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Oregon Hires Top Marijuana Regulator

Katheirne Hitt
/
Flickr

Oregon is gearing up for a year-long process of crafting regulations for recreational marijuana.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission Tuesday hired Tom Burns to lead the agency's implementation of Measure 91, which allows adults in Oregon to grow, possess, and sell marijuana under state regulation.

Burns' previous job involved leading the rollout of medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.

Burns has his work cut out for him. Recreational marijuana won't be legal in Oregon until next July and recreational marijuana stores won't be operating until January of 2016, but that's still a fairly compressed time period for a governmental agency to develop rules and regulations.

The OLCC says it will soon announce details of a statewide “listening tour” to gather input from Oregonians on how to regulate recreational marijuana.

Copyright 2014 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.