After news spread that the owners of OG Analytical, a Eugene, Oregon marijuana testing lab, admitted to having "white pride" and finding "community" with neo-Nazis, shops that bear similar names have started getting threatening messages.
As Eugene Weekly reported on Thursday, Oregon pot shops with "OG" in their names have gotten backlash meant for Bethany Sherman and her partner, the former owners of OG Analytical who stepped down after antifascist groups in the Pacific Northwest outed them as the proprietors of neo-Nazi social media accounts.
Eugene's Register-Guard reported that employees at Eugene OG, a cannabis shop in the city, were getting death threats.
“I came into the shop this morning and the first thing I did was answer the phone and immediately got death threats, on my mother, on my life, on everybody here,” Eugene OG inventory manager Alex Traylor told the paper. “It was completely ridiculous.”
Traylor said that throughout Thursday -- just a day after the news about OG Analytical was broken locally and nationally -- the phone rang every few minutes.
"We would just pick up and hang up,” he said.
OG Collective, based in Salem, Oregon with multiple stores in the area, also received similar calls at their shop.
Salem OG has "no affiliation whatsoever” with the lab formerly owned by neo-Nazis, budtender George Grismore said.
When asked about the meaning of the abbreviation "OG" that has caused some to mistake the companies, Eugene OG's Traylor said it's "open to interpretation."
"In general," the Register-Guard noted, "'OG' is a common term in the marijuana world, referring to powerful pot. The OG in the name Eugene OG is a nod to 'Oregon Grown,' but Traylor said for some marijuana users it may mean 'Original Gangster' [a hip-hop reference] or 'Ocean Grown.'"
