What to know about the newest round of Oklahoma medical marijuana legislation

Medical marijuana remained a key focus this week on the Oklahoma State Legislature, with a slew of associated payments passing by means of the Home Alcohol, Tobacco and Managed Substances Committee. 

Fifteen marijuana payments have been heard within the committee assembly Thursday morning, with many centered on reigning in criminal activity, restructuring the licensing course of and regulating marijuana companies. If adopted, the times of Oklahoma’s “Wild West” of weed could also be coming to an in depth.

Listed below are a few of the marijuana payments that handed committee this week on the Oklahoma State Legislature:

Bolstering the OMMA:

• HB3971– Would implement a secret shopper program during which staff from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) would buy marijuana from dispensaries and ship it to labs to check for contaminants and efficiency.
• HB3813– Would designate OMMA inspectors as legislation enforcement and permit them to help and help in enforcement and prosecutions.
• HB4411– Would mandate the OMMA to manage a minimal of 1 inspection per 12 months for marijuana companies and licensed amenities.
• HB3208– Would difficulty a moratorium on enterprise licensing for both two years or till the OMMA can full all pending license evaluations, inspections and investigations.
• HB4055– Would require public utility corporations to submit month-to-month reviews to the OMMA of how a lot water, electrical energy and/or different public utilities are being utilized by business growers.

Restructuring the licensure course of:

• HB3634– Would create a wholesaler tier of licensing to cope with gross sales and distribution channels of marijuana.
• HB3734– Would require new marijuana companies to buy momentary conditional licenses earlier than being issued an annual enterprise license. To acquire a brief license, enterprise homeowners would want to reveal all related monetary data, all sources for utility utilization and proof of insurance coverage.
• HB3891– Would add new develop and processing amenities to the listing of companies that should be not less than 1,000 ft from a college property line, together with pre-kindergarten and vocational expertise colleges, in addition to property used for varsity athletics like stadiums and ballparks.

Regulating marijuana companies:

• HB4287– Requires processors and growers to promote marijuana solely in pre-packaged kind, in bundle sizes starting from an eighth of an oz. to an oz.. Displaying marijuana and smelling would nonetheless be allowed, however “deli-style” gross sales would not be allowed.
• HB3752– Would make it unlawful for a develop property proprietor to desert the property with out first restoring the land to its authentic situation.
• HB2025– Would require all marijuana companies and amenities to show their OMMA-issued license in a conspicuous place.
• HB3827– Would require all medical marijuana business grower licensees with an outside manufacturing facility to register with the Oklahoma Division of Agriculture, Meals and Forestry as an environmentally delicate crop proprietor. Registration would offer discover to close by pesticide applicators, with the purpose of minimizing pesticide drift.

Different payments to observe throughout this session: HB2987 and HB2989, which may current important hurdles in establishing new amenities; HB3754, which might legalize leisure marijuana; and SB1101, which might exclude the rising, harvesting and processing of marijuana from the agricultural gross sales tax exemption.