At current rate, the OMMA will grant 191,000 licenses in the first year of the program. More than double the original projection of 80,000.
On August 8th of 2018, the top officials of the Oklahoma Health Dept. told the legislature that they expected 80,000 total applications in the first year of Medical Marijuana. They further elaborated that 2000 of them would be for commercial businesses (MMBs). That was then. This is now.
|
The projections were made by dept. analyst, Buffy Heater, in the context of agency funding, and if fees would cover the cost of the function. Here's the video of that event.
|
As we can see, the granted commercial licenses (MMBs) are already 3787 & approaching double their projection of 2000.
The agency has not yet granted another 14000 various applications. This could be for incomplete data, ineligibility, or they just haven't gotten to it, yet. Since they approve around 6000 each week, they probably have at least that many which have not even been given a first review. In the charts and graphs to the right, you can see the various trends of each part of the roll out. We've only recently been able to record tax collections of retail sales. But MMB license fees have already topped $10 million. Patient license fees would have topped $7 million, except that some patients are only charged $20, if they are on medicare or medicaid; instead of $100. |
Despite the legislature's abiding fear that the voters of Oklahoma simply will not pass a tax increase proposal, a record number of voters showed up at the polls to pass this new tax. It appears that the Medical Marijuana program will bring in at least $30 million in new taxes each year.
|