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Maria Toth owns what seems the perfect venue for a party celebrating Oregon's legalization of recreational marijuana.
Her central eastside nightclub, Refuge PDX, boasts 7,100 square feet, a spacious dance floor, a stage and a bar. It sits just a few blocks from the Morrison Bridge, right across the river from downtown Portland.
Most importantly—at least within the byzantine rules that govern recreational pot—the club has no liquor license.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission oversees a tangle of rules for the state's legal recreational marijuana market. Many are confusing. But this much is clear: You can't smoke weed in a bar, and you can't sell beer at a marijuana event.
Because Refuge PDX has no liquor license, it's become a rare and coveted location in Portland's marijuana scene: a private space to smoke.
Yet the OLCC says Toth kept selling alcohol anyway.
Last month, officers for the agency arrested Toth for allegedly selling beer at a marijuana networking event—a party called Cannaball.
People get arrested in Portland every day for far more serious crimes. The OLCC says this case is nothing more complicated than a businesswoman selling beer without a license. Toth says she did nothing wrong at all.
But in fact, this arrest spotlights the difficulty of the OLCC's quest to keep marijuana and alcohol separated.
For many people, marijuana and alcohol are two great tastes that go great together. As states legalize pot, cannabis entrepreneurs have hosted tasting parties where weed strains are paired with wines. Brewers and mixologists are experimenting with adding pot tinctures to cocktails and beer.
The OLCC is helpless to regulate much of this action, which takes place in homes and at private events. What it can do is enforce its rules against mixing the sale of beer and weed.
Toth's arrest points to where the OLCC is likely heading: The agency that regulates the liquor and cannabis industries will spend its time and resources keeping the two markets apart.
"It's an either-or question," says OLCC marijuana program spokesman Mark Pettinger. "You can't be a bartender and a budtender."
That makes business tricky for Oregon's budding marijuana entrepreneurs.
"The indoor smoking policy and laws are very difficult to digest," Toth tells WW via email. She denies selling alcohol at Cannaball.
Toth is no stranger to the authorities. In her career as proprietor of Refuge PDX, she has been accused of trying to bribe Portland Fire & Rescue, cited by the fire bureau for allowing too many people into the club, and accused of failure to report an alleged sexual assault.
Dating back to 2009, Toth has held a number of temporary sales licenses to serve alcohol at various events. During this time, she has also racked up seven OLCC violations, including employing bartenders and security guards without valid documentation, and failure to use wristbands to prevent overcrowding.
In an email, Toth describes the license application process as "excruciating."
"Despite responding to every demand," she writes, "we continued to be denied permission to sell alcohol."
But that frustration has also opened up new opportunities for Toth.
A liquor license or a retail marijuana license would designate her venue as a public place. Refuge PDX has neither, and so it can be rented for private events. And at private events, it's legal to smoke weed. It's also legal to serve alcohol, as long as it's free of charge.
OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott confirms this, saying the OLCC is trying not to run afoul of federal law.
"You can have an event where you have BYOB marijuana and you're giving away alcohol," Scott tells WW, "but everything hinges on whether or not it's a public place."
In the past six months, Refuge PDX has hosted a number of prominent weed events, including the 2015 Oregon Dope Cup, the Cannabis Finance Boot Camp, and the Sungrown Cannabis Festival.
"The venue does not have an alcohol license, so we were able to work with farms and dispensaries within the framework of consumption, music and education," Toth tells WW in an email.
"Maria has been an advocate for the industry for some time," says Sara Batterby, co-chairwoman of Portland's chapter of Women Grow, a national network for female cannabis entrepreneurs. The group hosted a networking event at Refuge PDX in July.
Records show the OLCC closely monitored marijuana events and other parties at Refuge PDX.
On Aug. 28, OLCC officer John Mereen reported an unlicensed event at Refuge PDX, complete with a fully stocked bar and public marijuana use.
Over the next four months, police and officers for the agency reported a number of events at Refuge, where they believed payment had been accepted for alcohol. In one of these incidents, in September, Toth told OLCC officers that bartenders had been paid in "donations."
In October, incident reports to the commission describe preparations for a "Gremlins Show" at Refuge. According to the reports, Toth denied alcohol would be served at the event, but when officers inspected the premises they found two full beer kegs, taps, "at least 16 bottles of various wines," and a case of Copa Di Vino wine in single servings.
OLCC records say the event's promoter admitted that she planned to have a "collection box" at the event.
But the last straw was Cannaball.
On Dec. 24, OLCC officer David Luster reported seeing event photos on wweek.com of "Portland's First Annual Cannaball," which had taken place two weeks earlier at Refuge PDX.
Luster describes the photos in his incident report: "These photographs also clearly show Toth, holding onto a glass of malt beverage near an unidentified male manipulating a bag of marijuana and spreading it out onto a table near Toth. These photographs also show other patrons holding onto full beer and champagne glasses and the smoking of marijuana in public."
Scott says she believes this was the first OLCC arrest made for activities that occurred at a marijuana event. But she says the marijuana was simply a detail. "This ticket has nothing to do with the marijuana," Scott tells WW. "This has everything to do with the fact that [Toth] continually keeps holding events without liquor licenses."
Despite the photographs, Toth denies the presence of alcohol at Cannaball. "The cannabis events hosted at Refuge only have cannabis onsite," Toth tells WW in an email. "No alcohol has been sold or consumed."
Toth faces a misdemeanor charge of selling alcohol without a liquor license, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison or a $6,250 fine.
Despite the charges leveled against her, Toth remains optimistic about her club's future.
"I envision Refuge becoming a multifaceted venue," she writes, "capable of transforming to suit the needs of any client that may want to use the space."
Correction: The print version of this story mistakenly omitted the first name of OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott. WW regrets the error.
Willamette Week