A current report from Tulsa World states that in response to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Harmful Medicine (OBNDD), there are a pair thousand unlicensed medical hashish companies within the state. “We’ve bought near 2,000 below investigation,” stated Mark Woodward, with the Public Data Workplace at OBNDD. “We’re working with our companions to determine the prison networks concerned.”
Woodward additionally commented that many of those licenses have been linked to criminality. Not too long ago in December 2022, 4 folks have been killed “execution style” at a hashish cultivation facility in Kingfisher County, which is situated northwest of Oklahoma Metropolis. In response to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, the house owners of the power had a medical cultivation license, however OBNDD brokers consider that the license was obtained illegally.
Woodward stated that these working at unlawful cultivation websites are sometimes overseas nationals. “The one factor it did was it shined a light-weight on one thing we’ve been saying for the final 4 years,” Woodward said. “It’s the identical violent prison organizations.”
He added that 200 operations have been closed by native regulation enforcement to this point, however the OBNDD is making an attempt to trace the supply of prison exercise. However till that investigation yields outcomes, Woodward believes that Oklahoma’s medical hashish trade will proceed to endure. “One thing not talked about a lot is that the reliable trade is bleeding to demise,” Woodward added.
Final yr in March, folks impersonating law enforcement officials carried out pretend search warrants at quite a few hashish cultivation websites, stealing 100 kilos of hashish, in addition to machines, money, and cell telephones. On the time, Woodward commented on the assaults on hashish companies as a consequence of the truth that hashish continues to be federally unlawful, and are compelled to primarily deal in money.
“These farms the place there are oftentimes Chinese language employees who don’t communicate English—they received’t acknowledge conventional regulation enforcement,” Woodward advised Excessive Instances. “They’re not conversant in what Oklahoma regulation enforcement or what uniforms may appear like or what a fraudulent warrant appears to be like like in comparison with reliable ones. And so these criminals rely on that. That’s why they focused these particular farms. They noticed it as a straightforward alternative to benefit from these employees and hit the farm and take product.”
Tulsa World shared that some folks, corresponding to third District Congressman Frank Lucas, together with 20 different congress members, sent a letter in July 2022 to U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack relating to the acquisition of Oklahoma land by overseas events. In response to the letter, overseas land possession elevated “from 13,720 to 352,140 acres between 2010 and 2020.”
“We’re alarmed by the tempo at which Chinese language corporations have been buying U.S. agricultural land lately. Given this pattern, we wish to make sure the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) has the reporting instruments needed to supply People with the fullest attainable image of all overseas purchases of United States land,” the letter acknowledged.
In December 2021, there have been 9,400 licensed medical hashish cultivators. One yr later in December 2022 revealed a discount to 7,086 licenses. At the moment, there’s a moratorium on new licenses, which went into impact in August 2022 and can finish someday round August 2024.
Medical hashish was legalized by means of a voter initiative in 2018, however the state’s low cost of entry (solely $2,500 yearly) for a hashish license opened the doorways to out-of-state events. A more recent invoice, House Bill 2179, was later handed by the governor in Could 2022 to extend the annual charges based mostly on the dimensions of a facility or a dispensary’s gross sales. In response to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, this doesn’t go into impact till June 1, 2023.
Though there have been quite a few makes an attempt to reign in unlawful hashish exercise in Oklahoma, advocates are March to legalize leisure hashish. Gov. Kevin Stitt set March 7 because the date for a particular election the place the voter initiative will seem. If handed, State Query 820 would legalize adult-use hashish and permit hashish cultivation and gross sales.
“After all of the delays brought on by the brand new signature rely course of, we’re excited to lastly be on the poll on March 7, 2023, in order that Oklahomans can expertise the advantages of the State Query with out additional delay,” stated Oklahomans for Smart Marijuana Regulation Marketing campaign Director Michelle Tilley. “We’re grateful the voices of over 164,000 Oklahomans who signed the petition and wish to vote on legalizing leisure marijuana for adults in Oklahoma have been heard.”
Initially it was set to look within the November 2022 poll, however the submitted signatures weren’t licensed in time.