For the second time in three weeks, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) has taken immediate action to shut down the call center and divert the limited staffing to help clear the flood of filed licensing applications. The law mandates that all applications be processed in 14 days, since patients often need immediate relief from many serious conditions such as severe nausea from chemotherapy & other cancer treatments, and to replace dangerous opiate drugs which have become addictive and less effective.
  In November (the first full month that cannabis medicines were legal to dispense), the load of patient applications to process was about 6500. In February it was over 20,000.
  This past August, the Director of the Oklahoma Dept. of Health, Tom Bates; told the bicameral Legislative Interim Study that he expected about 80,000 total licenses to be issued in the first full year. But in the first 6 months we are already in excess of 57,000 and adding to that number by over 5000 per week. At this rate the total will be double what the ODH director projected in his legislative testimony.
  While patient information is strictly confidential, by federal law, the OMMA says that "a good portion of the patient applicants are over 60 years old."  This further dispels the derogatory claims of opponents who characterize the program as a thinly veiled recreational drug use accommodation. ​

  The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority nearly doubled it's output, last week. Over 5200 patients were approved for medical care with cannabis medicines. The previous record was set in mid December when 4300 patients got good news in the Christmas season.

  Last August, the Director of the Oklahoma Department of Health, Tom Bates; told the Legislative  Interim Study on Medical Marijuana that he projects the granting of 80 thousand licensures for medical marijuana.  That total would include less than 10 thousand Medical Marijuana business licenses. 
  But the first 5 months are showing us a different trend.  While the first 2 months (Sept. & Oct.) saw about 1 thousand patient licenses granted each week, the next 3 months are showing a steady expansion of volume. This is attributed to a few factors.
  Director Bates said he used the Arizona model for his projections. But Oklahoma has dynamics that we don't see in any other state.  Home grow is an essential piece of the Oklahoma rollout. It impacts economic access to medicines for those disabled Oklahomans who simply cannot pay $400 for a meager monthly supply, for their condition. Some health conditions require an even more intense treatment.

  Currently the OMMA (the health department's division which oversees medical marijuana) is granting around 2700 patient licenses per week. If the current activity continues at this rate, by the time we reach the first anniversary of the August 25th rollout, our patient license count will be 117,000 . 

  A week ago some alert local cops in Pawhuska, OK thought they busted a major crime syndicate. An entire semi trailer full of  bundled green plant material was uncovered.
​  The four individuals traveling in the semi and a van were taken into custody, declaring their innocence the whole time. They explained that industrial hemp is not a federally controlled substance.

  Industrial Hemp never should have been banned more than 50 years ago; but it was. And the only reason that makes any sense is that it's easily confused with a similar cannabis strain known as Marijuana.
  So now the rural cops are living down to an unflattering stereotype. But the four men are still facing charges.  
  The plant is harvested for it's CBD oil and fiber. The CBD oil has less than the federally legal trace amounts of THC. But it's still effective for many medical conditions.
  The Colorado company is screaming foul at Oklahoma law enforcement for violating interstate commerce laws and the Uniform Commercial Code.
  Colorado News Media Is not at all sympathetic to Oklahoma law enforcement for their ignorance. Citizens have been continuously lectured that "ignorance of the law is no excuse". But this time it's Oklahoma cops who are demonstrating the gross ignorance.  Read the Colorado media  perspective.

  Muskogee based cannabis advocate, Chris Moe, unloaded a 'bombshell' list of gross violations by licensed Cannabis Medicine businesses. He listed multiple assertions that California-grown cannabis is being shipped to company associates who relocated to Oklahoma & attained Medical Marijuana Business licenses.

 Then California producers shipped 100 lb. lots to their Oklahoma subsidiaries who either sold to other Oklahoma dispensaries, or sold directly to licensed patients.

Moe (known affectionately to fellow activists as 'Uncle Grumpy') withheld from naming any specific businesses. What Moe and many others are concerned about is some greedy entities who are foreign to Oklahoma, are willing to destroy our medical patients' opportunity for wellness, so that they can make quick money. 

​  Moe also tells a narrative where some licensed growers never planted a crop, yet are shipping hundreds of pounds to dispensaries.

  With the initial crops of legal cannabis now harvested & cured, the commodity trading boards are firing up with activity among the licensed medical marijuana businesses.  Prices are looking very high, from the initial indicators.
  The Oklahoma Cannabis Market is the first such online & transparent trading board being utilized to bring these crops to the  processors and medical dispensaries. Their first trade is an 8 oz.  hybrid strain (Skunk#1) with a tested THC of 19 and a CBD of 8. The crop is from an established hydroponics greenhouse establishment which has been growing vegetables for several years.
  Retail prices could go as high as $500 per ounce, or more,  Plus a tax total of $75, given that the Oklahoma Tax Commission is deciding to ignore the 7% cap that SQ788  mandated.
  But buying cannabis from a 'black market' source is especially tempting, for a desperate patient. The current price of consumer-reported purchases is around $350 per ounce, for medium to high quality cannabis. Here is a sample of the more recent sales posted at PriceofWeed.com.
Unless these numbers change significantly, many patients will face the pragmatic & practical appeal of buying 'off the grid'.

  If there's a form of stupidity which sensible people should be especially outraged by, it's the smugness and arrogance of idiots who assume they know more than everyone else, and feel entitled... no, MANDATED, to control the behavior of everyone else.
  I'm speaking about the State Board of Health. 
  On July 10th they gathered to presumptively save Oklahomans from one of the safer drugs mankind has every discovered. The inhaled Cannabis vapors.
   Mind you, these 'best & brightest' physicians, educators, and hospital administrators have collectively less education on the cannabinoid system of receptors and the healing arts of integrating cannabinoids in healthcare.
  So they did what simpletons habitually do. They banned anything they don't understand.  They convinced an even more simpleton governor to adopt their prohibition on any smoke-able of vape-able forms of medical marijuana.  They even banned dispensaries from marketing the raw cannabis flower forms to the licensed patients(consumers).
Here's why their ignorance is deadly, and there are dead Oklahomans who serve to  make my point...

  With the posting of a half pound lot of 'Skunk#1" Indica/Sativa hybrid, the Oklahoma Cannabis Market is live and trading commodities from the growers and processors of Oklahoma.   Ben Neal, of Sage Farms is the first farmer to bring his cured & lab tested produce to the auction block
   A few weeks ago Mr. Neal invited the publisher of Sooner Politics to his rural facility to see the technology he's bringing to the medical cannabis industry. But what surprised David Van Risseghem most was the trading platform which Neal is a developer of.
   Neal is an educated former aerospace manufacturing leader who decided several years ago to make a career change. He traded in his button down shirts & ties for work gloves and boots. He started a hydroponics vegetable farm & soon thereafter he developed a marketing & distribution model for getting himself & fellow farmers a stable demand and price for what they produce.

  Enterprising Oklahomans were working passionately and quietly this past fall. Advocates who were loud and circumspect for sound govt. policy, and now buried in the details of old fashioned merchandising. It is the 2018 version of the 1889 event that gave away limited real estate tracts. But this time the prize is market share.
  We're talking about the first season of medical marijuana dispensaries; or as their marketing agents call it: Cannabis Medicines.
  The first step was to secure a business location. People who owned land in a business zone or in rural unzoned areas, had an advantage.   The growers were the most crucial component because until they had a harvest, nothing else mattered.
  But with crops germinating in mid September, it was obvious that optimal harvests would occur in November or December.