English: The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (www.wamm.org) presents Victoria, the nation’s first legal medical marijuana plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has signed an agreement to build the online application necessary to handle requests for commercial recreational marijuana business licenses.
Under Oregon‘s recent law legalizing recreational marijuana, the OLCC – the government body regulating the upcoming legal pot law – has a deadline of January 4, 2016, to begin accepting applications for commercial cannabis growers, processors, wholesalers, and retail outlets. To implement the law, and the regulatory infrastructure and “robust” tracking and regulation of the product, Oregon must put in place mechanisms to issue permits, track product, track and account for processing and retail sales.
Oregon Liquor Control Commission (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The OLCC contracted with NIC USA, Inc. to build a secure online application that will be used by recreational marijuana license applicants to apply for new licenses, renew existing licenses, pay license fees by credit card, pay marijuana taxes, and update license information.
NIC USA, Inc. already manages and operates the E-GOV Program web portal for the State of Oregon, under a master agreement that the Department of Administrative Services administers.
The OLCC’s next step will be to appoint a rules advisory committee to help write the rules necessary to implement the recreational marijuana law.
Let’s hope the OLCC’s upcoming online application is more successful than the Cover Oregon Health Insurance application disaster.