Oklahoma leaders speak out on marijuana impacts

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma leaders and law-enforcement agencies are fed up with the impact of medical marijuana.

“I don’t think a lot of Oklahomans realize, when that vote actually occurred, what the consequences of that would be,” Sen. James Lankford said, referencing the 2018 vote legalizing medical marijuana.

Keith Brown, director of Texoma High Drug Trafficking Area, joined Sen. Lankford and other state leaders at a March 28 news conference.

“First thing I take away from this report is the impact it’s had on Oklahoma’s children” Brown said, “It’s enormous.”

Brown says before voters legalized medical marijuana, Oklahoma ranked 43rd in the U.S. in teen marijuana usage. Now, he claims, Oklahoma ranks 3rd in the nation.

OKLAHOMA AND THE REST

According to data from DispenseApp

Oklahoma is home to 2,387 dispensaries. California houses 1,244 dispensaries.
48% of Oklahoma’s totalColorado is the only other state with at least 1,000 dispensaries – housing 1,023.Texas has three dispensariesKansas has zero dispensaries

2 News listened to the perspective of Mike Erwin, an Oklahoma medical marijuana advocate. He says his father-in-law began using cannabis products after an accident at work.
“He went from 30 or 40 pills per week and got down to one or two pills a week,” Erwin said, “That’s what really made me wake up and think this actually does have medicinal value.”

Shortly after that, Erwin got in the business himself. He knows all the ins and outs.

“We appreciate OBN and the group that had the press conference today, for all the good work that they do, to keep these bad actors out of the industry. The number one enemy of a legal operator is an illegal operator,” Erwin said.

According to Donnie Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, those so-called bad actors are a bad problem.

“We are funding transnational organizations – who are funding governments who do not like the United States,” Anderson said, “It’s become a national security threat here in the United States, because of what’s going on in Oklahoma right now.”

All signs point to marijuana sticking around in Oklahoma.

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