At least two collective bargaining contracts between Oregon cannabis workers and the dispensaries that employ them have been signed, and more are expected to partake in collective bargaining as the industry develops.

The move to unionize by some cannabis workers strengthens the role unions have historically held in negotiating workplace conditions for their members, as labor unions enter a brand new market.

And the trend is expected to grow: As many as 50 Oregon cannabis businesses have expressed interest in unionizing to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. The union represents more than 20,000 retail and manufacturing workers in Oregon and Washington.

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The private recreational use of marijuana by adults in Oregon has been legal for months, and last week, you could start buying recreational marijuana at medical dispensaries that elected to join in on early sales of pot. (Well, at least in those jurisdictions that allowed those early sales.)

But Oregon's grand experiment with legalized marijuana won't have any effect on the state's colleges and universities, including Oregon State University.

College administrators last week emphasized that nothing has changed on campuses, even as people lined up at dispensaries to buy recreational marijuana.

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The private recreational use of marijuana by adults in Oregon has been legal for months, and last week, you could start buying recreational marijuana at medical dispensaries that elected to join in on early sales of pot.

But Oregon's grand experiment with legalized marijuana won't have any effect on the state's colleges and universities, including Oregon State University.

College administrators last week emphasized that nothing has changed on campuses, even as people lined up at dispensaries to buy recreational marijuana.

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Bend Dispensaries Stock Up and See Thousands of Customers

Medical marijuana dispensaries remained busy throughout the weekend after opening their doors for recreational sales Thursday.

Many of the dispensaries opened at the stroke of midnight Thursday and were greeted with long lines. Those lines continued the following three days, and thousands of customers found their way to a dispensary. Bend has the most dispensaries in Central Oregon, with 16 locations.

"It was amazing," Ben Hebert, owner of Dr. Jolly's on SE Third Street, said Sunday. "We were totally busy all the time. I think we had a lot of happy people coming out of here."

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Today, Oregon's experiment with legalizing recreational marijuana marks another milestone a green-letter day, if you will: Today is the first day that people over 21 can buy recreational marijuana.

Well, not in Albany, or in Linn County, where governmental entities have opted against allowing the early sales of recreational pot by medical marijuana dispensaries.

But the curious should be able to travel across the Willamette River to a dispensary in Corvallis that will be more than willing to sell them recreational pot. (Don't light up until you get back home, though.)

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I see that the small-minded, hopelessly out of touch people calling the shots in Umatilla and Morrow counties have done everything possible to prevent "reefer madness" from infecting our community. Thursday was the first day that it was legal to buy and sell marijuana in Oregon for recreational purposes. But our leaders have done everything they can to make sure this scourge does not reach us, especially our children.

The first problem is that they are about 50 years late. When I was in high school in Hermiston in the late 1960s, kids were smoking dope. The second problem is that while they think they are protecting the people they represent, the opposite is actually true. Pot is out there, they just want to keep it something that's sold by the more unsavory members of our society rather than by people who are subject to state licensing rules and regulations.

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Councilor Clay Bearnson Plans to Open Cannabis Store

A 17-month moratorium on medical marijuana sales will end Dec. 1 in Medford, the City Council decided Thursday night.

The ban on cannabis dispensaries will be lifted, but recreational sales will not begin until sometime in 2016 when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission develops its rules and regulations. Ballot Measure 91, passed by voters last November, legalized pot for anyone age 21 or older.

Councilor Daniel Bunn supported the ordinance, which will require a second reading before taking effect, but expressed concern about allowing pot sales in the city.

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A Sept. 28 Register-Guard editorial concerning the retail cannabis sales that began Thursday included two assertions that need to be addressed.

The 25 percent tax mentioned in the editorial is not applicable to interim adult recreational cannabis sales, according to the Oregon Health Authority website. The tax is applicable only beginning Jan. 4.

Next, the editorial asserts that those current Oregon Medical Marijuana Program patients most likely to drop the program in favor of recreational access never needed cannabis therapeutically, but managed to obtain patient status until recreational access became a reality. I believe the editors have fallen into the same trap as many uninformed persons who believe that many medical cannabis patients are using the OMMP as a dodge, rather than to address bona fide health care needs.

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A group of about 12 people milled around the locked door of Canna Medicine, a medical marijuana dispensary in South Salem. It was a sunny Thursday morning just before 10 a.m., the first day Oregonians age 21 and up could legally purchase recreational marijuana.

More than 250 stores statewide that were already selling medical marijuana opened to the general public to sell to recreational users.

Portland dispensaries could start selling retail marijuana starting at midnight, but Salem stores began selling at 10 a.m.

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[Today] medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon that choose to do so can begin selling dried pot leaves and flowers to people other than the patients they've been serving the past 18 months. The Oregon Health Authority - which oversees the medical marijuana program - will allow dispensaries to sell it for non-medicinal use through Dec. 31, 2016, a couple of months after state-approved rules for selling recreational marijuana are due to go into effect.

Possession and use of recreational marijuana became legal in Oregon in July. One of the reasons Oregonians voted to legalize recreational use last November was to try to kill off the black market for the drug. Fearing it would get a boost once recreational use became legal, officials agreed to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell their product for recreational use until a recreational sales program is in place.

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Oregon opened its recreational market Thursday to festive and orderly crowds eager to make their first legal purchase of pot.

Statewide, the Oregon Health Authority gave 245 medical marijuana dispensaries the go-ahead to sell cannabis to anyone 21 and older, though the agency does not know how many stores actually sold the drug on Thursday.

The sheer number of marijuana outlets meant most shoppers didn't endure extra long wait times that marked the opening days of regulated marijuana markets in Colorado and Washington, the only other places where pot is sold in state-regulated stores.

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Local Dispensaries See Steady Business on First Day of Recreational Pot Sales

Thursday morning just about 10 a.m., baby boomers, generation X-ers and millennials lined up about 10 at a time at Green Valley Wellness in Talent for their first opportunity to purchase legal recreational marijuana.

"Here we are, folks, this is it," Green Valley CEO Michael Monarch told the crowd. "Whoo!"

The medical marijuana dispensary normally opens at 10, but potential customers arrived as early as 8 a.m. By 9 a.m., Monarch said he had second thoughts about turning eager buyers away.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Excited shoppers looking to score some of the first recreational marijuana sold legally in Oregon bought up baggies of bud early Thursday, taking advantage of door-buster prices and other deals.

Some of the more than 250 dispensaries that already offer medical marijuana in the state welcomed recreational users soon after midnight - just moments after it became legal to sell to anyone who is at least 21.

At Shango Premium Cannabis in Portland, co-founder Shane McKee said the first sale came about a minute after midnight and many others quickly followed.

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The Pot Discussion From the Republican Debate

IT'S ELECTION SEASON! Never mind that the general election is 13-plus months away. As the 370 Republican candidates for el presidente have shown, now is the time to convince voters who is the best person for the job.

As of this writing, no candidate has come out in favor of full federal legalization of cannabis. There has been talk about "examining" the issue, which is akin to your parents saying, "we'll see" about a new bike, puppy, or trip to Disneyland. Populist candidate Bernie Sanders has made the most noise, and he should wholeheartedly embrace it-just imagine the potential for new images on his "Feel the Bern" T-shirts.

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Thursday will be a big day for those who have waited to legally purchase recreational marijuana in Oregon, but the change will probably go unremarked by everyone else.

A dozen medical marijuana dispensaries will offer recreational pot to adults 21 and over, from Gold Hill to Ashland - but not in Medford, which is still working out the details for when - and if - it will approve retail sales.

Medford voters split nearly 50-50 on last fall's legalization initiative, so it's not surprising the City Council has been cautious about allowing retail sales, processing facilities or testing labs, all of which are now legal in Oregon. A permanent moratorium on pot shops remains in place, although the council has now reviewed proposals on where such shops could locate and possible restrictions on their operations.

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The clock is ticking.

At the stroke of midnight, anyone 21 years and older will be able to buy marijuana from a licensed Oregon dispensary, as the state lifts the curtain on recreational pot sales.

The ground-breaking shift in drug policy stems from the passage of Oregon Measure 91 in 2014, and a law passed by the state Legislature this year giving medical marijuana dispensaries the green light to sell to all adults Oct. 1.

Though the law takes effect at midnight, it's unclear which of Lane County's 30-plus dispensaries, if any, will open their doors right at midnight.

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Thursday is liberation day for users of marijuana. Legal recreational marijuana sales begin.

Employees, please be careful. It doesn't matter that its recreational use is legal; marijuana can still get you fired.

The law legalizing recreational use doesn't change workplace rules on drug use and drug testing.

Show up at work impaired and employers can fire you. Show up at work with marijuana in your system and employers can fire you.

Oregon law enables almost all employers to terminate workers at will for lawful cause. Recreational marijuana use is not protected. The new law doesn't change that.

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Here's an interesting question in the wake of this week's Albany City Council meeting, the one at which the council voted in favor of a temporary ban on recreational pot sales by medical marijuana dispensaries:

Is the council's 4-2 vote the first step in an effort to impose a more permanent ban on sales of recreational marijuana?

Time will tell. But one thing is for sure: Imposing a permanent ban is a much more elaborate process than imposing the temporary ban, which only applies to dispensaries. (Recall that under state law, those dispensaries - and no one else - can sell recreational marijuana beginning on Oct. 1. Other retail sales of recreational marijuana are on hold while the Oregon Liquor Control Commission works out the regulatory framework for those.)

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The offices of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission must be busy these days: Not only are employees hammering out the rules under which recreational marijuana will be sold, they're also keeping track of those local governments that are working to ban the pot sales.

That list gets longer by the week. Currently, it includes mid-valley communities such as Sweet Home and Brownsville. It also includes seven of Oregon's 36 counties. More governments will join the list, possibly including Albany, where the City Council last week made some noise about maybe pursuing a permanent ban on recreational sales.

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On Wednesday night, I watched as Albany's City Council committed a democratic travesty. Despite statewide approval of the sale of recreational marijuana from licensed medical marijuana facilities, beginning Oct. 1, I watched as four council members usurped the will of Oregon voters. They decided they knew better. They decided they knew better than, not only the voters in this state, or in this town, but they decided they knew better than those individuals who gave impassioned testimonies of why they were against the ban on recreational marijuana sales from medical marijuana facilities.

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