Oklahoma Adult Use Cannabis

Activists Withdraw Adult Use Petition in Oklahoma

Fearing that legalization would disrupt the existing resources that medical cannabis patients rely on, activists have withdrawn their petition for adult-use cannabis in Oklahoma.

Full story after the jump.

Oklahoma activists have withdrawn their petition to legalize cannabis in the state due to concerns that broad legalization could have a negative impact on the state’s medical cannabis industry and the patients it serves, the Journal Record reports. Michelle Tilley, a spokesperson for the group, said they plan on rewriting the petition to include stronger medical cannabis protections and resubmitting it to officials.

Chip Paul, of Oklahomans for Health, who crafted and pushed for the 2018 voter-approved medical cannabis measure, said the legalization bill would have damaged the state’s nascent medical cannabis program.

“We’ve rolled out the most successful medical marijuana program in the country, bar none. Why in the world, in its infancy, would we mess with that? … Every state that has passed recreational has wrecked medical.” – Paul, to the Journal Record.

Oklahoma currently has more than 220,000 patients – about 5 percent of the state’s population – and officials have issued 1,500 dispensary licenses since the measure’s approval last year, the report says. In all, medical cannabis sales in the state are expected to top $350 million this year.

The adult-use petition would have allowed adults to possess up to one ounce and grow six plants while imposing a 15 percent tax on sales, along with local and state taxes. Tilley said that the group wants to be “crystal-clear” that medical cannabis patients and businesses “will not be harmed or hurt” by legalization so the organization decided to craft a new petition that would include those protections.

An attempt to get legalization on 2018 Oklahoma ballots failed after activists failed to gather enough signatures by the deadline.

Get daily cannabis business news updates. Subscribe

Have an additional perspective to share? Send us a message to let us know, and if your comment is chosen by our editors it could be featured here.

End


Ganjapreneur is made possible by our partners:

Latest Cannabis News

View all news Get email updates

Featured Business Profiles

Create a profile View all categories

From Our Partners