Portland Lags in Licensing Recreational Weed Stores

Here's one problem Chloe Eudaly will have to tackle when she takes over city cannabis regulation.

Farma (Kyle Key)
By Rachel Monahan and Beth Slovic

Portland's cannabis businesses have been complaining for months about the bureaucratic red tape they've faced at City Hall after Oregon voters legalized recreational weed.

Business owners have argued that the city duplicated the state’s licensing process, charged them double what businesses in other cities pay—and have moved slowly in issuing permits. Those complaints factored into Mayor Ted Wheeler deciding this week to assign the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and its marijuana program, to rookie City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly.
The statewide deadline was Dec. 31 for medical marijuana businesses to get an Oregon Liquor Control Commission license to sell pot in the recreational market. And the numbers show that state regulators have so far granted far more cannabis permits than City Hall.
73:
Recreational licenses issued by the state to Portland cannabis shops.
27:
Recreational licenses issued by the city to Portland cannabis shops.

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