During the state’s quarterly economic and revenue forecast announcement, Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, offered an explanation as to why young people move from Idaho to Oregon: legal weed.

Ontario lies near Oregon’s eastern border and is about an hour’s drive from Boise.

“So can we tell the nature of the folks that are immigrating?” Bentz asked state economists. “I know in my part of the world, the mass migration from Idaho into Oregon was driven by the new marijuana law, um, but I don’t want to draw conclusions about the nature of the folks that were so attracted, but perhaps you could share with us who is coming to Oregon.”

“…That’s news to me, the marijuana migration, but we’ll have to look deeper into that,” said state economist Mark McMullen. He noted that most people immigrating to Oregon were “young folks” who come in search of employment.

While Oregon has positive net migration from most states, state economists also said that Oregon has in some years seen more people migrate to Idaho than move from Idaho.