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Moratorium on new hemp growing licenses likely to continue in Jackson County By Vickie Aldous Updated: Dec 20, 2022 10:59 AM A A A 2022 moratorium on new hemp growing licenses is likley to continue in Jackson County in 2023. [File photo by Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard] Jackson County commissioners unanimously declared a local state of emergency about cannabis Tuesday, paving the way for extending this year’s ban on new hemp growing licenses through 2023. Under state law, county commissioners must annually declare a state of emergency in order to ask the state government not to issue new hemp growing licenses within their counties for up to a year. Jackson County commissioners previously declared a cannabis state of emergency and got a state moratorium on new licenses for this year. That moratorium was set to expire Dec. 31. An explosion of hemp and marijuana grows in Southern Oregon has overwhelmed regulatory agencies and law enforcement. Oregon Department of Agriculture is tasked with regulating hemp, which Congress legalized nationwide in 2018. Hemp has very low levels of THC — tetrahydrocannabinol — the chemical compound in marijuana that gets users high. Marijuana remains illegal federally, although it’s legal in Oregon if growers comply with a long list of state regulations. State inspections found many people pretending to grow hemp are actually growing marijuana. With the Oregon legal marijuana market saturated, they often sell the marijuana for more money on the black market in states where it remains illegal. Southern Oregon busts at illegal hemp and marijuana grows and criminal investigations have revealed assaults and murder, millions of gallons of water theft in a region hard-hit by drought, workers living in squalid and dangerous conditions, improper use of pesticides and other chemicals, contaminated streams and rivers, garbage, human feces, outdoor burn piles and cooking fires even during extreme fire season conditions, electrical wiring hazards and more. Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan said state law blocks the county from imposing its own marijuana taxes that would help cover the county’s costs to tackle problems. Oregon voters also approved Measure 110 in 2020, which diverts hundreds of millions of dollars in state marijuana taxes from schools, law enforcement and other services into support services for people with substance use disorder. That measure also decriminalized user amounts of drugs like methamphetamine, heroin and psychedelic mushrooms. The Oregon Legislature approved a bill in 2022 that allows the hemp license moratoriums in counties that request them. Licensed growers who already were participating in the legal system are allowed to keep growing as long as they comply with regulations. Hemp fiber can be used for products such as clothing and rope, while cannabidiol, or CBD, in hemp is used in a variety of medicinal products. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.