KWSO News for 2/11/20

The Warm Springs Opioid Mental Health Initiative is providing a number of trainings this year in an effort to educate on Opioid use in our community.  Misty Kopplin works with the initiative. ”We’re offering a pharmacology education workshop on February 25^th & 26^th, Pharmacology is a training around different drugs and how it has an impact on your brain. Our target audience is for working professionals who provide direct services to community members here in the Warm Springs community. This is one of many trainings that’ll be offered this year, provided by the Warm Springs Opioid Mental Health Initiative.” Professionals participating in this class will be offered 16 continuing education credits.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is holding town halls this month in Wasco, Tillamook, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties. Starting on Saturday Feb. 15^th in The Dalles for Wasco County, followed by Tillamook and Newport on Monday Feb. 17^th for Tillamook and Lincoln Counties. He will then finish in Madras on Friday February 21^st for Jefferson County Town hall at the Madras Performing Arts Center at 10am. Wyden says he looks forward to hearing Oregonians’ ideas, concerns, questions and priorities in these upcoming town halls.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden called on Oregonians to send in their nominations for rivers to be protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. As reported by The Bulletin there were more than 2200 people who responded and offered 15,000 nominations for over 4,000 miles of rivers and streams. The wild and scenic Rivers act, enacted in 1968, protects rivers and streams in free-flowing condition in both federal and nonfederal areas. The nominations included one from students at Pacific Crest Middle school in bend, who asked Wyden to protect Tumalo Creek in Deschutes county. Legislation passed in Congress last year will add more than 250 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers in Oregon.

For cannabis dispensaries, Oregon ranks top nationally for states, with five of its cities in the top 10. KLCC’s Brian Bull reports. “Marijuana dispensary chain Verilife commissioned the survey. It shows Oregon with 16-point-5 dispensaries per 100-thousand residents. Cities Medford, Eugene, Portland, Salem, and Bend have the most dispensaries per capita within the state. Matt Zachejowski [zak-eh-JOW-skee] of Digital Third Coast speaks for Verilife. Matt Zachejowski: “The data we’re reporting on here is strictly brick-and-mortar marijuana dispensaries that are both either medicinals or recreational.” That data’s from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Spokesman Mark Pettinger. Mark Pettinger: “It’s not really surprising in that so many of those retailers weren’t necessarily starting up from scratch, they came over or migrated from the Oregon Medical Marijuana program.” Marijuana tax revenue for Oregon exceeded 94 million dollars in 2018, making it fourth in the U.S. [I’m Brian Bull reporting in Eugene.]”

Environmental groups and timber companies in Oregon, which have clashed for decades, on Monday unveiled a road map for overhauling forest practice regulations. Gov. Kate Brown called the step “historic.” The agreement came after the two sides quietly held meetings, facilitated by the governor’s office, to try to find common ground, instead of filing competing initiative petitions and lawsuits. Under the new agreement, both sides would complete a stand-down from pursuing changes through the initiative process, related legal actions, and legislative and regulatory proceedings. Both sides also would support immediate legislation to establish helicopter pesticide application buffers, or no-direct application zones, around inhabited dwellings and schools and around streams.

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