A Missouri woman recently claimed Missouri’s “Right to Farm” constitutional provision as a defense in a felony prosecution for growing nine marijuana plants in her basement. All states have right to farm laws, generally intended to protect farmers from civil suits brought by encroaching suburban neighbors based on things like the smell of pig manure.

Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, moving to end a legislative impasse over a sweeping medical marijuana measure, on Wednesday created a special Senate committee to deal with the issue. 

You may recall last year that we voters here in Oregon passed statewide marijuana legalization. We're one of the 26 states with some form of citizen lawmaking ability, so we crafted a marijuana legalization initiative, got it on the ballot, and passed it with a 56 percent majority.

The initiative legalized personal marijuana possession and growing and established a system for commercial production, processing, and sales. Much of what was in the initiative was copied-and-pasted from our state's liquor laws, including two key provisions: only a vote of the people in a city or county could ban commercial marijuana licenses and only the state can tax marijuana.

They warned us this would happen. The states where recreational marijuana use is legal are also the states where marijuana is least expensive. The price of an ounce of weed ranges so widely from state to state that someone who smokes an ounce a month can move from Pittsburgh to Portland, Ore., and save enough money for a year’s worth of premium cable, the perfect companion for your habit.

SALEM — Lawmakers on a special joint House and Senate marijuana committee deadlocked Monday on a bill that would place a variety of new limits on the state’s medical marijuana program, creating significant uncertainty for the policy’s future.

The failure to reach agreement also threatens the committee’s key task, implementing Measure 91, the recreational marijuana legalization initiative that voters approved in November. The fight over medical marijuana has meant the committee has not passed any bills related directly to setting up the legal recreational market, with less than two months left in the scheduled session.

SALEM — A special committee of lawmakers will hold a key vote tonight on a bill placing new limits on the state’s medical marijuana program.

The limits in Senate Bill 844 are designed to stanch a substantial flow of marijuana, ostensibly grown in Oregon for the medical program, to the black market. Lawmakers say preventing that black market “leakage” is essential to setting up the recreational marijuana market that voters approved in November. But some growers and patients in the program have adamantly opposed the bill.

Oregon legalized medical marijuana in 1998 with Ballot Measure 67, and last year Oregon legalized the recreational use of marijuana with Measure 91, which will take effect July 1, 2015.

Even though marijuana use will be legal at the state level, it remains illegal at the federal level per the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -

New Vansterdam, one of the first legal marijuana stores to open in Vancouver, is getting ready for sales in Oregon once the drug is legal here.

The company just opened a new store in the Portland area that sells medical marijuana. Employees say it's the first step in a plan to expand to other states.

"We're creating a model, basically," employee Brent Royce said. "So we want to have both states up and running before we move forward with anything else."

New Vansterdam's goal is to become a chain of stores as marijuana becomes legal in other states.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is still going through the process of establishing rules and regulations for the sale of recreational marijuana in Oregon.

Even though several US states have voted to legalize marijuana, it's still not clear how best to regulate it. But there are steps that legislators can take to prevent the newly legal drug from falling into the hands of minors, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. A new report in the medical journal Pediatrics outlines four tested tactics for proposed regulation.

A committee representing a cross-section of professions and expertise has been established to develop rules for the state's regulated marijuana industry.

Oregon Liquor Control Commission Executive Director Steven Marks said the committee "will provide a balanced approach" to marijuana regulation. The committee will be chaired by Chris Lyons, a Gresham resident and former executive director of the Oregon Lottery.

In addition to the 15-member rules advisory committee, the agency also appointed members to two permanent subcommittees that will deal with technical issues. One will focus on licensing, compliance and law enforcement. The other will provide advice on tracking marijuana from seed to sale as well as marijuana testing labs.