As the Oct. 1 launch of recreational marijuana sales nears, one labor union is looking to organize cannabis workers in Oregon.

United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 recently negotiated a three-year contract on behalf of employees at a Portland dispensary and hopes to broker similar deals across the state as the cannabis industry takes off, said Jeff Anderson, Local 555 secretary-treasurer.

TALENT, ORE --

People over the age of 21 will be able to purchase recreational cannabis on October 1st.

Local dispensaries like Talent Health Club are getting ready. They have set up a new section in their store for recreational buyers. 

However, they will not have access to all cannabis products. Topicals, concentrates and edibles will not be sold recreationally.

People will only will be allowed to buy up to a quarter ounce on Thursday. 

Coming up on Newswatch 12, find out what dispensaries have planned this Thursday. 

Harborside Health Center will open a new cannabis dispensary at 5816 NE Portland Hwy, near Portland International Airport, on October 1st—Oregon’s first official day of adult-use sales. Harborside Health Center is the nation’s largest model cannabis dispensary, with locations in Oakland and San Jose, Calif., and was recently awarded the first and only cannabis dispensary license in San Leandro, California.

Harborside Portland features executive team members from Harborside Health Center, including Executive Director Steve DeAngelo, along with locally hired staff led by General Manager Chris Helton, a former clinician at Oregon Health & Science University, who grew up in Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley.

In an attempt to police marijuana use on the West Cost, the Drug Enforcement Administration has spent $960,000 to destroy Oregon marijuana plants in 2014.

Recreational marijuana use is legal in Oregon, but that hasn’t stopped the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from engaging in an eradication program costing American taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

In 2014 alone, the agency spent $960,000 to remove 16,067 pot plants in the state of Oregon, where the drug was made legal in 2012. If you do the division, the price tag comes to almost exactly $60 dollars per plant destroyed. The number appears even more startling when considering the average nationwide per-plant-destruction cost is $4.20, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

I dined on garlic-herb magic mushrooms, lush weed-infused butter, a decadent pot brownie and a cool glass of green juice to top it all off. If the pot industry is looking to reach the bourgie middle class, this is surely the way to go

or the fast-growing industry growing around weed, the current challenge is to make marijuana an item of ordinary middle-class consumption. So how do you persuade bourgie consumers to integrate pot into their lifestyles?

The obvious answer is to turn it into food.

If you can get pot out of dime-bags and onto big white plates, a whole new market awaits. Which is where books like The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, come in.

The Drug Enforcement Administration spent $960,000 to destroy marijuana plants in that state in 2014 as part of its "Cannabis Eradication Program," according to a recent report by NBC affiliate KGW in Portland, Ore.

That year, the DEA succeeded in removing 16,067 pot plants from Oregon, which at first blush sounds like a lot of weed. But when you do the math, that works out to a cost to taxpayers of $60 per uprooted plant. That is a lot when you consider that nationally, it costs the DEA *ahem* $4.20 to eliminate a single marijuana plant under this program.

Oregon needs members for a new short-term task force on medical marijuana.

Following the passage of Senate Bill 844, Oregon authorities have to organize the group quickly so it can report back to the Legislature by Feb. 1. The Cannabis Research Task Force will produce a report on a range of issues, from the latest research on medical marijuana to legal obstacles to proposing a location for a research grow site in the state. The report will also look at the potential for Oregon to collaborate with other states, consider hurdles faced by labs and review boards when it comes to medical marijuana and figure out ways to fund research.

Portland, Ore. — Cannabis may be legal in Oregon, but police are still waging a war on weed.

A KGW investigation found the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is sending more than $750,000 to police in Oregon this year to snuff out pot operations.

“I think the DEA’s marijuana eradication program is a huge waste of federal taxpayer dollars,” Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, told KGW.

“We have states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado that have legalized marijuana and then you’ve got the federal government trying to eradicate it,” said Lieu. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Oregon has been on the forefront of the cannabis industry for many years. After legalizing medical marijuana back in 1998 and recreational marijuana last year, the state has been a pioneer when it comes to important issues like reprieve for prior crimes. Measure 91 promises to open up a $450 million market for the state by 2020, according to New Frontier Financials projections, creating jobs, raising tax revenue, and yielding opportunities for investors.