SALEM, Ore. — Last year, Golden Leaf Holdings, a leading cannabis company, paid $3.3 million for almost 100 acres in Oregon to build a marijuana growing, processing, and research site.
The future looked bright: Oregon voters had legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. But Measure 91 gave counties and towns the opportunity to opt out and ban marijuana businesses.
Days after Golden Leaf signed the papers on the property in Marion County near the town of Aurora, the county banned marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas. So did about 100 other towns and counties.
‘‘That shut us completely out of the recreational market, which was our original strategy,’’ said Beau Whitney, a Golden Leaf vice president.
Now, Golden Leaf has another chance. Marion County is one of about 50 Oregon towns and counties that will decide in the Nov. 8 election whether to opt back into the marijuana business, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which regulates and licenses the industry.
Other states across America are also grappling with how to deal with the marijuana business. Recreational or medical marijuana measures are on ballots in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota.
At Golden Leaf’s property, in the Willamette Valley between Portland and Salem, valuable machines to process marijuana into potent oils are mostly idle, used only for medical marijuana.
One greenhouse was filled with rows of robust marijuana plants, but about 20 other greenhouses stood empty on a recent afternoon.
Whitney said Marion County will lose $7.5 million in employees’ wages per year and in company spending for infrastructure development if voters say no to marijuana, forcing Golden Leaf to move elsewhere.
‘‘We just want a level playing field,’’ Whitney said. ‘‘We’re just looking for reasonable regulation.’’
Marion County Commissioner Sam Brentano said he doesn’t want the county overrun by marijuana businesses attracted by its rich soil and highway access, and that he has received complaints about odor, noise, and lights.
One recent evening, 16 backers of marijuana ballot measures gathered in an anteroom of a medical marijuana store. Some volunteered to staff a phone bank. Others said they would hand out fliers to boost voter awareness of the ballot measures.
‘‘This is really the Wild West now,’’ Genevieve Sheridan, an insurance agent representing cannabis businesses, told those gathered at West Salem Cannabis. A color-coded map published by the Association of Oregon Counties shows how the differing marijuana policies have created a patchwork.
Oregon’s more conservative eastern counties are red, meaning they banned recreational marijuana businesses; counties establishing regulations for licensed marijuana businesses are green; those that have a vote pending are orange or violet; and others that haven’t taken any action are blue.
Across the state, people are allowed to grow up to four plants, possess up to 8 ounces of marijuana in their homes, and carry up to 1 ounce.
The landscape is likely to change with this election.
Steven Marks, executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, said ‘‘we will have more licensing and a bubble of activity coming. . . . We’ll see how many pass.’’
Some local governments, while perhaps opposed to the cannabis industry, want a greater share of the money if voters say yes to marijuana. Marion County is one of many jurisdictions that are asking voters to impose a 3 percent local sales tax on marijuana, on top of the 17 percent state tax.
