OMMP Disappears in Name Only
Oregon Medical Marijuana Program and the Oregon Psilocybin Services merger to form the Medical
Cannabis & Psilocybin (MCAP) section.
By Anthony Taylor
In its October 2020, meeting of the Oregon Cannabis Commission (OCC) the annual
budget report for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OOMP) warned that the
Program would face a significant shortfall if patient enrollment and grower fee revenue
continued to decline. Unfortunately, that forecast proved accurate. The program has
operated at a deficit since then, and while OHA has twice backfilled the shortfall, I
understand that it can no longer continue doing so.
As the responsibility of the OCC is to provide advice to the Oregon Health Authority on
administrative issues relating to the Program, Chair Anthony Taylor began urging the
Legislature to recognize that a program that has served more than 300,000 Oregonians
over its 25-year history is worthy of continued state investment.
Establishing the OMMP as a dedicated budget item could provide long-term
financial stability while allowing patient fees to be reduced or eliminated entirely, helping
to reinvigorate enrollment and strengthen the program for the future. In light of possible
rescheduling this may prove critical in how Oregon approaches cannabis in the long-
term.
As it turns out, the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) program was also under similar
budget shortfalls over the last two biennium.
Because both programs were under continuing budget shortfalls, the Oregon Health
Authority did take action to help ease the costs of administration of the Program and
merged the two programs into one program and effective September 1, 2026, it will be
under the new name of the Medical Cannabis & Psilocybin (MCAP) section.
The OCC was updated during its July meeting and has been assured that there will be
no changes to either program. However, consolidation of the two programs does not
alleviate the issue of budgetary shortfalls for the long-term.
Bottom line: if the state wants to maintain both programs, they will have to address the
budgets and persuade that OHA both programs, that were put in place by voter
initiative, are worth being fully integrated into Oregon’s healthcare landscape and fully
funded within their budget.