Oklahoma Tax & Regulatory Policy Creates A Model Cannabis Boom

  Today we have a huge growth in Oklahoma's economy partly due to the pristine rollout of our Medical Marijuana program. Are there problems with it? Oh, yeah. But several wise policies fell into place and a few heros took a stand against efforts to derail the Oklahoma model.
  'Reaganomics' is a term that economists coined to describe the policies that President Reagan successfully implemented in the 1980s to spur on a massive economic growth in the US economy. But the old Roosevelt mindset fought hard to derail it, in reagan's day. There are some Oklahoma Republicans who have recently resorted to Roosevelt behaviors.
  The Associated Press just published an article which hit to top of the Drudge Report over the weekend. The story by Sean Murphy details how massive the size of the economic investment is.  Over 10,000 medical marijuana business licenses have been issued. That makes Oklahoma the 2nd largest in the nation, just behind Oregon. But when you consider that Oregon & all the west coast is in full repeal of the marijuana prohibition,  Oklahoma is in uncharted waters of huge medical marijuana infrastructure.

The most well-run Cannabis operations are starting to emerge.

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How Did Oklahoma Succeed?

1. Tax Policy. Our rates are corruptly higher than the plan language of SQ788 stipulated. That's one 'poison pill' which the Oklahoma Tax Commission(OTC) succeeded in injecting without any statutory authority. Our legislature decided to let it remain, because they are addicted to revenue increases. But the interpretation of the OTC (to subject the medicine to both a full sales tax and the 7% excise tax), gave municipalities an incentive to get over their 'reefer madness' mindset and at least show some tolerance toward those who suffer and need a safer medicine than opioids, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines.
2. Free Market. Most other states who reformed their drug laws enough to tolerate this old medicine, turned it into a fascist(corporatist) form of crony capitalism. Rationing the franchises to sell has turned most states into horrible places for patients to get relief. Ohio passed medical marijuana 2 years before Oklahoma, but investors fought over the limited licenses and it was tied up in courts for years. Minnesota has only 8 dispensaries and they only sell tinctures and a few other forms which their health department condones. Oklahoma says patients have every right to grow their own medicine. We don't give away medicines as a govt. entitlement. Instead, we give an empowerment for individuals to be more self-reliant.
3. Immediate implementation. SQ788 author, Chip Paul told a legislative panel; "Hammer!", when asked why his language mandated patient licenses within 60 days of the vote. Paul didn't want the 'deep state' of Oklahoma to have time to further destroy the people's mandate.
4. Activism. The push toward medical marijuana reform has advocates on the left, right, and everywhere outside the conventional spectrum. So many nonvoters became active and came to the polls in June of 2018.  Even though the corporate donations to kill SQ788 were vastly more than double that of the advocates for SQ788, the vote was clear. By a 13% margin, the people spoke. Then came the legal warriors like Ron Durbin and the threats to file full repeal of marijuana prohibition if the Health Dept. succumbed to the bribes, sabotages and their own poison pills. The Attorney General issued a ruling against the Health Dept.'s sabotage even as he was running for his first full term as AG. The political vulnerability of the govt officials in the fall of 2018 was a prefect form of accountability.
5. Legislative Heros. House Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, is a visionary and a very competent  consensus-builder. His move to empanel a bicameral emergency Interim Study (the 'joint commission'), helped facilitate a town hall narrative which allowed constructive interaction. Several lawmakers volunteered for the historic study group. Many of them were in reelection campaigns and the volunteer duty was bourne at great cost to them, personally.  Lawmakers like Rep. Scott Fetgatter turned from being against SQ788, to focusing on creating the best structure to allow an economic success. 
6. Liberty. Oklahoma largely showed a willingness to suppress their own fears of social and moral decay. After all, the Federal govt. created a discredited narrative of 'Reefer Madness' which had lost credibility except in the big medicine lobbyist circles and the fundamentalist right political dogma. The narratives of the 'Vote No' campaign have continued to be discredited. Our only remaining problems are actually exploited through federal policy. Because the federal govt. still believes their own propaganda, they ban medical dispensaries from any banking services. this 'CASH ONLY' operational policy leaves businesses vulnerable to crime. Armed robberies are the worst aspect of Oklahoma's program. 

Fetgatter & Echols have steered the Oklahoma Cannabis policy in the legislature.

Who are the current opponents to this successful program?

1. The dozen or so lawmakers who still insist that this plant is a sin to possess and consume.  They are apparent in the floor votes we still see. But they also write 'poison pill' legislation. Reps. Jim Olsen, Harold Wright, Tammy Townley, Jadine Nollen, Tommy Hardin, & Ben Loring; are some of the more consistent opponents. Senators Casey Murdock & Marty Quinn are other such contras. These are the ones filing bills to punish patients and suppress industry. They may claim to believe in Reaganomics, but their legislation and votes tell us the truth. they resort to tactics like irrational zoning, zoning, license fees, and other suppressants.
2. Big Medicine is fighting hard. the hospitals largely own the clinics in Oklahoma. Most of them will fire any physician who writes marijuana recommendations.  The Oklahoma Medical guilds have openly conspired to stop this old medicine from reaching patients. the Oklahoma Health Dept. is still under investigation for bribes and other corruptions. The Commissioner openly condemned the SQ788 rollout. The agency rules have consistently designed poison pills in the form of emergency laws that our constitution empowers them to create.
3. Federal govt. Our two current US senators and two of our congressional delegation are still actively suppressing the medical program by things like banking bans and threats of raids on our growers, processors, and dispensaries.
4. West Coast Corruption. There are plans which currently seek to supplant Oklahoma cannabis policy with a 'west coast' model of highly taxed and highly planned state controls of cannabis in a casual consumption model('full rec.') Money to fund a new state question is coming from out of state and it's being planned to coincide with the fall general elections. Whether the motivation of the organizers is to  change Oklahoma into California  (culturally or politically) is debatable.  But patients are clearly polling at 20:1 against a full rec state question. 

​The prevailing pragmatic belief is that since the medicine has really only been available for 14 months, it would be better if all of Oklahoma has more time to see just how wrong we were to ever prohibit this medicine. Then we will all embrace a full repeal with confidence, and not need to pay a 'shame tax' of 25% on our natural medicines.