Oregon county buys bill counter for pot cash

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The final straw was the day a marijuana grower came in to get a permit and paid for it with $3,000 cash in $5 and $10 bills.

So many permits and fees were being paid for with marijuana money the Josephine County Community and Economic Development Department needed a bill counter.

It was a chore to count, staff said, and not necessarily safe, right out there on the front counter, with customers waiting.

“That started the whole thing,” department office manager Melissa Older said while demonstrating the machine’s use.

It arrived a few weeks ago and is called a JetScan. Its price tag is nearly $1,900. The county treasurer’s office was consulted about what to buy.

Older said employees didn’t feel comfortable counting out all that cash in public. Also, there was the desire to make sure all those bills were counted accurately.

The machine checks for counterfeit bills, too.