-Creek-Cannabis-Raid.jpg\")
<\/a>State of Emergency in Jackson County\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Cartel Involvement, Maybe<\/h4>\n
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Sweetening the Legal Sector<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Oregon\u2019s Illicit Cannabis Market is Booming<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"