Video by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone | Words by Nick Swyter | News21

On July 1, Stoney Girl Gardens, a cannabis seed company, handed out free packets of seeds to commemorate the day that Oregon legalized recreational marijuana.

Even though possession of marijuana is now legal in the state, sales are banned until the Oregon Liquor Control Commission sets rules for the recreational market in 2016. By giving away seeds for free, the company worked around the sales ban and hosted one of the day’s largest parties.

“I’m really excited for the recreational market. It’s going to be the opportunity for every individual out here in Oregon to go out and start growing some cannabis in their backyard,” said company director Mike Mullins.

Stoney Girl Gardens grew up with the state’s marijuana program. Mullins and his wife Jenifer Valley started the company in 1999, a year after the state legalized medical marijuana. “In 1999 we were a little garden growing in one tiny garage and our focus was breeding,” said Valley, whose nickname ‘Stoney Girl’ inspired the name of the company.

Sixteen years later, the company has ventured beyond its initial goal of breeding seeds. They produce cannabis infused lotions, oils and edibles. Their office doubles as classroom space for patients taking lessons on growing their own plants.

“We have recruited a lot of people to work with us. So instead of one tiny garage, it’s ten or twelve tiny garages, so its still small scale and has an artisan kind of quality, but there are more of us, and it’s all family,” said Valley.

The seedmakers expect more changes when recreational sales become legal. They are working toward controlling every step of their marijuana production, from seed to sale, by opening their first dispensary later this year.

“We have worked very diligently for the last 16 years in creating our branding and creating products that are dependable and consistent,” said Mullins. “The only way we are going to be able to maintain that product line through our stores is to actually create it ourselves.”

Video by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone | Words by Nick Swyter | News21

On the outskirts of Portland, an array of security cameras and a 12-foot-tall fence guard four-foot-tall plants at a new farm owned by the Five Zero Trees medical dispensary.

In July, Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that will allow the first limited recreational sales on Oct. 1. Dispensaries will be able to sell a quarter ounce of dried flowers in counties that allow sales to happen. Five Zero Trees co-owner Case Van Dorne is setting up trellises for his plants to grow up to seven feet by harvest time in September. The new farm will help his dispensary have a steady supply of marijuana ready to sell to recreational customers in October.

“This is something that we built with the anticipation of being able to serve the recreational community, and being able to serve our current medical patients simultaneously,” Van Dorne said.

Only three years ago, Van Dorne and Five Zero Trees co-owner Joel Jennings’ marijuana business consisted of a small indoor grow site. Now, Van Dorne and Jennings belong to a collection of dispensary owners and cannabis growers looking to expand. In addition to their outdoor grow facility, the duo are adding a second dispensary in Southwest Portland. They also own a small warehouse space where they grow cannabis indoors.

When Oregon’s liquor control commission collected feedback this year on how to craft regulations for the recreational marijuana industry, “The most consistent themes were wanting to protect the existing marijuana growers in the state who were growing largely for the medical marijuana community,” said Tom Towslee, communications director for the commission’s recreational marijuana program. “They wanted to have the opportunity to grow for the recreational market as well.”

Van Dorne said that before Five Zero Trees won the space for their new dispensary, several out-of-state marijuana investors approached the landlord for the location. Among the investors were a dispensary chain from Colorado and a large-scale grower from Washington. The landlord chose the local business owners.

“We are local, we have built everything on our own finance, we haven't taken out-of-state investment,” Van Dorne said. “I think that moving forward through recreational we are going to see a larger number of small growers producing the bulk of the cannabis here, as opposed to a small number of large growers like Washington or Colorado producing the bulk of the cannabis.”

Video and words by Nick Swyter | News21

In South Portland, analytical chemist Jeremy Sackett is standing in an empty room that he plans to fill with lab equipment to test marijuana sold in Oregon dispensaries. He is the owner of Cascadia Labs, a marijuana testing lab, and he hopes to make the empty room his company’s second testing facility.

The rise of recreational marijuana will bring government oversight to a young marijuana testing industry that has mostly been self-regulated. In late June, Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that will require labs to be accredited by the Oregon Health Authority and licensed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

The 2013 law that legalized medical dispensaries requires all marijuana products sold in stores, including edibles and concentrates, to be tested for THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis; CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis that has anecdotal success with treating seizures and pain; four types of pesticides and mold and mildew.

“When a consumer comes to purchase a product they need to be assured that what is on the label is what is contained within that package,” Sackett said.

But as labs have sprouted, so have concerns about the limitations of the state’s testing requirements and consistency between labs.

Testing is not required for industrial metals, chemical solvents and the many other chemical components that make up cannabis. Many labs, including Cascadia, offer these tests for an additional cost. Different labs may also produce different results with the same samples.

“You can take a sample of marijuana to one lab, and it tells you that it is this level of THC, and this level of this, and this level of that. Take it to another one and you get a totally different report back,” said Tom Towslee, communications director of the liquor control commission. The commission is writing rules for the state’s recreational marijuana program and expects to announce the rules in early 2016.

Sackett is optimistic that concerns with lab testing practices will be addressed. He sits on a liquor control board subcommittee tasked with creating requirements for laboratories.

Video by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone | Words by Nick Swyter | News21

Jon Tester and Jeff Myers come dressed to work each day in newsboy caps, round-rimmed glasses and suspenders — plus a bowtie for Tester and a dark buttoned shirt for Myers. Together, they own the Brooklyn Holding Company, a medical dispensary gilded as if it it were a 1920s speakeasy.

“From the time that you open the door, you walk into a time warp, you are in a turn of the century speakeasy with a few modern upgrades,” Tester said of their medical dispensary.

According to Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Dispensary Program, there are 97 dispensaries in Portland. Until recreational marijuana sales are legal next year, medical dispensaries across Oregon compete for a limited customer base.

Tester and Myers said they attract patients because Oregon’s taste in marijuana compares to their taste in beer — craft is best. And in Portland’s competitive market it pays to have the best. They are already looking forward to adjusting their business for recreational sales.

“I really see the idea of the craft cannabis dispensary, and craft cannabis in general catching on and staying around,” Tester said.

Part of their plan is to control every step of marijuana production, from seed to sale, and to do it legally. Their business aspirations are a contradiction to the prohibition era that inspired their shop.

“The whole concept of Brooklyn Holding was about trying to set ourselves apart from what's already out there,” Myers said. “We've got to pay attention to quality, we have to pay attention to branding, we got to pay attention to how it feels when you are in here.”

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is tasked with setting the rules for recreational marijuana sales. For the first half of 2015, they gathered feedback from those already looking to be a part of the marijuana industry. The commission says that some of the most consistent feedback they received was an insistence that Oregon’s marijuana market look and feel boutique.

“They were very vocal about wanting the growing operations in Oregon to be small boutique type operations, much like the winery business was when it started in Oregon,” said Tom Towslee, communications director for the commission’s recreational marijuana program.

Video by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone | Words by Nick Swyter | News21

Inside his one bedroom house on the outskirts of Portland, Tom Zakaras plays folk music on his guitar. He made a career of his music for 32 years until he suffered a stroke. Now, Zakaras is using medical marijuana during his recovery, as one of more than 71,000 cardholders in Oregon.

In 2005, while walking home from a gig, Zakaras collapsed near the front door of his home. He woke to raindrops falling on his face and his dog laying on top of him.

“I stepped up with my right leg and that’s fine, the dog gets off. And I stepped on my left leg and I fall down again. So I get back up and I step on my left leg and I fall down again,” Zakaras said. “I had to learn to walk, I had to learn to use my left hand again to learn to play guitar again.”

The stroke brought on seizures. He already suffered from depression and obesity. His pharmacy prepared packages of pills, 28 different medications in total, to take three times a day.

“When you take a look at the pile of pills and you realize that’s for you, you don’t want to take them anymore,” Zakaras said. “At that time I just started smoking more cannabis, and not just once in a while, but I really started indulging heavily.”

As a musician in the 70s, Zakaras used marijuana recreationally. After his stroke, he started taking fewer pills and more marijuana, experimenting with concentrates with more cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of the plant that has anecdotal success with treating seizures. His concentrates are free, because his former neighbor makes them for him, which is permitted under Oregon law.

“One day I just noticed, wow it has been a while, I haven't had a seizure in a year or more,” he said.

What came next for Zakaras was learning how to use his left hand again to play guitar.

“I put Roy Orbison videos on and he taught me to play guitar again,” he said, adding that cannabis helped him during that process. “It’s certainly not only because I use marijuana, but it’s a factor.”