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By Chip Paul
Recently a survey has made the rounds in cannabis circles regarding Oklahoma and the “oversupply” issue. It is dramatic and very eye catching and concludes that Oklahoma is oversupplied by 32 times. When you add to that shocking result the fact that Oklahoma has over 5000 commercial growers, it sure paints a grim picture of Oklahoma doesn’t it? Further it says that the regulatory body (Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority) is doing a pretty poor job if they cannot control the marketplace, and YET the regulatory are the same people who commissioned the survey! Did they do it to make themselves look incompetent? I doubt it, so what is really going on here?
Oklahoma passed their medical marijuana law in 2018 with overwhelming grassroots support. The law was written by activists (me mostly) and had some pretty serious holes. However, it did provide a good framework and has three core principles: no medical conditions; no limits on commercial licensing (commercial licensing was to be affordable to anyone who wanted to get into the business), and lastly allowing homegrown cannabis for patients. I am a minority and a patient and so the law was skewed heavily in favor of equity and patients.
When Oklahoma regulated under the law, it built the loosest and least consumer safety focused medical cannabis program in the country. Whether this was on purpose or not is another subject for debate, however, the fact remains that Oklahoma rolled out a regulatory program with no consumer testing, no security requirements, no inspections, and a myriad of other issues. Interestingly it has been the commercial industry that has kept the wheels on the bus by fighting and reporting corruption, not the regulatory agency.
In the Spring of this year, Oklahoma voted on recreational/adult use marijuana. This was the first time in the country that a marijuana issue has stood naked on the ballot. This ballot initiative was written by an out of state group who ran over a state effort that was also trying to do the same thing. This group spent over $12 million in order to get in front of the Oklahoma activist backed efforts rather than just joining the home grown Oklahoma offering.
Again, one must ask why. Why the big out of state push in Oklahoma? Oklahoma is a tough place and no out of state initiative will pass here over a homegrown effort and that was evidenced at the ballot box. The initiative could only muster 38% of the vote statewide and did not even carry the most populated counties.
I live in rural Oklahoma. I built the ground game to pass a grass roots cannabis ballot initiative with very little money. I know my State and I know my people. While Oklahoma may have a diversion problem, and we probably do with a non-green Texas to our south, we do not have a 32x oversupply problem. In fact, it does not take a mathematician, although I am one, to spot the flaws in the Oklahoma survey. They are myriad. And if you do a little digging on the company that did the survey, you quickly find that they have some interesting ties to some legal services companies out of Colorado. In fact, they are one and the same.
There are sure are a lot of folks from outside the state of Oklahoma who seemed to be concerned about what we are doing here in Oklahoma. Now why would that be? It is because we have open access? No patient can be denied a medical card here and 10% of our population are patients. Is it because anyone can get into the commercial business as an owner? Well, this used to be the case but our lawmakers have now capped our program. Is it because we have the most diverse commercial ownership in the nation? We do! Is it because we have a very diverse marketplace and very decent prices for patients? It is a great place to be a patient.
Frankly, the why’s don’t matter, here in Oklahoma we will continue to battle for the ground we have gained and continue to guard our program. Even us OG’s will speak up when we see it going the wrong way, and right now in Oklahoma it is time to make a stand.
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