Oklahoma GOP Members Propose Changes To Medical Marijuana Industry

Raids on illegal marijuana farms are more common in Oklahoma. Now a group of lawmakers hope a set of bills to change policies will help weed out the bad players. The policies will also benefit those who are following the rules. 

There are twelve points to this plan and nine of them aim to stop illegal products from getting on dispensary shelves or out of state.  

“We know we have issues with human trafficking, we know we have issues with tainted product and this is the house's plan to do something about it,” said House Majority Leader Jon Echols (R-OKC). 

On February 22, Oklahoma law enforcement swarmed a dozen farms and homes connected to the marijuana black market. That raid led seven house GOP members to introduce a list of bills to better regulate the medical marijuana industry. 

The top change, they say, is to make OMMA a stand-alone agency, and give local law enforcement the resources to be first line of defense. 

“Second we're creating a grant program for sheriff's departments that will allow enforcements efforts from their level at every county,” explained Rep. T.J. Marti.  

A few things the group proposes include a required inspection before growers get a full license and mandatory annual inspections. They also suggest removing the no more than two inspections a year cap.  

Other changes base the cost of a license on the size of the grow operation and a requirement to track how much water and energy is used during farming. 

“To determine where and who is sapping resources, especially water in rural Oklahoma. These large illegal grows are doing a lot of damage,” said House Democrat, Forrest Bennet.  

Utility companies will report that info to OMMA who will then track the data. 

House democrats said the GOP plan is a good one, but it focuses on putting the cat back in the bag. 

“What we essentially have today is a reflection of what the state question mandated that we put together when it was passed. We had precious little time to get that all set up.” Rep. Bennet added, “we had ample opportunities when we saw the question was trending toward passing to come in and put rules in place to reflect what the state questions said.” 

Lawmakers also want to add a shelf life to products with a "best used by" date and standardize lab testing equipment.