By Paige Orr, Fox23 News
TULSA, Okla. — In his final State of the State address, Gov. Kevin Stitt called for Oklahoma voters to shut down the medical marijuana industry they approved eight years ago, claiming it has become one of the greatest threats to public safety in the state.
“Out of state liberal activists preyed on the compassionate nature of Oklahomans, then it opened up Pandora’s box,” Stitt said Monday. “Now we have more dispensaries than we do pharmacies.”
The governor says those storefronts hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking and foreign influence. He’s asking lawmakers to put the question back on the ballot for voters to decide.
But people in the industry say shutting it down would leave legitimate business owners holding the bag.
Jeremy Woods runs Wild West Compliance, a company that helps dispensaries follow state regulations. He says many business owners have invested heavily in their operations.
“Every dispensary they’ve got at a minimum, usually $50,000 worth of product inventory,” Woods said. “So if they came in and shut it down tomorrow, those businesses are out that money. Grows can have millions of dollars tied up in them, so who’s gonna give ’em their money back?”
Woods questioned why the state is targeting legal businesses when many operators have gone to great lengths to follow the rules.
“There’s a lot of legal businesses here in the state of Oklahoma doing the marijuana that do everything they can to make it legal,” Woods said. “They jump through hoops. They hire people like me to come in and make sure they’re doing everything legal.”
He says the state should hold bad actors accountable rather than punish everyone.
“If you’re in a car wreck, do they blame the auto industry or do they blame you individually?” Woods said. “What’s the difference? You don’t blame the whole industry. You blame the bad people who are in it.”
Woods also criticized the state’s role in licensing some of the bad actors the governor now points to as problems.
“The state’s the one that let ’em in. The state’s the ones that approved their license,” Woods said. “There’s a protocol that’s supposed to be taking place when they do a license. Did they do that? No.”
Elizabeth Koelle owns Uptown Wellness Dispensary in Tulsa, a 24/7 operation. She says legal cannabis is tracked from seed to sale to keep it off the black market.
“Every bit of cannabis in the state that’s legal is tracked from seed all the way to the sale of the patient,” Koelle said. “So that is part of the way that they do keep the cannabis off the street of the black market.”
If voters shut it down, she says, people will just go back to illegal dealers.
“If they do shut down legal cannabis, that just gives it right back to the black market,” Koelle said. “People in the state are gonna use their cannabis, whether or not it’s legal.”
Koelle says the economic impact would extend beyond dispensary owners. Every product in her shop comes from other family-owned businesses.
“Every single piece of product in this shop is also another family-owned business,” Koelle said. “Most of these companies are small, like one to 15 employees, so it would be a huge shot to a lot of families and business owners in the state.”
In 2018, State Question 788 passed with 57% of the vote, including support from many Republicans and independents. Koelle says she’s confident voters will protect it again, especially younger voters who’ve had access to medical marijuana their entire adult lives.
“At first I was shocked, but I am pretty confident that voters will realize that having medical cannabis is the safest option for our state,” Koelle said.
The governor would need the legislature to put the question on the ballot for voters to decide. No word yet on whether lawmakers plan to take this up.
