How to Stay Compliant with Oregon’s Child-Resistant Marijuana Packaging Rules
Both medical and recreational use of marijuana is legal in Oregon, with legal dispensaries opening in 2015 under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, or OLCC.
Oregon’s packaging-labeling rules are some of the more robust, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with the legally-mandated requirements for labeling, as well as the unique symbols needed to maintain compliance.
Firstly, Oregon’s child-resistant packaging laws are very tight - actually mandating the laboratory testing of packaging to properly determine if it child-resistant even after being opened and resealed. Seeds and immature plants don’t require child-resistant packaging or exit packaging, but all other forms of marijuana and marijuana-infused products do.
Labels can be broken into two parts, but the main “Principal Display Panel” as Oregon titles it, must include the following:
- The product identity (a description of the product),
- Net quantity of contents, and
- Universal symbol or hemp symbol, whichever is applicable.
As noted above, Oregon has unique Universal Symbols for recreational marijuana, medical marijuana, and industrial hemp:
In addition, three numbers - the Universal Product Code (issued by the OLCC), the Test Batch number of the product, and the 24-digit licensee UID number (also called a Metrc tag number).
Products must also include an Activation Time, or the amount of time a product needs to take effect. As this is often a case-by-case time, affected by height, weight, and other factors, many manufacturers have opted to use an infographic to best describe Activation Time.
Edibles also require a manufacturing date, expiration date, list of any potential food allergens, nutritional facts, preservation information, and one of two written warnings.
Retail edibles must include the statements, “For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of reach of children.”, “Do not drive a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana.”, “BE CAUTIOUS” in bold capital letters, and followed by the statement “Cannabinoid edibles can take up to 2 hours or more to take effect.”
Medical edibles are required to include both the medical grade symbol, as well as the warnings “For use by OMMP patients only. Keep out of reach of children.”, “Do not drive a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana.”, “BE CAUTIOUS” in bold capital letters, and followed by the statement “Cannabinoid edibles can take up to 2 hours or more to take effect.”
Helpfully, Oregon’s government website has also put together a handy Label Checklist and Generic Label Examples guide as well, displaying a variety of potential label configurations for specific products.
If your dispensary or other manufacturing facility is in need of custom-printed packaging for your products, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team here at CannaSundries.
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