Californians Invade Oregon on Day One of Legal Marijuana Sales

AFP/Getty

by Michelle Moons

Pot tourism hit Oregon Thursday as an influx of people flowed in from states like California for opening day of recreational use marijuana in Oregon.

“So far this morning, almost half of them are from different areas,” Michael Welch of Siskiyou Medical Supply said referring to all the out-of-staters showing up to buy pot according to Contra Costa Times.
Oregon is the third state to welcome state legalization of recreational use marijuana.

It follows Washington and Colorado and looks to be followed by Alaska and the District of Columbia. The report documents that sales began in the first minutes of Thursday morning. Under the new rule adults can buy up to a quarter ounce per day. Two hundred shops in the state have the authority to make such a sale.

In January Oregon will begin levying a 25% sales tax on marijuana wrote the Times.

California was the first to legalize medical marijuana use in 1996, but now has residents traveling to Oregon for their fix even at the risk of being busted after re-entering their home state. Northern California is the epicenter of marijuana growers.

The California Highway Patrol is more concerned with incidents of driving under the influence than marijuana possession a spokesperson said according to the Times.

“In the case of marijuana, it doesn’t matter if it’s legal or illegal, medicinal or not — a driver who is impaired can be cited or arrested for driving under the influence because he or she is engaging in a dangerous behavior that puts everyone on the road at risk.”

California may not be long from joining the legal recreational use burn. Four and likely soon to be five legalization efforts are in or soon to be in the petition gathering phase. The Times report details that the fifth is possibly the most organized and will shortly be filed with the state.

The California pot industry doesn’t seem to be concerned with the plentiful levels of Californians heading to take part in the novelty of Oregon’s legal pot sale industry. In part it is the very small amount of marijuana a person may purchase per day that affords that reassurance to California pot purveyors. Another deterrence may come with the introduction of that 25% sales tax set to hit Oregon sales at the beginning of 2016.