Whiskey Scandal At Oregon's Liquor And Cannabis Commission: Gov. Kotek Wants 6 Officials Removed

Top officials of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission might lose their jobs over a 23-year-old whiskey scandal.

What happened?

According to an internal investigation by the commission, acquired by AP, executive director Steve Marks and other five agency officials used their position to obtain very popular and expensive bourbons, like Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-year-old whiskey, writes Daily Press.

Even though the regulators paid for the posh liquor, which cost thousands of dollars a bottle, they used their relationships and the commission's data to get them. Therein lies the problem. The commission’s investigation noted it is forbidden for public officials to use confidential data for personal gain.

Oregon's Governor Tina Kotek (D) on Wednesday requested the agency's board of commissioners remove these officials. “This behavior is wholly unacceptable. I will not tolerate wrongful violations of our government ethics laws,” Kotek said in a letter.

Marks denied violating ethics laws and state policy, but admitted to having received preferential treatment “to some extent.” He added that they never resold any of the alcohol they obtained.

Gov. Kotek asked state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to conduct an independent civil investigation to examine the extent of wrongdoing and recommend improved protocols to make sure ethics laws are followed.

Cannabis In Oregon – Recent Developments

The whiskey scandal comes after state officials sounded the alarm about ongoing illegal cultivation, including human trafficking and workers being subjected to slave-like conditions.

“America’s freedom to smoke may come at the cost of actual personal freedoms,” ABC News reported as part of a year-long investigation. Legalization has not stopped cartels from continuing with illegal marijuana growth and distribution, or, what’s worse, exploitation of the people cultivating it for them. Sometimes these exploitations have had “deadly consequences.”

Over the last year, ABC News has been following law enforcement officials' raiding illegal farms and finding workers in slave-like conditions — without bathrooms, forced to sleep in tents, not being paid, and some even being sold into prostitution.

It “is the human factor to see the conditions that these people are being pulled in every single day to the point that they're literally dying," Robert Hamer, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for the Pacific Northwest, told ABC News. "It is heartbreaking.”

Photo: Benzinga edit with images from Wikimedia Commons.