Oregon Town’s marijuana boom sparks envy in Idaho

For John Leeds, the hour and a half commute to and from his job as assistant manager at Treasure Valley Cannabis Company is exhausting but logistically unavoidable.

Like nearly half the other employees, Mr. Leeds, 39, lives in Idaho and travels along Interstate 84, past vast alfalfa and onion fields, to the marijuana store across the Oregon state line, where cannabis is legal.

“It really is two different worlds,” said Mr Leeds. “Lots of lashing out at this issue just on a car ride up and down the highway.”

Every day, hundreds of customers and employees like Mr. Leeds make the pilgrimage from Idaho to Ontario, Oregon, a small town nestled along the Snake River with 11 pharmacies — about one in every 1,000 residents. They can compare the aromas of different types of marijuana and gather the staff’s insights into the THC content in edibles.

The rise of cannabis contributes to a thriving local economy – and tax revenues that have paid for new police posts, emergency response vehicles, and park and trail improvements.

Missing the action has become increasingly frustrating for some politicians and longtime residents of Idaho, where the population and cost of living have skyrocketed in recent years.

As the sale or possession of marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, many states – and in this case neighboring states – have landed on drastically different approaches to whether or not to decriminalize, regulate and tax cannabis. As of 2012, 23 states have legalized it for recreational use, and more than three dozen allow medical marijuana.

Eleven states, mostly conservative, have enacted extremely limited medical marijuana laws. Aside from cannabis-derived drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for limited medical use, Idaho has not legalized any cannabis sales — a ban that has helped its more progressive neighbors.

“Our cannabis market caters almost exclusively to Idaho residents,” said Ontario Mayor Debbie Folden. “This has been an economic boom the likes of which this city has never seen.”

The patchwork of laws, which vary by state and often by province, has spawned similar commuter-driven booms in other parts of the country, said Mason Tvert, a partner at VS Strategies, a national cannabis policy and public affairs firm based in Denver. .

Texans travel to Colorado to stock up on their favorite strains or foods, and Indiana residents make the trek to Michigan, he said. “Demand will be met by the illicit market or by a legal market in another state,” Tvert said.

That proposal, and the larger economic equation, has not been lost on Idaho officials.

Last year, the state approached two million residents, an increase largely attributed to people moving out of California seeking a generally cheaper cost of living. Only Florida grew faster.

At the same time, property taxes have increased by 20 percent since 2018, according to one report of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, an impartial group. And the state budget — which is currently in surplus — is expected to come under pressure, the group noted, citing legislation that cut income taxes by about $500 million over three years, even as population growth placed new demands on healthcare, education and transportation.

Some longtime residents of the state are tired of seeing the marijuana tax dollars go elsewhere as prices rise from the arrival of the newer residents.

Legalizing and taxing the sale of cannabis could generate revenue and help offset any budget concerns, said Joe Evans, a lead organizer of Kind Idaho, a group working to legalize medical marijuana.

“That money shouldn’t be allowed to leave the state of Idaho,” said Mr. Evans, noting the entrepreneurial spirit of the region, home to Joe Albertson, who started a local supermarket chain, Albertsons, and laid the foundation for a multibillion-dollar national business.

But for Mr. Evans, who has served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and knows fellow veterans who use cannabis for pain relief, legalization is also about something bigger than money. It’s been a long time, he said, since his state legalized a substance that could provide relief for some medical conditions.

Patients using marijuana, especially elderly or chronically ill Idaho residents, would not have to drive an hour or more to Oregon, he said.

“This is about patient advocacy,” said Mr Evans, who hopes the state will consider a measure to legalize cannabis for medicinal use next year.

It wouldn’t be the first try.

Initiatives to legalize cannabis for medicinal use did not qualify for the vote in 2012, 2014 and 2016. In 2020, supporters of a ballot measure suspended efforts to collect signatures due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the year a bipartisan group of state legislators then introduced a bill on medical marijuana that failed to pass committee.

When those efforts failed, customers in Idaho increasingly moved to Oregon, where voters legalized cannabis for medicinal use in 1998 and for recreational use in 2014.

Few areas in the state have benefited as much as Malheur County, the home of Ontario.

The city, which voted to legalize the local recreational sale of marijuana in 2018, is the only part of the county with dispensaries. Still, Malheur County made about $104 million in total cannabis sales last year, surpassing any of the state’s 35 other counties except Multnomah, which includes Portland.

In 2020, Ontario’s first full year of allowing cannabis sales, the city received $1.8 million in tax revenue. The following year sales increased by 65 percent.

The area is a conservative pocket in a progressive state — a movement called “Greater Idaho” wants the region to secede from Oregon and become part of Idaho — and Ontario native Mayor Folden calls himself a conservative Republican.

That hasn’t hindered the city’s emergence as a cannabis capital. Tax revenue, the mayor said, has been a municipal lifeline. But the city is building up its reservations, Ms. Folden said, because she expects Idaho to pass some form of legalization within five years.

“We know this won’t last forever, so we’re cautious,” Ms Folden said. “We know that the economic winds, as they say, can shift.”

In the fall, one poll for The Idaho Statesman, a Boise newspaper found that 68 percent of residents supported legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. For recreational use, 48 percent were in favor of legalization, while 41 percent were against.

Gov. Brad Little of Idaho, in his second term, is firmly against legalizing marijuana. In an emailed statement, Mr. Little, a Republican, that “marijuana legalization has numerous unintended consequences.”

But some local Idaho politicians have begun to consider the economics of the issue.

Patrick Bageant, a Boise councilman, said the need for alternative forms of tax revenue was becoming increasingly urgent.

“Legalizing marijuana can help bring in various forms of cash,” said Mr. Bageant. “Just look around the country — we as a state should be more forward-looking.”

Adam Watkins, a software engineer and a member of Mr. Bageant’s, has lived in the West End neighborhood of the city for the past ten years. His home value has doubled since 2018, when he paid $3,200 in property taxes; now he pays almost $4,200.

“You look around at other states that legalized marijuana decades ago, when it comes to medical marijuana, and you just can’t help but think, Why are we so retarded on this issue?” said mr. Watkins, who favors legalization for philosophical and fiscal reasons.

“This is a drug with proven health effects and we’re just leaving this problem to other states to solve,” he added. “We’re running blindly, like this isn’t a problem, when it’s obvious.”

Back in Ontario on a recent afternoon, red white and blue license plates emblazoned with the phrase “Scenic Idaho” lined the Treasure Valley Cannabis parking lot. (A federal law prohibits the transportation of marijuana between states.)

Mr. Leeds manages a staff of 45 employees four days a week. He worked five days, but made a deal with the owner, Jeremy Archie, to work four to cut down on his commute.

That day, Mr Leeds and Mr Archie walked the floor past vape pens, various strains of cannabis and sweatshirts cheering the company and the state.

They greeted customers and shared stories of patients with health problems such as cancer who use their products to relieve pain. A poster board hung on one wall announcing a 25 percent discount for customers who carpool with at least three people.

A small gesture of thanks, Mr. Archie said, for their customers in Idaho.

“The market in Idaho has made this a very successful business,” he said.