Oklahoma City, OK: Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt says that the state’s voter-approved medical cannabis access law “opened a Pandora’s Box” and should be repealed.
Speaking Monday during his State of the State address, the Governor said: “This industry is plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in. We can’t put a Band-aid on a broken bone. Knowing what we know, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to the vote of the people and shut it down.”
On Tuesday, the state’s Attorney General similarly said that he would like to see the medical cannabis industry “gone.”
Fifty-seven percent of Oklahomans approved a ballot initiative in 2018 legalizing the production and dispensing of cannabis for authorized patients. Approximately 320,000 Oklahomans are currently registered with the state to access medical cannabis products.
Despite the Governor’s claims of foreign involvement in the state’s medical cannabis industry, DEA statistics published last year reported interdicting only 15 Chinese-affiliated illegal marijuana grow operations nationwide.
Since 2022, Oklahoma lawmakers have imposed a moratorium prohibiting regulators from issuing licenses for any new medical cannabis dispensaries, processors, or commercial growers. Approximately 1,450 dispensaries are currently licensed in the state.
Earlier this year, representatives from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics publicly alleged that nearly half of the marijuana sold illegally in the United States originates from the state. However, other state agencies said that they had no data to substantiate those claims.
Additional information is available from NORML’s Take Action Center.