Top Oklahoma Lawmakers Give Mixed Reactions To Governor’s Call To Roll Back Medical Marijuana Legalization

The governor of Oklahoma’s recent comments suggesting the state should
reevaluate its voter-approved medical marijuana law are drawing mixed
reactions from top lawmakers and officials.

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said during his State of the State address on Monday
that voters were misled into supporting the 2018 ballot initiative that
created a medical cannabis program, and he wants to see the state “shut it
down” to address public safety issues.

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton (R) 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.

“When you’re actually reversing the vote of the people—I think the
appropriate place would be to put it back in front of the people rather
than just saying, ‘Oh, this didn’t work, we’re going to undo your state
question,’” Paxton said, according to Oklahoma Voices. “We do take
seriously the voters’ intent and what the voters actually voted on.”

The senator also weighed in on the governor’s remarks in an interview with
KFOR, saying he “stood up and clapped” during that part of Stitt’s speech
because “I’ve been pushing back on this state question since it was passed,
and trying to get it reined in.”

“The original vote passed with 57 percent of the vote, and a couple years
ago, they tried a recreational marijuana state question that was defeated
by 63 percent of the voters,” he said. “So I think the second vote is
Oklahomans saying they’re fed up with what we ended up with.”

“I think the governor’s path, if we want to actually repeal it, it would
need a state question just from the standpoint of doing the right thing,”
he 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.”

“It’s taken a lot to try to get any kind of order around medical marijuana.
So I think proactive policy making would be a very wise idea, and I hope
that we’re doing that for all those state questions that could pass this
year, because what we need to think about is how we can make it better, and
if the people tell us that’s what they want, let’s make sure we implement
it correctly.”

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.


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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 January by a GOP legislator would criminalize
the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

The post Top Oklahoma Lawmakers Give Mixed Reactions To Governor’s Call To
Roll Back Medical Marijuana Legalization appeared first on Marijuana Moment.