Oregon is awash in marijuana, so much so that a group of producers and others in the industry is looking for ways to ship the excess to other states. It’s a good idea, but as the group behind the effort knows, it won’t happen overnight. It could take years.

The road to out-of-state sales is likely to be a tortuous one. First, the group must persuade the state Legislature to change Oregon law to make out-of-state sales legal. Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, started that effort in the 2018 short session with a measure that would have allowed the governor to work to persuade neighboring states to let our pot into their markets. It died in committee.

That may prove to be the easy part.

Because the federal government regulates boat and air traffic, weed would have to be transported on highways. Even highways pose problems. Crossing states in which marijuana is illegal could leave shippers at risk for all sorts of legal problems.

The biggest hurdle may still be the federal government. While it has been willing, though uneasily so, to turn a blind eye to the production and sale of weed in states that have legalized it, it has done so with conditions. Among them is a ban on shipping weed or marijuana products to other states.

Oregon marijuana producers do have an over-production problems on their hands. Opening up shipping pot to other states won’t necessarily fix that. It would almost certainly mean pot from outside of the state would be shipping in. But as long as the legal hurdles can be worked out, Oregon should allow pot to be shipped out of the state. Oregon allows its other products to be shipped out of state. Allow pot, too.