On March 7, Oregon law makers passed Senate Bill 1564 (SB 1564) which empowers counties to impose hemp moratoriums within their jurisdictions.
To impose a hemp moratorium, a county must simply declare a state of emergency related to cannabis and notify the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) of the declaration and request that the ODA deny issuance of grower licenses in order to alleviate the conditions giving rise to the declaration.
This post briefly goes over the impetus behind this new law and how it will impact Oregon’s hemp industry.
Reasons behind the SB 1564 hemp moratoriums
SB 1564 was originally introduced as a broad moratorium on the issuance of hemp producer licenses, which stemmed from growing concerns regarding illegal grows, particularly in Southern Oregon.
In 2020, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that the federalization of hemp would result in hemp shielding criminal activities. In 2021, concerned it would not have sufficient resources to police the hemp industry, Oregon passed House Bill 3000, which empowered the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) and the ODA to access and test crops on hemp farms. The agencies used this authority to launch Operation Table Rock during which they visited over
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