Oklahoma will stop giving out new licenses to grow, sell, or process marijuana at the end of August. The moratorium was supposed to start Monday, but the application deadline was extended at the last minute.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority admitted it made a mistake Saturday and had misinterpreted the law. Bills in the Oklahoma legislature must pass with a two-thirds majority to take effect sooner than 90 days after the governor signs them. The text of House Bill 3208 said the moratorium would begin on August 1st, but it did not meet the required vote threshold. Since it was signed by Governor Stitt on May 26th, it could not take effect before August 26th.
Green Cross Meds, a medical marijuana dispensary in Tulsa, has had a rough year. Two-thirds of their profits went up in smoke. Matt Boyd, the dispensary’s owner, said he’s not alone, and that’s why it’s time for this moratorium.
“In the last year, I’m not the only dispensary owner that has felt a decline in business, and it’s not because of anything we’ve done different,” he explained. “It’s just because there’s been so many dispensaries that have opened up. Just the limit of ‘no more new dispensaries’ coming into business is gonna help all of us existing dispensary owners now.”
Mark Woodward, public information officer for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said the state has over 2,200 medical marijuana dispensaries.
“That’s a tremendous amount of dispensaries,” Woodward said. “It’s more than California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Nevada, and New Mexico combined.”
Woodward told NewsChannel 8 that Oklahomans’ need for medical marijuana is causing problems they can’t see. A number of the state’s 8,500 cannabis growers are involved in organized crime. He said criminal organizations from the U.S., Mexico, and China moved their marijuana operations from California to Oklahoma during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s loose lockdowns and inexpensive marijuana licenses convinced them to move.
“We’ve talked to our law enforcement partners from New York to Florida, and they say we are the number one supplier of black market marijuana on the East Coast,” he said.
Woodward also said licensed pot shops sometimes sell black market marijuana. OBN needs the moratorium to ensure the state’s supply lines aren’t so hazy.
“This moratorium will allow us to focus on those we already have in place and make sure they’re either following the law or going after those bad actors,” he explained.
Thanks to the OMMA’s mistake, the moratorium will take some time to kick in. But Boyd says it’s not too late to slow the damage to dispensaries before even more shops pop up.
“It’s time to allow a market that’s brand new, a brand-new grassroots industry in our state, to kinda have some balance, y’know?” Boyd said. “And that’s just what it’s gonna take.”
The moratorium will either last until Aug. 1st, 2024, or until the OMMA has caught up with existing applications.