OBNDD's Latest Press Conference, AG Actions, The first 2024 Oklahoma Legislative Session Bills Teased
It’s the Holiday Season! …and also the season for Legislative pre-filing and enforcement action media blasts, this is a longer post because I’ve combined a few things. Here we go!
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority held a joint press conference on Tuesday November 28, summarizing enforcement actions they have taken over the past few years. A video loop of agents rounding the corner of a building played in the background on screens throughout the conference. OBN also released data about renewals from the deadline that businesses faced at the end of October.
Info from the media release
OBN Registrations for growers dropped from 9,400 in 2021, to 6,400 in 2022, and today that number is down to approximately 3,200, according to OBN’s media release. Since 2021, OBN Marijuana Enforcement Teams (MET) Agents have shut down more than 1,000 illegal marijuana farms, made more than 200 arrests, seized over 700,000 pounds of marijuana destined for the black market, and provided evidence resulting in indictments and arrests against individuals and entities that facilitated straw ownership structures to fraudulently obtain licenses. Additionally, OBN has implemented a more stringent review and background process for every person and entity applying for a new or renewed OBN Registration (for cannabis).
OMMA reported they have completed almost 7,000 inspections and 4,600 operational status visits since becoming an independent state agency on November 1, 2022, seized nearly five tons of illicit cannabis and embargoed around 3,000 pounds and 71,200 plants.
“Oklahoma’s marijuana program is no longer viewed nationally as the so-called ‘wild west of weed’ said OBN Director Donnie Anderson.
Smaller Details from The Press Conference…
The numbers were not presented as year by year data or as a breakdown of what was done in the previous fiscal year with OBN’s given budget, but span a few years and cumulative seizures. The linear progression is in OBN registration renewals declining, as the process to become a legal cannabis licensee in Oklahoma becomes more stringent and costly for businesses.
OMMA gave an introduction and spoke briefly on compliance, including labs compliance and testing. This was probably the most disappointing part of the event for a patient like me, in that they did not receive many questions about lab compliance, lab shopping, or lab licensing- and labs can pull shenanigans too. THC inflation is common and research has been done on this quite a bit, but also MJBizDaily also reported that fudging the data on yeast and mold is problematic as well, across multiple states.
The focus however for this sort of media engagement is to report on enforcing against crimes- this is where OMMA’s presence was useful as they did get questions about their type of enforcement vs. OBNDD vs. the new Attorney General Task Force that the public has seen reported in articles either about raids or instructions to ‘report suspicious activity’ to them. OMMA clarified their jurisdiction is over legal licenses and legal licensees, where OBN does enforcement actions similar to the DEA, though the DEA does have regional branches. Only about eight states have separate agencies doing narcotics law enforcement; the others have divisions within their police departments. This raises some questions as Oklahoma funds both for marijuana enforcement actions.
Flashback to Previous Years and Coverage, Perspectives
In August of 2021, the Denver Post wrote a piece on businesses coming to Oklahoma and contributing to a surge in commercial licenses, from the distant land of …Colorado. The phrasing “Wild West of Weed” describing a state, has typically and unofficially meant to the rest of the country that state is in its early years of legalization.
Differing from the fearmongering “they are terrorists and communists!” talk from Donnie Anderson at Tuesday’s presser, the early articles mostly focused on out of state green-rushers, from Colorado, New Mexico, Louisiana, et al — some of which are quoted and still in business in the state today due to aligning with an in-state partner to fill the residency requirement. Some of these businesses got their start without much past cannabis or healthcare experience but had real estate businesses or car dealerships. And some are former local law enforcement.
The Attorney General’s Office Has Been Busy
Back in 2022 The AG’s office charged some attorney’s with multiple felony counts for straw owner setups. Logan Jones was one of them, Governor Stitt COVID-19 ‘hospital surge plan’ appointee and attorney Matt Stacy was another.
There was also this little detail from that time— The Oklahoman reported in June that O’Connor accepted the [$2900 campaign donations] even though Stacy was already under criminal investigation. At the time, O’ Connor’s assistants were helping in the investigation.
Also in November 2022, Kevin Pham’s house was raided and now a year later, charges were filed on him and 2 other individuals. Prosecutors allege Kevin Paul Pham, 47, and Alex Shiang Lin Chang, 48, paid Richard Gregorio Ignacio, 36, to serve as a “straw owner” for medical marijuana grow operations in Kingfisher County and elsewhere in the state, effectively serving as a front for out-of-state individuals. According to the media release Pham also faces a meth charge, but the Oklahoman also notes that aggravated manufacture of marijuana itself is a felony charge that can carry up to a life sentence in prison.
Current Attorney General Drummond has said stopping the “scourge of illegal marijuana operations” is his top priority in his column on his state website, when often what makes a business illegal per local statutes now is not having a sign of a certain size in the right spot on the grow. As he goes on in the column about Open Records and transparency, law enforcement is one area where we do not have this in many aspects, and justice is still an uneven system even outside of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Legislative Session 2024 Pre-filing Begins
The deadline for filing bills is January 18th, so now bills are being pre-filed, but likely most won’t drop until the last few days before said deadline. They typically end up in two committees- The House Alcohol Tobacco and Controlled Substances committee, and also the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, but they are not limited to those and some bills can be a little sneaky. There are usually a handful of shell bills too.
The biggest buzz is around IHDCs - intoxicating hemp derived cannabinoids- eg. Delta-8, THC-O, et al. OMMA has asked to regulate these and for policy on this from the Oklahoma Legislature.
"We have heard from consumers about some issues surrounding intoxicating hemp for a while, but we can't take any action on it right now. That is outside the current scope of this agency," Berry said about how OMMA is only set up to regulate Delta 9-THC marijuana grown for medicinal purposes. -Fox23
This is also something that CANNRA, of which every state with cannabis programs is a member, has sought federal language in the next iteration of the Farm Bill. At the state level, there is not language officially filed yet; OMMA has stated they do not seek an outright ban but some form of regulation.
Some bills that have been filed but are subject to change appear to be SB1219, which would extend the patient license time for 100% disabled veterans (only this type of patient license) for 10 years instead of 2 years; and SB1247 that would codify listing trade contractor certification information on compliance certification for those contractors working on commercial licensee sites (related to code enforcement).
In the coming year, and, my “Christmas List”
Budtender Credentialing and the Secret Shopper program are both set to take effect in 2024. These should be helpful to patients, but we are keeping an eye out for how so many changes at once will affect the price in general, which is something that many Oklahomans (and out of state patients coming from Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, etc) have enjoyed for the last few years. Pricing regular folks out of the market only sends some back to the illicit market, because not everyone can “just grow it at home” due to renting one’s living space or disability reasons or other barriers.
If I could explain one thing to the general cannabis consuming public, it would be that OBNDD and OMMA are not the same, though the Legislature has tried to homogenize these entities, and now both being appropriated agencies, many PR statements are going to be made with a budget in mind. The laws are made in the Legislature, the advocacy has to start there and with lawmakers and coalition/trust building among fellow constituents. Protesting at OMMA when there are not open meetings or open comments will end in, at best, sunburns and advertising for the person who asked you to do it. Protesting in the Legislative session when it’s happening is a valuable tool that many advocacy groups do often. There are also other creative tactics but that’s a post for another time.
If I could say one thing to OMMA, it would be - please bring back recall alerts to EVERYONE. This cannot be more than one simple change on the govdelivery client that hurts no one, and the sooner we patients find out we need to check your website for more info, the better, and it makes you look like you care about patients even more than the reminders you give about licensing and keeping edibles away from children (those are good too, but do us this solid, please?) I have other, shinier items on my OMMA ‘Christmas List’ but they may not be as easy for Santa to bring due to the programming of Thentia or other behind the scenes applications; I’m not familiar with how the elves put those things together.
To OBNDD, I’m probably on your naughty list, but please stop calling growers ‘terrorists’ … it just makes you look like our State Superintendent calling teachers terrorists, and you often do this as a generalization. This is also a little disrespectful to victims and their families who have experienced an act of actual terrorism in the state (that event for which there’s a memorial in downtown OKC). It’s just a messaging tweak, but I have a hunch this is like asking for a car or a PS5, and I will get some coal lumps instead.
And, for fellow patients, and everyone else, thank you for doing everything you can to fight for access and safety, and have a Happy Holiday no matter how you choose to celebrate. 💚