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Rep. Josh West (R-Grove) just got House passage of a massive restructuring measure for the state medical marijuana business licensing. HB2272 radically changes how State Question 788 directed the creation of a free enterprise system for growing, processing, and distributing cannabis medicines in Oklahoma.
Current law, passed by the voters; allows all law-abiding residents to seek a business license for $2500 from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA). The new licenses (if any get issued) will be awarded to lottery winners who purchased a MMB lottery ticket from the OMMA. The most recent version of the bill now leaves it up to unelected agency officials to create the lottery scheme and the ticket prices. the previous bill language put the lottery tickets at $12,500 each. It could be higher, or lower; depending on what the governor dictates to the agency. The legislature is now seeking to take significant funding away from the OMMA and capping the licenses totals this fall. Then a moratorium will block any new licenses and the legislature will revoke licensed Medical Marijuana businesses (MMBs) if they fail to meet certain commerce quotas. No safeguards are included to make sure remote locations have access to legal medicines, should their in-county dispensary be shut down for underproducing taxable sales quotas. |
The Newest Lottery Ticket will be $12,500 each, and the winner gets a chance to buy another $2500 license for Medical Marijuana growing, processing, or selling.
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Those of us who gathered signatures in 1991 to pass constitutional amendment 'SQ640' understood it to prevent the state legislature from raising revenue via legislative bills, unless the people also voted to approve it. We allowed emergency cases only when 75% of our legislators pass such measures. This bill passed with 60 supporters in the House, but 69 House members then voted to apply a state of Emergency so it could become law immediately upon a governor's signature.
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This bill was sold to the House with a narrative of massive international drug cartels flooding Oklahoma with import cannabis medicines. Yet no interim study testimony is available, and we're all supposed to believe one author's narrative of a dire public safety alarm.
Last month, some of the authors of SQ788, told SoonerPolitics that in the wake of it's passage, the supporters were sabotaged by corruption in the Oklahoma Health Dept., with rules made to kill the new health reforms in the initiative petition's mandates. This led to over 100,000 Oklahomans signing a full deregulation petition. When the House leaders met for an emergency bicameral interim study, they were able to negotiate with Paul and others to honor the intent of SQ788 in exchange for holding off on a full deregulation initiative. This language is seen by several Oklahomans as a clear violation of that 'gentlemen's agreement' worked out with Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols and others. |
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