(Photo credit: Brian Breneman).
Oregon regulators say the state has reached the point where its moratorium on new marijuana wholesale licenses can be lifted, marking a significant step toward reopening applications for the first time in years.
The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) announced this week that the number of active marijuana wholesale licenses has fallen below the population-based limit established by state law.
“OLCC has determined that the number of active wholesale licenses are now below the established population limits, meaning the moratorium on this license type can now be lifted,” the agency said.
The development follows a rulemaking process that began earlier this year and advanced in August when OLCC began assembling a Rules Advisory Committee specifically to consider a limited lifting of the marijuana license moratorium.
That committee will meet Friday, September 25, from 9 to 11 a.m. to review the proposed regulatory framework.
The change stems from House Bill 4121, enacted in 2024, which established permanent population-based limits on new marijuana licenses. Under the law, OLCC generally cannot accept a new wholesale license application when Oregon has more than one active wholesale license for every 12,500 residents age 21 and older.
The same one-per-12,500 threshold applies to marijuana processors, while producer and retail licenses are capped at one for every 7,500 adult residents.
In February, OLCC commissioners authorized rulemaking to establish procedures and standards for accepting new applications when a license category falls below its statutory population limit.
The current process is focused on wholesale licenses. OLCC’s licensing page continues to state that new applications for producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers are not currently being accepted, meaning prospective wholesalers cannot yet submit new applications despite the agency’s determination that the statutory threshold has been reached.
Friday’s meeting is part of the administrative rulemaking process rather than a final vote to immediately reopen licensing. Rules Advisory Committees review proposed language and provide feedback on regulatory and fiscal impacts. OLCC staff can then revise the proposal before formally publishing rules for public comment and eventually presenting them for final adoption.
Oregon has effectively stopped accepting new marijuana wholesale licenses since a broader licensing moratorium took effect in 2022. The Legislature later replaced the temporary approach with the population-based system established under HB 4121.
The wholesale category is now the first affected license type that OLCC says has fallen sufficiently below its statutory cap to allow the moratorium to be lifted.
