It is somewhat unthinkable, but 3 1/2 years ago it was a felony 5 year prison sentence if a mother was caught with a simple bottle of pure CBD oil.  But Rep Jon Echols sought to change that, for some Oklahoma children who were suffering debilitating seizures and other terrible disabilities. Even though the oil had no psychoactive content (THC) there were plenty of those who needed a lot of 'encouragement to vote for it. In the end, there were still a handful of legislators who refused to allow any product of the cannabis plant to be legal.
 On February 28th the members supporting the bill totaled 85. 5 voted against it, including a licensed physician; and 9 did not register a vote.
 Today, CBD oil is sold in all 50 states without any prescription, patient license, or dosage limits.
  It is found to be therapeutic in far more treatment protocols than even the house author of HB2154 even knew of.
  It would take until November 1st of 2015 before mom's could legally possess the essential oil,  It seems asinine today. Considering how far we've come.
 Today Rep. Echols' HB2612 passed the House with 93 votes of support. That bill authorizes permanent framework for patients to utilize all parts of the cannabis plant. But the restrictions are immense and the cost is expensive, because of the regulations.
  How many will look back 4 years from now and wonder what all the fuss was about.

  In a strong showing of near unanimous support, the medical marijuana laws passed by the voters of Oklahoma last June, were affirmed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Only 5 of the 101 House members disapproved of the core set of statutes in HB 2612. But at least one of those 5 debated that the statutes were too restrictive and that the voters would not accept added limitations to their law. Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, built the omnibus bill around the consensus of patients, industry leaders, professional clinicians, and community govts.
  Shane Stone (D-OKC) expressed disappointment while openly expressing admiration to Echols, Fetgatter and the bicameral interim study group who recommended the set of statutory amendments to SQ788.
  Rep. Scott Fetgatter was the floor sponsor of HB2612. He emphasized, in closing debate, that this bill is a consensus framework for a new, budding industry in Oklahoma. He said that the legislature is tasked with providing that framework because the people have spoken and called for this medicinal option in treating serious ailments.

  With ink still drying on the Senate documents, the governor's team went into swift action and organized a blue-room signing event. Today, Governor Kevin Stitt signed his first new law. 
  What's been called "Constitutional Carry" has been an effort which took the efforts of many strong conservative lawmakers over the past 10 years, to bring about. Last year it failed the last hurdle and was thrown into Governor Mary Fallin's trash can.
  But this year there were three new lawmakers and 2 former lawmakers on hand to lobby the final senate support.
  The bill removes the mandated license, fees, and several weeks of waiting, in order to keep and bear arms.
  Firearms owners may still seek the license, which may provide interstate privileges while traveling, butfor the average Oklahoman, this means that they can move about in public in greater safety, having the means to defend their lives and the people who depend on their protection.
  The law takes effect on Nov. 1st of 2019.  There are still some limits expected on a few public places and some scenarios may require that the arms be concealed.

  Today, Senator Paxton is seeking passage of his first legislation to effectively hinder patients from their treatment for severe pain, cancer, and Post-Tramatic Stress, among other ailments.
​  SB1030 is full of language to increase the costs, limit where treatment can be administered, and what the criminal sentencing will be, for disobeying his edicts. 
 The Senate Health & Human Services committee will be taking action on HB1030, in their afternoon meeting.
  Senator Paxton cannot cite actual community harms from the current availability  that patients finally acquired. He's campaign to defeat SQ788 appears to rely almost exclusively on fears that the Federal govt. created with their Reefer Madness propaganda of the 1950s. That broadly debunked media ploy has done great harm to the essential trust of government, for many citizens. Especially those citizens who are now fighting for their very lives and winning, because of the cannabis medicines which the people of Oklahoma demanded.
  The Committee convenes after the 1:30pm senate floor session. The members voting are Senator Jason Smalley - Chair, Senator Greg McCortney - Vice Chair, Senator Bill Coleman, Senator Julie Daniels, Senator Carri Hicks, Senator Allison Ikley-Freeman, Senator Adam Pugh, Senator Paul Rosino, Senator Paul Scott, Senator Joseph Silk, Senator Frank Simpson, Senator Rob Standridge, Senator George Young

On a unanimous vote, the House Rules Committee gave support to the work of the Bicameral Interim Study; Approving their recommendations for establishing statutory laws to replace the expiring emergency rules created by the Health Dept. Board.​
  Echols assured the committee that he would be back to the committee with a handful of other bills to address the taxes, disposal, and other issues which still do not have clarity.
  Other legislators also have filed measures but this appears to be the first piece of legislation which will be debated on the floor, this session. It may be presented as early as Monday.

  In 2016 he convinced the Libertarian Party to place him on the ballot as Gary Johnson's running mate.  Libertarians soon had buyer's remorse when Weld spent much of his campaign efforts in praising Hillary Clinton.
  SoonerPolitics is conducting a poll of voters to gauge support for the Weld campaign. It appears to be below 25%. We did find some indications of what kind of voter would opt for a change. In reviewing social media profiles we found that the drug policy reform effort was a consistent theme. Most of these Weld supporters supported a move to reschedule medical marijuana and Weld seems to support that objective. Trump has not yet signaled any intention to end the federal oppression of medical applications of "full spectrum" cannabis medicines.

  Some believe this could be the most violent day of the "Gilets jaunes:" (Yellow Vest) uprising.
  A key figure in France’s "gilets jaunes” (yellow vests) movement has been secretly filmed claiming paramilitaries are ready to intervene in the anti-government protest.
Christophe Chalencon — whose recent meeting with Italy’s deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio intensified a diplomatic row between Rome and Paris — made the assertion to journalists.
​ 

Some news services are carrying live coverage from within the crowd.

  The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority is under a siege of new applications and many are going unprocessed beyond the statutory 14 day mandate for processing.
 Last week the OMMA announced the closing of their robust call center, so that the personnel which takes more than 1000 calls per week can help dig out the processing department. 
  Melissa Miller, a spokesman for the State Health Department's Medical Marijuana Authority said that every effort is being made to hire more competent personnel.
  Up until Thanksgiving, the rate of granting patient license applications for patients was about 1000 per week. But the rate since the holidays has been higher than 2500 per week. Now the agency is admitting that they are failing to meet the legal mandate. 
  As a result, patients are going without their medicine or being forced to buy from the black market, and face prosecution just to get medical care for cancer care, epilepsy, chronic pain care, and severe mental disorders including veterans with PTSD.

  ​The Proposed new Omnibus Medical Marijuana Bill is now published. It will be presented as a "Committee Substitute" of an existing 'shell bill'.

• It creates a few statutory changes and adds clarity to a number of matters, including product testing standards (food safety protocols).
• It fails to address the tax issue. Voters believed it established a 7% sales tax on the medicine, but the Tax Commission imposed a double tax and more than doubled the assessment.
• It adds occupational licensing requirements ($50)
• It adds educational certification for training & research.
• It adds transportation licensing.
• It converts most of the existing agency  'emergency rules' to permanent statutes.
• It removes the OBNDD from oversight authority.
• It establishes clarity of patient rights & protections.
• It's requesting emergency implementation upon passage into law.

  We're waiting to hear which committee will receive this assignment, and when they will take action.

  Sen. Ron Sharp wants to defund the education of some struggling students. But only the students whose families have found their local school districts to be the problem, and have turned to a virtual public school and education in the home environment.
  Ron Sharp believes that virtual charter schools should only be funded to repay the cost of the successful students. These are often the same students who were discarded by the local big public school district.   Sharp only wants a charter school to get reimbursed if a student recovers his studies and advances a whole grade level. That mentality would discourage public educators from taking on the task of educating our most 'at-risk' pupils.

Now Epic Charter is fighting back;
​  Shelly Hickman, Assistant Superintendent with Epic Charter Schools, said Epic is already shorthanded, only receiving 57 cents for every dollar that Tulsa Public Schools get.

"If Senator Sharp wants to apply that model of funding public charter schools, he's going to have to apply that model for all public schools,” said Hickman.

 He wants our tax dollars to be used to bribe big business to the state. He wants public education to get a lot more money. 
​Here 's a 'grocery list' of the points he made.
1. $1200 more for public school teachers.
2. Consolidation of licensing agencies and tax filing.
3. Reforms & innovations in how education happens.
4. More local funding of schools, without losing state aid.
5. "Reimagining of school districts."
6. Student-centered reforms, not bureaucracy-centered.

  When the night shift at the Pawhuska Police Dept. pulled over a semi rig last January 9th, the cop may have set in motion a federal legal action because of the many failures of the district court officers who didn't say, "No" to the prosecution.
  The payload of the semi contained 18,000 lbs.. of hemp mulch from a farm in Kentucky which was on it's way to Colorado's Panacea Life Corporate processing facility, to be used in developing CBD oil and other homeopathic health products.
  Even though the payload sat for weeks before the first lab testing was done, the 11 samples came back mostly under the 0.3% industry limits ascribed by federal & state law. But even if the average samples were 3 times as potent, but under the 1% ceiling, then no state is allowed to hinder the liberty of the individuals involved in the shipping. And that's actually a federal law which Oklahoma appears to have broken.