The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Has a 'Podcast' ...and It's Strange.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Has a 'Podcast' ...and It's Strange.
Your tax dollars paid for them to sit around and talk to each other, about how to ask for more of your tax dollars.
Around this time last year I was pretty annoyed, and publicly and vocally so, that when reaching out for medical cannabis patient related developments, I was consistently referred to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority’s “podcast.” That was more of a video series (the longest video being all of 13 minutes) that began as answering questions posed by Facebook followers then introduced their departments. Some videos are now dated due to changes in legislation restructuring how the agency works in a short timeframe. While I’ve seen some clips and sound bytes of OMMA staff on other podcasts, I’ve not seen a new episode of this particular series in months.
But hold my dab rig, because the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has something similar, with very few views or subscribers but much longer episodes, and it’s… something. And I watched ALL OF THEM so you don’t have to…
Two OBNDD Youtube Channels
The first thing noticeable about the OBN videos in question is that they are housed on a separate youtube channel from the older channel that has training videos, warning presentations, and interviews with former director Darrell Weaver who is currently an OK State Senator and author of bills that target the unhoused this session, and a bill that adds felony charges to anyone caught with a substance that has fentanyl mixed into it ‘as if they had manufactured the fentanyl themselves’, per [some] presentations of the bill.
The videos started last year, mid-Legislative session, with an hour-long episode of course on their favorite “gateway” - Marijuana.
The most recent episode is women in law enforcement or… "Can you believe they're sending women to put us in cages/shoot us?! How progressive!"
I only saw this one when working on this piece- The episode topic is 'women in law enforcement.' Women's History Month was the month of March and it dropped on March 29th, at end of the month, so... I guess that's why this was an episode? It featured mostly former women officers from OBNDD talking about how they got into the job. The oldest speaking on video said she did not go on arrests or see any illicit products early in her career, and that they did not want her to be an agent originally. But later she also mentioned that, at the time, they thought it would be easier for her to be undercover because those being investigated would not suspect her of being an agent.
She does discuss her time working in diversion, and she talked about doctors over-prescribing or pharmacies diverting, specifically.
This was Elaine Dodd, who is now Executive Vice President Fraud Division of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. Here's a pic of her with former FBI Director James Comey. But what’s particularly interesting are the Oklahoma Bankers Association political contributions.
Another name drop is Scott Rowland who is currently on the Court of Criminal Appeals, he was OBN's general counsel (this is something to keep in mind if you ever have to deal with OKCCA)
One take provided from this most recent episode is, related to families, "no matter what resources are in place if the parents have a drug problem the kids will fail" - that is TERRIBLE framing of these situations, and it completely ignores real data and research about some programs. Housing First is a good example.
There's also a lot of extraneous praising of the men who hired them. "He was big, but not just his body, his mind..." (WTAF did I hear?)
They mention they have maintained the 'same mindset' since the 70s. Okay maybe some other things said started making more sense. 🙄
For good comparison, I would recommend Jenn Budd's accounts of being a senior Border Patrol agent, lots of honesty in this area with regard to how this topic has been presented in the media, and these types of narratives.
Anyway, the Marijuana Episode , or… "This is a story all about how OKMMJ got flipped to Drummond's cash cow"
Gentner Drummond was present for this episode. Or...about half of it then he left for an appointment. But his presence is for a specific reason.
There were others there, too.
Also this guy was there speaking.
This was a year ago, it also has substantially more views. The only comment on it says (paraphrasing) that "legalizing any drug is bad"…
But the biggest takeaway (and the reason for this entire post)
in this (checks notes) HOUR-LONG episode, is that AG Drummond asked everyone present, or watching et cetera, to ask the Oklahoma Legislature for more money for him to crackdown on marijuana despite medical legalization.
He said he would be a "force multiplier" for [law enforcement], with more funding.
And then we got the Organized Crime Task Force.
A lot of notes I took on the dialog indicate these are repeat talking points.
The way they say "communistic countries" is also pretty funny.
One sheriff complains about the "out and out lies of law enforcement support of marijuana" and this is one of the funniest things in the episode; he acted so upset as this. Also he seemed to behave like he just learned what a vape was yesterday. He claimed he was asked to talk to kids about marijuana and he refused, claiming billboards were advertising it as a miracle cure-- this is INCORRECT as Oklahoma is not allowed to advertise curative claims on cannabis in any way, just like supplements that are not regulated by the FDA are not allowed to make curative claims.
AG Drummond also insists all propaganda is coming from out of state, and "please talk to your legislators and be united for law enforcement... we need more law enforcement for task forces and strike forces working with OBN"
After that-- Donnie Anderson drops the "we found fentanyl mixed with THC" <-- OMMA has said this in OKLEG hearings ON THE RECORD this is not the case and their lab.
The sheriff contributed to the dialog to make cannabis buyers seem even more dumb-- "Would you agree that I am a consumer of marijuana, it's difficult for me to understand?" <-- This entire conversation they set up is to make the cannabis community look perpetually stereotypical, only a year after OKLEG decriminalized the testing strips.
I've watched this episode 3 times but just caught this line headed to OAN/FoxNews/AM radio near you:
"We're producing a dumber generation of boys"
And this was made last year... and around 25 minutes in you hear one of them tell Drummond "don't worry we've got good legislation comin' for ya..."
They joke about how many calls they get about grows, then start complaining about there being too much red tape to verify them. “If we get in and there’s a piece of paper saying they are, then “uh-oh” our taxpayers gotta pay for that”
Donnie Anderson says "no matter what anyone says, we have recreational right now" so he doesn't respect medical as medicine. He vilifies it and doesn't take patients with serious health issues that find a health benefit seriously.
The summary of the marijuana episode from last year was basically trying to re-iterated the talking points they have been using consistently for the last year (they will look familiar to you, and from the Oklahoma Attorney General, this:
The Fentanyl Episode
Ummm...Yeah.. They basically covered some points from the old DEA memo + some vague and ranged CDC numbers for scary effect, that's part of why it's so short.
Just watch this instead, from a toxicologist who specializes in this topic.
The fentanyl episode included OK Sheriff Tommie Johnson and also ODMHSAS as guests.
There is a point in it where OBNDD mentions "during covid we shut down our treatment facilities" but I'm not sure to which ones they refer, no "treatment facilities" are not listed on OBNDD's programs and services page of their website.
ODMHSAS has a link about not shutting down during covid, and they responded to that with "We did not."
ODMHSAS mentioned on this episode this scale for measuring addiction - Here's the wiki for ASAM which has some links to their nonprofit financials etc. (spoiler: their current board of directors does have all doctors on it, so it's not like a nefarious group of Mr. Burns-type folks but still if you want a look, there are the links, most of the stuff on the legislative tracker for Oklahoma is about making sure every-public-where has naloxone that can have a good supply of it—schools, clinics, jails, etc)
Conclusions… “What do now?”
For starters, recognize who benefits from this sort of messaging. It's not medical cannabis patients or businesses. If you are a medical cannabis business and you think law enforcement is helping you, it's only a matter of time before the tools that you think are serving you may be turned toward you, as laws are continually changing in Oklahoma's speedrun market capture for the largest stakeholders and highest [backroom] bidders.
Side fun fact: do you remember when crypto tried to get into cannabis in OK? This bill - Rep Humphrey didn't know what this was, he couldn't even present it well or answer any questions about it just said something like "it's better than crunchy peanut butter" and expected people to go for it (and it still made it through one chamber!) We've seen some wild ones and that one was definitely some odd stuff going on there with the lobbying.
But we already have more policing and task forces in place. It’s harder to push back against that and the reason I’m blogging this is because well, no one else with a platform will write about it. I tried to tell people this was coming under a different Attorney General. (2 AGs ago actually, back in the Mike Hunter days). It took quite awhile for someone to point out “hey you know, it actually is NOT China that is the largest foreign land buyer in Oklahoma” (yes that’s correct, and credit where it’s due to Ben Felder at Investigate Midwest for this piece doing the fact-checking, and also pointing out one of our largest owned China businesses is Smithfield foods- a pork processor.)
UPDATE!! Also, this just happened, during the current 2024 legislative session, with Legislative leadership going around the typical policy deadlines and hearing it in a special chamber session agenda.
Anyway, the good thing about these is a lot of names they drop, are in other places of authority so that information can be tracked, like they are dropping names of people who are judges now, or work in other areas like at OSBI, at banks, in OKLEG, etc. Knowing the arguments they are trotting out as soon as possible is good to know how to counter them.
These are things to remember when organizing and crafting things to say if you have to speak to them, their staff, or just work around/through them on an issue. Or change approach/tactic entirely if you see those options, etc, and keep in mind when you vote as well.