While other states have embraced tight restrictions on weed businesses, Oklahoma has become the nation’s test case for unfettered cannabis capitalism, placing few limits on licenses. That could soon change.
In this Nov. 30, 2018 photo medical marijuana is displayed in Shawnee, Okla. | Sean Murphy, File/AP PhotoStaunchly conservative Oklahoma has emerged as an unlikely weed utopia with more than 12,000 cannabis businesses and the nation’s highest per capita rate of medical marijuana patients.
“We are not Oklahoma, and this program is not going to be Oklahoma 2.0,” Mississippi GOP state Sen. Kevin Blackwell, who sponsored the medical marijuana bill, said during the floor debate. The legislative agitation comes as cannabis advocates are pushing to put a recreational legalization referendum on the ballot this year, but two competing petitions have splintered the pro-marijuana forces.There’s some evidence that Oklahoma’s Green Rush has crested. Over the last two months, the number of licensed businesses has dropped from 13,785 to 12,021 — a 15 percent dip.
OMMA Executive Director Adria Berry, who was appointed by Stitt to lead the agency in August and has made beefing up enforcement a top priority, believes that putting the track-and-trace system for marijuana products in place will alleviate many of the concerns raised by lawmakers, particularly about product being diverted into the underground market.
Cornwell emphasizes that legitimate existing businesses would not be affected by the moratorium, that it would initially be in effect for just two years, and that the OMMA could lift it at any time before that if state regulators conclude that the enforcement issues have been adequately addressed.
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