For the past year and a half, the commission has partnered with the legal cannabis industry to develop new changes which will decrease violations, streamline oversight, increase THC potency limits, and develop regulations and child safeguards for hemp products.

The new rules will be adopted by the OLCC on New Year’s Day, though some of the changes won’t go into effect until 2023.

“These rules try to balance a number of different concerns – consumer health and safety, interests of small and large operators in our industry, and public safety concerns around loopholes in the Federal Farm Bill of 2018, and the illicit farm production taking place in Oregon,” stated OLCC Executive Director, Steve Marks.

Many of the changes were driven by the Oregon Legislature’s recent approval of House Bill 3000, which addressed the unregulated sale of THC-hemp products in the state, and Senate Bill 408, which gave the OLCC a template to re-define violation penalties.

In a recent release, the OLCC stated, “When the new rules take effect, Oregon will be better aligned with other adult-use cannabis states and be positioned as a legal export market as the groundwork is laid for federal legalization.”