One of Oregon’s largest and oldest cannabis companies, Nectar was fined for violations on seven of it’s licences across the state. Five of its grow operations were fined, their Portland dispensary was fined and their wholesale division for a total of over 66,000 dollars.
Of course they do have the option of shutting down, instead of paying the fines, for anywhere from 21 days to 120 days for some locations. It all depends on the severity of the violations. The fines can range from a few thousand for selling to a minor, as is the case with the dispensary fine. Or, it can be almost $12,000 for multiple violations in handling and deliveries, as with their wholesale license location.
Few choose to close when facing such penalties since the cost of being shut down is higher than just paying the fine. But, this may have cast some shade on the claim they are the “McDonald’s of Portland cannabis.”
A few others were fined in the month of May, 2020 including one, AJ’s Nirvana Farm licensed to Michael Petrin, which had its license suspended. According to the OLCC report synopsis:
“OLCC Dispatch received a complaint of an explosion at the premises. Investigation revealed that this producer Licensee was processing hemp without either a processor license or a hemp endorsement. The lack of a processor license meant that the processing equipment had not been safety-certified as required as part of the OLCC pre-licensing process. Fortunately there was no report of serious injury.”
So, AJ’s Nirvana Farm was pretty much as far from “nirvana” as you can get. This is why licensing exists.