“I thought that this fight was winnable. It’s a bill that does not cost the state a cent and that protects children from life-threatening overdoses of marijuana. I was wrong.”
By Mia Maldonado, Oregon Capital Chronicle
An attempt to limit how much THC can be in an individual edible isn’t advancing this year in Oregon.
Senate Bill 1548 was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the production of individual edibles with more than 10 milligrams of THC, targeting edibles that are meant to be divided into several servings.
Sen. Lisa Reynolds, a Portland Democrat and pediatrician, introduced the bill in response to increasing reports of children seeking medical attention after consuming edibles resembling cookies, brownies and gummies. In 2023, children 5 and younger made up one-third of all cannabis-related cases reported to the Oregon Poison Center.
Major medical groups supported the bill, and it passed the Senate in a bipartisan 22-5 vote. But it died in the House after marijuana industry lobbyists convinced House lawmakers to hold the bill, Reynolds said in a newsletter.
“I thought that this fight was winnable,” Reynolds wrote. “It’s a bill that does not cost the state a cent and that protects children from life-threatening overdoses of marijuana. I was wrong.”
Marijuana lobbyists argued the bill would create more plastic waste having to wrap each edible individually and that businesses wouldn’t have the money to buy machinery used to wrap individual edibles. Additionally, lobbyists said the bill would cost the state millions in tax revenue because it would eliminate popular marijuana products.
Marijuana products in Oregon are taxed up to 20 percent depending on where they’re sold. Tax revenue from marijuana brought in $ $143.7 million in 2025, according to the Oregon Department of Revenue, and that revenue gets distributed to drug and treatment programs, public schools, mental health services, Oregon State Police and cities and counties across the state.
Reynolds challenged those claims, saying the bill is based on Washington’s law that caps single servings of edibles at 10 milligrams of THC. When Washington enacted its law, the price of marijuana didn’t rise, she said. Plus, the law resulted in 75 percent fewer hospitalizations and half as many poisonings reported to poison centers, according to Dr. Julia Dilley, a Multnomah County epidemiologist.
Reynolds chairs the Senate Early Childhood and Behavioral Health Committee, which in May heard from experts about how Oregon youth have some of the most elevated rates of cannabis use in the country, and yet they rank at the very bottom when it comes to recognizing the risks.
Regulating marijuana in Oregon is of particular interest to Reynolds, who said she believes her brother’s habitual marijuana use in the ’70s contributed to his severe mental health problems as an adult and his regular admission into psychiatric hospitals. On the Senate floor on Thursday, she expressed support for a Republican resolution to urge Oregonians to refrain from using drugs including marijuana, though she voted against bypassing normal legislative procedures to bring that bill to the floor.
Oregon youth are already experiencing more mental health challenges than adults, as youth suicide rates have consistently been higher than the U.S. rate.
Reynolds said she plans to bring back more marijuana safety proposals in 2027 and will try to hire a lobbyist.
