Sales figures compiled by Legalize the Idaho Way, Inc. show that the state of Oregon has sold over $4 billion worth of marijuana products in the five years since the Beaver State inaugurated legal marijuana sales to adults in October 2016.
Sales in that first month of legalization were just over $2.5 million. Only 13 of Oregon’s 36 counties allowed for marijuana sales in October 2016.
Sales for the most recent month of September 2021 are over $95 million, with 30 of 36 counties allowing for sales.
One of those counties is Malheur, on Idaho’s southwestern border. Sales there began in July 2019 and the first full month of sales was over $2.6 million.
The only city in Malheur County to allow marijuana sales is Ontario. There are now nine marijuana shops in operation there which sold over $9 million of marijuana products for the third straight month. In total, Malheur County has sold over $195 million in marijuana products since July 2019.
Most of the sales made in Ontario are made to adults who have traveled to Ontario from the Boise Metropolitan Area. Surveys performed this summer by Legalize the Idaho Way, Inc. found visitors from half of Idaho’s 44 counties had traveled to purchase marijuana legally in Ontario, some from as far away as Pocatello and Idaho Falls.
“It’s clear that some Idahoans like marijuana,” said Russ Belville, president of Legalize the Idaho Way, Inc., an Idaho non-profit dedicated to reforming Idaho’s marijuana laws. “What they don’t like is being treated like criminals, fearing that their trip back from Oregon is going to get them arrested. We can end the needless arrests of responsible adults who’ve legally purchased marijuana by signing our PAMDA initiative and passing it into law.”
Belville is the Chief Petitioner of the Personal Adult Marijuana Decriminalization Act, an Idaho citizen’s initiative that makes legal the possession of a personal amount of legally-purchased out-of-state marijuana on private property with permission of the owner. PAMDA is collecting signatures now via a mail-in campaign. Learn more at IdahoWay.org/sign.
