Oklahoma Attorney General Warns That State Would Need To ‘Reimburse’ Medical Marijuana Businesses Under Governor’s Plan To Shut Down Market

The attorney general of Oklahoma says he would “love” to see the state’s
medical marijuana program wiped out, as the governor recently suggested.
But he cautioned that doing so would mean reimbursing the hundreds of
licensees participating in the market because the state would be “taking” a
revenue source away from them.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner
Drummond (R) was asked about Gov. Kevin Stitt’s (R) call to have voters
revisit the state’s medical marijuana program and ultimately “shut it
down.” Drummond said it’s a “complicated issue.”

“Now, clearly, when we passed this law in 2018, we were asleep at the
switch, right?” he said. “We did not put proper protocol in place to limit
the number of marijuana grow facilities. It was truly the Wild West.”

“We have to balance the investment in those legal operations with the
desire by all law enforcement—I think unanimity, that there’s unanimity
among law enforcement—if we didn’t have marijuana at all, it would be
better for the state,” the attorney general said. “But we have to be aware
of, and if the governor goes forward with this plan or a future governor
does, then we would need to reimburse these individuals, because it will
effectively be a taking.”

As a lawyer, Drummond said he’s “concerned about the taking.” But as a law
enforcement representative, “I’d love for it to be gone,” he said, adding
that, at one of his first meetings with the FBI as the state’s attorney
general, he was advised to end the state’s medical cannabis program to
mitigate public safety concerns.



“I will also add on that: It’s an illusion to think that we’re offsetting
the tax dollars with the cost of law enforcement,” he said. “I could not
even begin to estimate that numbers of hundreds of millions of dollars
spent in law enforcement to eradicate black market—marijuana, fentanyl
production, sex trafficking, human trafficking—and Oklahoma is probably
100-to-1 ratio. So this bargain for exchange, Oklahoma got the bad end of
it.”

The governor’s push for a reevaluation of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana law
has drawn mixed reactions from top lawmakers and officials.

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton (R), for example, expressed openness
to the idea—though he made clear the will of voters must still be
respected, so it’s unlikely he would agree to an outright repeal of the
legalization law.

There should, however, be an “actual medical marijuana program,” the Senate
president said.

Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt (D), for her part, said she’s “not into
revisiting state questions,” and lawmakers should “trust the people, and we
should actually implement them as well.”

“This legislature, before our time, could have made a decision to put
guardrails in place before this state question passed,” the senator said.
“Instead, they stuck their head in the sand and let that question pass and
be mayhem.”

Chris Anoatubby, the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation in
Oklahoma, aligned himself with Stitt’s position, stating that the medical
marijuana program as currently implemented has “been a problem all over
Oklahoma.”

He added that he’d “absolutely” support “reforming” the cannabis law.

During his speech on Monday, the governor complained that the state has
“more dispensaries than we do pharmacies,” adding that marijuana retailers
“hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and
foreign influence in our state.”

While regulators and law enforcement have “done incredible work to hold
back the tide of illegal activity,” Stitt said, the 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,” he said. “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.”

While the governor’s rhetoric signals he may be interested in seeing the
medical cannabis industry shuttered altogether, it’s not clear what exactly
he wants voters to decide on and his office has not released specific
language of a proposed ballot measure.

Back in 2022, Stitt similarly used his State of the State address as an
opportunity to dig at the voter-approved medical marijuana law, arguing
that residents were misled by proponents of the ballot initiative.

Meanwhile, in November, Oklahoma activists withdrew an adult-use marijuana
legalization initiative that they’d hoped to place on the state’s 2026
ballot.

After a short but aggressive signature push to secure ballot placement,
Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) ultimately did not turn
in its petitions by the deadline, according to the secretary of state’s
office.

There were challenges unique to this election cycle, as last year the
governor gave final approval to legislation that some advocates worry will
inhibit future citizen-led policy changes, including cannabis reform.

The law puts additional requirements on initiative “gist” language that
voters see on the ballot and also revise policies around signature
gathering to make it so petitioners could only submit signatures from up to
11.5 percent of registered voters in a single county for statutory
proposals and 20.8 percent for constitutional measures.

Meanwhile, amid the signature gathering process, law enforcement leaders
with the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs had been raising concerns about cannabis.


*— Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug
policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon
supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps,
charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.*


*Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on
Patreon to get access. —*

Also in Oklahoma, lawmakers in March advanced a bill aimed at protecting
gun rights of state-registered medical marijuana patients, although federal
law still bars cannabis users from owning firearms regardless of their
patient status.

Another state bill filed last year by a GOP legislator would criminalize
the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

*Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.*

The post Oklahoma Attorney General Warns That State Would Need To
‘Reimburse’ Medical Marijuana Businesses Under Governor’s Plan To Shut Down
Market appeared first on Marijuana Moment.