The chairman of the House Rules Committee informally declared today's committee meeting' the Fetgatter Show'; as Rep. Scott Fetgatter achieved overwhelming bipartisan support for his series of major reforms to medical marijuana policies.

• HB 3954 - Fetgatter - Medical marijuana; specifying manner by which distance between properties shall be measured; emergency. 
   This bill clarifies the 1000ft. distance from school properties in greater detail.
    It also strikes the old "certificate of compliance" rules from last year, and creates a much simpler one, just for first year of licensing under current operations.
    It also  allows reciprocities, so that visiting patients can attain their medicines while in Oklahoma. It may open Oklahomans to opportunities to attain medicines in other states that reciprocate.
• HB 3956 - Fetgatter - Medical marijuana; exempting transporter agents from residency requirement; emergency. 
   This complies with a recent federal court ruling and is advised by the Oklahoma Attorney General, regarding interstate commerce.
• HB 3957 - Fetgatter - Medical marijuana; authorizing dispensaries to sell certain products;
   This allows dispensaries who sell dried cannabis flower, to create 'prerolls' in smoking papers, without a separate processor license.
• HB 3959 - Fetgatter - Medical marijuana; creating Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority as a separate and distinct state agency; removing references to the State Department of Health and updating language; 
   This moves the current OMMA to a stand-alone agency, apart from the Oklahoma Dept. of Health, to avoid the bureaucratic problems of implementing innovations and allows more direct collaboration with the legislature.

  Oklahoma's nearly 10,000 Medical Marijuana Businesses (MMBs) have faced inconvenience, frustration, & deadly risks from the federal ban on banking services. Even paying taxes is a terrible problem for not only the shop owners, but also for the state employees at the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
  Finally, one Oklahoma bank has stepped up to provide a public safety and business convenience for this industry. BancFirst has started accepting deposits for tax payments to the State of Oklahoma. 
The long lines of proprietors at the State Tax Commission Office in Oklahoma City is now thinning out. 
  No, this isn't full service banking for dispensaries. Bancfirst isn't taking daily sales deposits or processing credit card sales, but it's the first statewide banking brand to form broad relationships with thousands of shops, growers, and processors.
  This gives BancFirst access to millions of dollars each month, as it passes through their branches. It relieves MMBs of the wasted time of traveling to OKC with thousands of dollars in cash. It makes the Oklahoma Tax Commission run so much more efficiently and calms the fears of the state workers who were handling millions in cash deposits at the OTC.

  Below you'll find the press statements from the OMMA and BancFirst, detailing this venture into MMB accommodations.
​  The soft rollout actually occurred last summer, but now it's getting even more efficient.

  Last night, OMMA Director, Travis Kirkpatrick, told a town hall meeting in Tulsa that about 1600 of the more than 2000 dispensary licenses issued, are actually showing signs of commerce in their monthly filings with the state.
  This leads a market analyst to compare how Oklahoma compares to several of the other 32 'sanctuary states' allowing medical cannabis distribution. 
  Much of the Oklahoma model is unprecedented and has garnered us as the "Wild West of Cannabis'.  Oklahoma has no quotas or caps on state licensing.  While some of the members of the State Board of Health signaled ambitions to use a bidding system, caps on license awarding, and county set-asides, The states' Attorney General slapped them a strong advisement that they lack any constitutional authority to any such actions.
  Much of the reason for Oklahoma's more libertarian model is because of our state's founders regard for citizen empowerment to go around the legislature & governor, to create laws via direct democracy. The Initiative petition has been the bane of many lawmakers who would rather concentrate power to their own committees. Some believe campaign contributions are another motivation. Lobby groups fund much of our state's legislative race funding.

  In a separate but similar application of commerce law, the Oklahoma Attorney General, Mike Hunter; told the State Liquor Agency, ABLE Commission; that the statutes requiring Liquor businesses to be owned by people with a 5 year residency requirement; is likely afoul of  federal interstate commerce dictates.
  Could  Oklahoma Marijuana laws be struck down, as well?
  ABLE had sought the AG's opinion in light of a recent federal ruling on a Tennessee law to restrict out-of-state wineries. He concluded;
​  "Your question is what effect, if any, the Tennessee Wine decision has on the validity of the residency requirements found in Section 4 of Article 28A of our State Constitution. We believe the U.S. Supreme Court would now hold those requirements to be unconstitutional."
  Another potential matter is the ban on out-of-state products being banned, while in-state versions are legal. This  would possibly open Oklahoma to cannabis products from Colorado. It certainly opens Oklahoma to trace hemp products.
  Protectionism is the term that Hunter finally alleges. He says the courts would ultimately accuse the legislature of being motivated in a way that the US Constitution does not allow.  At the ratification of the 1789 US Constitution, the states entered into an open trade agreement. Our constitution cannot tolerate this. It's one thing to ban a product from another state if you're also banning the local versions of the product or service. But a ban on Texas beef, for instance; would clearly be a violation designed to bolster Oklahoma Beef.