Oregon revises marijuana rules after industry backlash

(OregonLive) Oregon on Friday issued temporary new rules aimed at easing what marijuana producers and processors say is a major backlog that has brought parts of the industry to a standstill, left store shelves empty and prompted some companies to lay off workers. The rules issued by the Oregon Health Authority ease some potency testing requirements for processors, remove restrictions that unintentionally kept alcohol-based concentrates off the market and allow producers to test multiple strains in a single batch. Previously, each strain had to undergo testing. The rules cover the medical and recreational marijuana markets. "The intention was to provide relief," said Andre Ourso, manager of the state's medical marijuana program. "In practice do they do that? We will have to wait and see." The industry had pushed hard for an overhaul to the state's pesticide testing requirements, the first of their kind in the country, by state official left them intact for now. The types of pesticides and the levels allowed, for instance, don't change under the revisions, which are in place until next spring. Since October, 307 samples taken from marijuana products, from flowers to extracts, failed for either pesticides or residual solvents used in the extraction process.