There are 62 clinics in Oklahoma known to be willing & confident to treat ill patients with the newest 'old medicines' coming back to Oklahoma. That's a very small fraction of the entire medical community.

  In June the voters strongly approved medical marijuana(cannabis) as a medicine that doctors should be able to utilize at their own discretion, and with oversight from the state physicians boards. Family Practice physicians are especially important in this area of medicine.

  But those same agencies, licensing boards, medical schools, and associations have failed to provide any clarity to the latest science involving the endocannabinoid system or how to utilize the cannabinoid receptors for therapeutic results..

  Until the establishment medical societies step up and show leadership, the people will further diminish holding a high professional respect for that system.
​
  For over a decade there has been a growing trend of turning to naturopathic cures and comforts from oils, herbs, extracts, and other non-synthetic treatments. And many are now strong disciples of the idea of getting healthing and wellness through foods, minerals, herbs, and even going so far as removing chlorines and flouride from their water sources.

​On August 29, 2018, Eric Levits, writing for the New York Times, declared that Oklahoma teachers had purged the State House of their enemies. He wasn’t wrong. The preceding night, in run-off elections across Oklahoma, conservative GOP legislators who had voted against tax increases as a way to fund teacher pay raises were defeated. 

For the first time in Oklahoma history, educators came together in a force that couldn’t be reckoned with and followed through on their vow they had previously chanted during their walkout in April to “vote them out.” So far in the 2018 election cycle, the primary and run-off elections have shown hard evidence of this as three legislators were given the boot and then eight more, respectively. ​

Oklahoman Parents and Educators for Public Education, a Facebook group of activists and concerned citizens with more than 31,000 members, determines which candidate in each race is a friend of education and bestows upon them an apple award, whereas those they deem to be dangerous for public education receive a yellow warning sign. ​

   Last July I met privately with the House Democrat leader, Steve Kouplen. I thanked him for stepping up to the effort to add some sensible structure to the statutes passed by the people.

  Rep. Kouplen's response was a bit surprising. He was quite pessimistic that anything would come out of these meetings. 

 That was July. Now it's September and while Oklahoma  legislators have a lot more knowledge of the  medicines and the industry behind it, there appears very little courage to show leadership, by our legislature's rank & file membership.

  After 8 weeks of Wednesday gatherings from very cooperative and committed industry leaders, nothing seems ready to be presented in time for the first harvest of cannabis, less than 60 days from now.

​  Kouplen and his Democrat caucus now seems disappointed that the leadership has nothing in the way of standardized potency guidelines and verification. Without that component, the processing of Cannabis with any amount of THC will be totally up to the volunteer efforts of the manufacturer.  Even the strains of Cannabis will vary greatly and the patient will have no certainty beyond the claims of the grower and the processor.

Another case of media hysteria. This time it's the Tulsa TV station painting a narrative of drug exploitation, but ignoring the facts that don't fit their narrative.
KOTV News On 6 reports that a new Medical Cannabis grow license applicant is "Very Close to a public school".
The report fails to give any real facts because the facts don't fit their narrative. The refused to show a map or give hard facts on distance.
The truth is that Eden Farms (a current vegetable operation) is not close to the school. Statutorily, close is defined as "within 1000 feet (closest entrance to closest entrance between buildings).
But using free internet tools from Google, we measured the distance as more than twice the required distance. The greenhouse operation is 2,265 feet away. Plus, the turnpike cuts between them and the roads have no pedestrian accommodations. A student is statistically far more likely to be killed by an auto than to be able to somehow get free cannabis.
  Unless a student trespasses through other private lands, they actually have to walk nearly a mile along very dangerous county roads with no pedestrian shoulder. All students who live near the greenhouses are provided bus transport because they are deemed to live too far to walk back & forth to school.

Oh, the irony! While Oklahoma was beating the drum for a federal change to our constitution, so that the evils of liquor could be banned forever from these united states; there was no effort at all to regulate - much less ban; cannabis usage.
  While that fact sinks in on a generation who has never forgotten the cultural and generational war of the 60s, 70s, & 80s; let's at least admit that our "war on drugs" is an arbitrary and inconsistent use of govt. power and treasure, to get people to behave in a manner that 51% of the voting population will accept.
  It's not even debatable about which recreational substance is most dangerous. Liquor kills far more Oklahomans than any other 'street drug'. Even during the federal prohibition, there were many deaths from liquor consumption. But when we abdicated the distribution over to the black market "mob" entities, the crime grew far worse.
  The nation woke up to the reality that regulation works better than prohibition. In 1934 the USA ended the federal prohibition. But Oklahoma was stubborn. An Oklahoma prohibition continued in effect until 1959. For those 25 years our state amassed a huge court docket of liquor criminals and significant state treasury was spent on punishing those who drank and those who provided drink.

by Alex Allen -

​  Amazing!
  Obviously, a private company should be able to do whatever it wishes; the leadership of the organization can have it’s political stances and causes.  Furthermore, the public can respond accordingly.  Nobody is wrong in this scenario.

  I’m curious: what did Colin Kaepernick sacrifice?  The man’s a millionaire, he’ll be fine.

  I’m not going to swoop in here and say oh, well someone else sacrificed more because no matter what, you can always one-up someone by saying that you sacrificed more than they did.  However, I’m under the opinion that Kaepernick didn’t sacrifice anything.  I’ll admit my only passive interest in football, but prior to the political controversy I don’t know if the mainstream knew anything about Colin Kaepernick.  He takes a knee, and then becomes nationally notorious.  He went from being a mediocre athlete to being a mediocre athlete at the forefront of national attention.

  I think this was the intent.

  The Northern Oklahoma Federal Courts in Tulsa, OK are leaving citizens scratching their heads and asking; "Where is the consistency?"
  Chief Judge Greg Frizzell just sentenced a man to 30 years for $900 taken in a hold up of a local restaurant. To be fair, Tracy Crawford admitted that he robbed 5 times in a 3-month crime spree. He agreed to a plea wherein he is also ordered to pay $19,000 in restitution.
  But in the same Tulsa courthouse, Judge Claire Eagan accepted a plea deal from Rick Brinkley. He pleaded guilty in August 2015 to five counts of wire fraud and one count of signing a false tax return. Brinkley also admitted to embezzling $1.8 million from the Better Business Bureau while heading its Tulsa office.
  Crawford used a firearm to intimidate his victims. Brinkley used a briefcase and several fake corporations to fraudulently embezzle nearly $2,000,000 over his 10 years with the Tulsa Better Business Bureau.
The irony is that Brinkley was in charge of an agency whose mission was to demand ethical business practices from the rest of us.
  Brinkley is just finishing his prison sentence. He was allowed to stay in the state and serve out his full 37 month sentence at a minimum security facility in El Reno, OK

  On this day it became legal for licensed dispensaries to sell marijuana plants to licensed patients. The rules set forth by the Oklahoma Dept of health stipulate that all medical marijuana products sold legally in Oklahoma must be brought in to a licensed dispensary from a licensed grower source.
  One week ago, the first 40 grower licenses were issued. That meant that those growers could start putting seed into the ground. If those seeds germinated and broke through the surface of the potting soil, then a grower has his first commercial product to ship to the dispensaries.
  Many of the applicants for Dispensary licenses are existing CBD shops around the state. They already sell a variety of CBD products and are well educated in the Endocannabinoid system in the human body and know their products far better than the pharmacist at the average chain drugstore.
  But now that the whole plant is legally available to those whose health conditions necessitate; the little potted plants represent a major improvement in healthcare. Yes, the new dispensary will now look a lot like the bedding plant outlets that we normally see popping up in April.  In late October there will be the first mature(flowering) Cannabis plants on sale at dispensaries.
   So, where did the first legal seeds come from?
Don't Ask - Don't Tell
  Seriously, that's the de facto policy of the state govt. They provided no authorized source, and they don't want to involve any interstate commerce in this equation.  So they decided that until a seed is germinated and growing, it's not going to be their business.

  For the first time this summer, House Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, believes that a Special Session just might be averted altogether.
  Today the Bicameral Interim Study on Medical Marijuana met for the 7th time. The topic was testing, standards, and labeling.  the Health Dept. discussed their decisions on the creation of emergency rules; namely, which rules they believed they had the constitutional authority to impose for the immediate rollout of medical cannabis, until the 2019 legislature could establish permanent statutory language for such long term solutions.
  When the Health Dept. completed their presentation, Echols began a series of very pointed and specific questions regarding the Health Dept's view of their authority. He pointed out that the agency had no more authority to create labeling standards than they had to create the testing mandates.
    Some are wondering if this isn't Echols' "plan B" as a result of not getting the needed consensus on a legislative proposal?   If agency rules can address testing, then the other matters might be able to wait until February and the regular legislative session with the new lawmakers.

  House Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, has begin the effort to get a month's worth of interim study consensus converted into a single piece of legislation regarding the state's newest statutes legalizing a physician's right to treat patients with cannabis medicines.
 When the voters of Oklahoma overwhelmingly passed SQ788, they fully intended the medicine to be available to any Oklahoman whose health would benefit from the old medicines derived from the Marijuana (Cannabis) plants.
  Some lawmakers wanted to either override the vote of the people or strictly curtail the implementation to whatever the particular politician felt comfortable with. 
  Rep. Mike Ritze was one such politician. But he and several others were voted out of office. Senator Ervin Yen was even more assertive. He too, was voted out of office.

  One of Oklahoma's new generation of 'truck farmers' is announcing his acceptance by the OMMA to become a Medical Marijuana grower. Ben Neal tells KOTV that he has been growing kale, tomatoes, and other vegetables for five years.
"Telling people that I'm a hydroponic farmer, that's the first thing they say, is oh, medical marijuana. And I'm like no, that's not what we do. And it was never part of our business plan,” said Neal. "I guess whenever you get dealt a good hand you got to play your cards."
  Now he's doubling down on a new green. Starting with about 400 marijuana plants in a new 3,000-square foot greenhouse.
  Neal's Sage Farms uses hydroponics, a 'Dutch Bucket' technology which resembles a laboratory approach more than an old fashion 'dirt farmer'. It has the added benifit of protecting crops from disease and insects, thus reducing any need for chemicals to combate that problem.