The Oregon cannabis industry this week beat back a push to impose new THC potency limits and packaging requirements on marijuana edibles.
Senate Bill 1548, introduced by state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, a Portland Democrat and physician, passed the state Senate but died in the House after marijuana industry lobbying, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported on Friday.
Under Oregon law, up to 100 milligrams of THC is allowed in a single edible.
Supported by medical groups and public-health advocates, Reynolds’ bill would have required cannabis manufacturers to cap the potency of individual doses at 10 milligrams and wrap each dose individually.
According to the cannabis industry, that would have eliminated many popular products and piled more increased costs on struggling businesses, the Chronicle reported.
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Reynolds introduced the measure in response to a rise in “life-threatening overdoses of marijuana in children,” she said, according to the Chronicle..
“Because these look like things that kids would eat, kids who get to these are eating the entire package and getting very, very sick,” Lane County Behavioral Health Medical Director David Rettew told the Lund Report.
“The idea is that by having individual packaging, you at least slow down the process.”
The edibles rules are similar to those in neighboring Washington and California but faced strong opposition from Oregon’s cannabis industry.
Edibles account for 16% of cannabis sales nationally, according to BDSA.
In Oregon, sales increased from 15 million units in 2024 to 16 million units last year, according to Headset data.
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Critics, including Entourage Cannabis co-founder Tucker Holland, said the bill would impose a financial burden on manufacturers.
Buying the automated wrapping equipment required to comply would cost $2 million, he told the Lund Report.
“We don’t have that capital,” he sad. “That wasn’t budgeted in our buildout for this new facility that we had, and so that puts this investment at risk.”
Following the bill’s defeat, cannabis industry leaders pledged to start a public education campaign on safe storage practices to cut down on risks to children.
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But Rettew criticized the industry’s resistance to regulation – and compared cannabis to the tobacco industry.
“I’m increasingly frustrated with our elected officials when it’s demonstrated that the industry is not going to regulate itself. We need to do this for them,” he told the Lund Report.
“And actions like this make it look like they’re more interested in protecting this industry than protecting the safety of children.”
Reynolds pledged to reintroduce the cannabis edibles restrictions next year, the Chronicle reported.
