Oregon Senate Approves Bill To Protect Marijuana Buyers’ Info

Senate Bill 863 has cleared the Oregon Senate. The bill seeks to protect the personal information of those buying recreational marijuana. The names, driver’s license numbers, birth dates and any other vital personal information would be kept for a limited time and destroyed.

The bill is in the hands of the House now, according to Civilized. One of the positives for Senate Bill 863 is that it has bipartisan support. If the bill becomes law, recreational marijuana shop owners would only have 30 days to destroy the current information stored.

Medical marijuana cardholder information would not be part of this legislation. It is required to be kept on file by the state.

Even though recreational marijuana shops mainly keep the contact information for promotional purposes, the state doesn’t want to allow it unless the customer gives specific consent. Senator Ted Ferrioli says it’s a privacy concern for those partaking in the recreational marijuana market.

Ferrioli said, “I don’t have to tell you of the frequency of hacking incidents or inadvertent releases of data … the loss of this information could be damaging for many different reasons. We’ve heard a lot of conflicting information about the (White House) administration’s approach to cannabis.”

Spokesman for the Senate GOP caucus Jonathan Lockwood said, “When you’re a medical cardholder, you opt-in to your records being kept because you have a qualifying condition that requires higher limits and potencies and certain products…So, the bill went as far as it reasonably could to protect privacy.”