On October 26th, Mature Cannabis can legally exist in Oklahoma, per emergency rules of the state health dept. When the voters of Oklahoma mandated that patients can legally be treated with Cannabis, the Oklahoma State Health Dept. was mandated to come up with emergency rules to structure the marketing and distribution. those rules stipulate that until October 26th mature cannabis is prohibited. So now it's up to the licenced Oklahoma growers and processors to harvest, dry, and package the first crops and get them to the licensed dispensaries. Imported cannabis medicines are illegal to sell as are crops from non-licensed producers. Dispensaries and growers have strict 'seed-to-sale' reporting mandates which are due monthly to the Medical Marijuana Authority. Testing and standardizing of products is still an initiative of the marketplace, until the legislature can find consensus on a new statute about what essential tests must be done. What will change, today? Very little will be noticeable to Oklahomans because licensed growers are going to wait until crops are optimal, before they begin to harvest. |
One Less Tool of Patient Harassment What Oct. 26th does for patients is take away the narrative of cops who have occasionally arrested a licensed patient for possessing medicines. None of those charges were pressed by prosecutors, but suffering patients were often intimidated nonetheless. Now a patient can smoke marijuana on her front porch without any probable cause narrative of police action. A cancer sufferer who is withering away from chemotherapy and nausea, can regain an appetite and hold down a meal. A veteran with severe PTSD and flashback hallucinations can get immediate calming and his family can get a restful night's sleep again. A child with brain disorders can get preventative treatment to ward off seizures, so the child's central nervous system can develop optimally. |
These Health Dept emergency rules expire in September of 2019. That means the legislature will have to get durable structure in place for product purity, standardization, and labeling. The durable statutes are likely to echo the current temporary rules that the health dept. approved in August of 2018.