What is going on with OLCC recreational marijuana licensing?

January 17, 2022
MiaGetlin
Oregon
1 Comment

by Mia Getlin – Partner, Gleam Law

We previously reported that, in early November 2021, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) announced that the agency had lifted its pause on issuing new non-producer recreational marijuana licenses and would immediately begin processing new applications for retail, processor, and wholesaler licenses. Additionally, the agency began contacting people who had applied for non-producer licenses during the pause regarding their readiness to move forward with the licensing process. Of those contacted, 117 responded that they were ready to move forward. Those 117 applications were added to the queue during the first full week of December.

On January 1^st, Senate Bill 218 sunset, ending the statutory moratorium of the issuance of new OLCC producer licenses. Beginning at 12:00am on January 2^nd, the OLCC began accepting new producer license applications.

However, in the coming months, the legislature will consider House Bill 4016, which would reinstate the producer license moratorium and, potentially, an amendment that would apply the moratorium to other license types as well. HB 4016 provides for the moratorium to be retroactive to January 2, 2022. This means that, if the bill passes as currently written no new producer applications will be processed and non-producer applications submitted on January 2, 2022 or later may be deactivated.

These contradictions have led to great confusion in the industry. Business and license transactions have been terminated or renegotiated and would-be licensees have invested significant funds into new businesses expecting their new applications to be processed. Our clients have entered into long term leases or purchased real estate based on the expectation that their new applications will be processed. We have even talked to license and business brokers who are no longer taking new listings because “licensing has fully reopened.”

This uncertainty is making business planning very difficult and confusing.

In short, OLCC recreational marijuana licensing is currently a confusing mess. We are hopeful that we will have clarity soon, but in the meantime, things certainly are exciting.

Mia Getlin

Mia Getlin is an Oregon cannabis attorney and a member of the Oregon and Washington State Bars. She practices general business law, specializing in legal marijuana, hemp, and CBD out of Gleam Law’s Portland, OR office. Mia has served clients throughout the industry, from OLCC licensees to policy advocates and industrial hemp businesses. She is also VP and Secretary of the Oregon Industry Progress Association, a political action group advocating for business friendly-change to Oregon’s recreational cannabis policy. She also has an Oregon and California CPA (inactive).

An honors graduate of UCLA and Pepperdine Law, Mia previously worked in public accounting at KPMG, providing internal control audit and advisory services to large companies with a focus on the retail, banking, and automotive industries. After moving to Oregon in 2014, she began to focus on business law and specifically serving the growing cannabis industry as an Oregon cannabis attorney.

With family members involved in the recreational market, Mia knows firsthand some of the challenges and pitfalls facing the growing legal marijuana, CBD and hemp industry. She is passionate about helping clients find cost-effective solutions that allow cannabis businesses of all types to succeed and prosper.

As a Portland cannabis lawyer at Gleam Law, Mia has experience in a range of business law disciplines from entity setup, cannabis licensing and contracts to business acquisitions and sales.

This Post Has One Comment

J says:

March 30, 2022 at 2:10 pm

This is in direct conflict with what the OLCC told me over the phone multiple times before I submitted my producer license application on Jan 3rd of this year. This will be the 2nd time they have retroactively nulled my application whilst encouraging me to apply and without a refund.

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