It's been 14 months since the Oklahoma Health Dept. first published a draft set of agency rules to govern the Medical Marijuana program, which the voters approved, despite the govt's objections.
The first set of rules were so grossly unconstitutional that the state Attorney General told the Board of Health to scrap the rules and start over, even before a filed lawsuit could get a court date. Then the Board of Health took a different tact, and decided to let the new industry destroy itself by a complete absence of product safety regulations. Product hit the shelves in late October. A product line that the federal govt. insists is so dangerous that people are imprisoned just for possessing a small bag of the dried plant material. Then it became the duty of the state legislature to enact a set of safety protocols. That started in February. The so-called 'unity bill' (written mostly by marijuana reform advocates) formed the foundation of this omnibus permanent set of agency rules. But the legislature still deferred to the Health Dept. to write the finished product on what tests need to be conducted independently, and monitored by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA). |
After all; who knows better than the state health dept., what's essential to having safe medicines for our sickly and suffering citizens?
The good news is that the Dept. of Health now believes that the medicines being grown by 3500 licensed growers, processed by 1200 refiners, and sold by 1800 dispensaries; is all so safe that no real testing protocols are all that urgent or need to be implemented any time soon! I mean, it it was really a public health concern, the Commissioner of Health (Tom Bates) would have demanded an immediate fix! Do I believe that? No. Mr. Bates has publicly signalled his disdain for marijuana and especially the statutory framework that the voters approved. His actions are negligent at the very least. His agency would recommend criminal prosecution of any hospital who showed this little regard for patient health. |
Interim Health Dept. Commissioner, Tom Bates; told the legislature that this medical marijuana framework doesn't have several of the standard features of other prescribed medicines. He indicates his scepticism of this being a serious medical program. Now he's willing to put off testing of medicines until next year.
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