Following the largest single day illegal marijuana bust in state history last month, House Republicans advanced a 12-point medical marijuana policy plan to stop illegal grows and foster a safer, fairer free market for the product.
“Illegal marijuana grows end now. The black market isn’t a free market,” said House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City. “This comprehensive plan aggressively attacks the spread of illegal marijuana operations statewide, as the people of Oklahoma have demanded.”
The plan will:
- Make the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority a standalone agency
- Create a program for county sheriffs to fund efforts in every county
- Create a seed to sale system (either via court order or new legislation)
- Make provisional licensing requiring pre-license inspections
- Create tiered grow license fees based on grow size and separate licensing for medical marijuana wholesalers
- Place standardized permit signage at the place of medical marijuana business
- Require electrical and water data reporting by marijuana growers
- Require annual inspections
- Require product packaging standards and maximum beyond use dates
- Require standardized laboratory testing and equipment
- Require marijuana grows to register as environmentally sensitive crop owners with the Agriculture Department
Voters approved medical marijuana through State Question 788 in 2018. As the medical marijuana industry has grown, so has its illegal black market. Marijuana grown in Oklahoma can only be consumed in Oklahoma, and authorities said far more marijuana is being grown here than can be consumed here. Law enforcement connected some operations to international organized crime and drug trafficking groups.
More than 200 agents conducted the largest single day drug bust in state history last month, raiding a dozen locations statewide to seize 100,000 marijuana plants and thousands of pounds of processed marijuana with an estimated street value of $500 million. More a than a dozen resulting arrest warrants in multiple states are being pursued. Such raids have become increasingly common as illegal medical marijuana grows proliferate across Oklahoma.