OBNDD Registration Deadline Imminent
New requirements this year are coming due for all commercial licensees in the state
Nothing in this post should be considered or taken as legal or medical advice, please consult an attorney in good standing for best practices on your cannabis licensing information. Some resources have been embedded in the post but are not necessarily endorsements of any third party services or affiliates.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority recently sent out a reminder to medical cannabis businesses to renew their registration the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
That deadline is October 31st, less than 10 days away, as businesses must have this crucial permit to stay in compliance and legal to operate a medical cannabis business in the state.
OBNDD Fee Increase and Supplemental Packet
SB 15X from the 2023 First Special Session of the Oklahoma State Legislature changed the registration fees for OBNDD from $500 to $2500 for growers and processors. SB15X had language to take effect immediately, hitting many businesses doubly with a fee increase for 2023 after HB2179(2022) also took effect in June.
The new fee breakdown from the bill/new law and OBN’s website, from the expanded FAQ:
Growers and processors will apply on the Medical Marijuana Manufacturer Application which is $2500.
Dispensaries will apply on the Medical Marijuana Distributor Application which is $300.
Medical Marijuana Laboratories will apply on the Medical Marijuana Analytical Labs Application which is $140.
Medical Marijuana Researcher will apply on the Scientific Researcher Application which is $140.Medical Marijuana Transport and Medical Marijuana Waste Disposal Businesses are not required to register with OBN.
Transporters are required to register with OBN if they distribute or store the medical marijuana products.
You are required to have an OBN registration for each address the controlled substance activity will be taking place, e.g. if you have a grow at one address and a dispensary at a separate location you would be required to get two OBN registrations.
You can conduct multiple activities under one OBN registration, IF they are both under the exact same business name and address, e.g. if you have a processor and dispensary at the same address and under the same business name you would only need one Manufacturer registration.
Please note: you cannot operate a business under another business name’s registration even if they have the same owners.
In January of 2023, OBNDD and OMMA released a revised Supplemental Packet to help businesses complete their registration with all components needed. Most of the pages are checklists and telling the licensee what is required and what to attach with references to what state statute makes the request, and also some will give specific instructions such as not leave any blanks or unanswered fields in forms, or attach additional documentation.
Possible Obstacles to Registration and Renewal?
As legalization of medical cannabis in 2018 brought new businesses to an uncapped market with a low barrier to entry, municipalities regulated businesses through zoning, and some businesses then sought privacy and fewer local code requirements by moving to rural areas. New recent statutes require Certificates of Occupancy and Fire Marshal inspection nonetheless, which can be harder to acquire in rural counties.
A blog posted in July by Gies Law Firm breaks this down in more detail—
OBNDD released a position statement that said they “will require all medical marijuana manufacturing registrants to provide required certificates of occupancy/final inspection (CO) or an attestation such certificate is not required by law before granting a new registration or renewing an existing registration.” Speaking with OBN registration, there will be a process implemented that allows applicants to upload communications showing the process of obtaining a CO is underway, but OBN will “not keep applications open indefinitely.” Any OBN renewal application submitted prior to the permit expiration date will remain valid while this year’s application is in review. Once OBN denies a registration however, the applicant would need to cease operations immediately until they can show full compliance and meet all of OBN’s requirements.
OBNDD also has released a memo specifically pertaining to OMMA license transfers, noting “OBNDD has never allowed registration transfers” though they go into some other points about how that might be considered in future policy, and also cited the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, inferring those without their permit could face criminal charges should enforcement actions occur. Businesses who have taken over an OMMA permit by purchasing it from another licensee, or bought out another business, still need to register with OBNDD themselves.
A court case was filed this year in regards to OBNDD fees, and while it has generated some social media buzz in the last few days, nothing has come of this yet, so renewals are still required and no injunction is in place at this time. The ORCA FB group has also confirmed, in this video around the 10:30 timestamp, that precedent may kick this case to the lower courts and licensees will likely still have to pay the OBNDD fee by the October 31st deadline and if successful any due reimbursements would happen after any later decision.
License Surrenders, Worst Case Scenarios, and Implications of these New Laws
With only a few days left to get this registration renewal filed, this post would not exist without anticipation of issues with registration renewals given many changes across all businesses but also mostly being targeted at growers, the root of the industry.
The Frontier reported in August that OBN’s Mark Woodward expects to see many businesses not renew their registrations due to additional, more difficult requirements placed on licensees.
Since the new requirements were rolled out in January, many more applicants have backed out of the application process due to the new requirements compared to previous years, Woodward said.
“I'd be shocked if there's not a large number that never renew because they know they cannot get through the paperwork process without getting caught.”
An OBNDD registration is required for any entity handling something that is scheduled under the CSA— hospices, pharmacists, manufacturers of decongestants containing pseudoephedrine, for example would need one to legally operate as well, but also cannabis growers have other requirements set in place by the Legislature that may or may not be from the stigma and decades of propaganda around cannabis. And, OMMA licensees fees are higher across the board now. No one is making an argument that it’s the fault of businesses— everyone is stuck with this until any legal precedent/court test, or advocacy(to the Oklahoma Legislature, OMMA does not make the laws) and direct actions yield new policy changes.
The tricky part is that not renewing the registration purposefully while still operating or conducting un-permitted activity openly will trigger enforcement actions and the expectation is that OBN and OMMA, and possibly the AG’s new “task force” will sweep any sites that remain unregistered starting November 1st.
There are also some businesses that have decided to pursue other opportunities and no longer work in cannabis entirely, and for that, one can Surrender a Commercial License —follow the steps on the form. This is different than transferring/selling a license, but this is also another step to help avoid penalties from having the OMMA license but not the OBNDD registration.
A substantial amount of non-renewals also could do something else- it could disrupt the industry. For non-patients and those who do not support cannabis use this could be dismissed as ridding the state of a ‘criminal element’ or the ‘bad actors’ but for patients who do not grow their own medicine, it’s literally a supply chain disruption. Any time OBN and the Oklahoma Legislature throw a hurdle to businesses that is too drastic or burdensome to reasonably accomplish with the staff the agencies themselves use to get the process done, it is also bad for the patients, and if patients can’t get the products they use as good medicine they will go to the gray market and then there’s another issue altogether; scarcity in the legal market can increase legal market prices, and risks in the gray market though “competitively” priced will also be higher and more risky to patients. There have been past attempts to drastically change Oklahoma’s medical cannabis industry via harsh or restrictive legislation and this could be one of those times we see effects…
For now we are looking at the possibilities of everything being fine with the registration renewals at best, or many many last minute attempts to get everything submitted and work with agencies at the last minute(we’ve all been there!), or at worst, a much more limited market and a harder law enforcement crackdown— basically one of the major rollbacks the Oklahoma Legislature has sought since the passage of SQ788.
For more cannabis policy pontificating, regardless of what happens next, there will be more posted here. Also we have joined Bluesky app and we aren’t leaving twitter until the account gets suspended or the site dies or…? so you can find us over there too.