The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) has provided guidance on the processing and dispensing of marijuana-infused slushies (it seems they are a thing) on-site at medical marijuana dispensaries.
OMMA says it has received a number of enquiries on the issue and believes marijuana-infused slushies are unlikely to meet requirements in the state’s statutes and rules.
It points out a number of conflicts, being:
- All products must be in child-resistant packages.
- The medical marijuana production batch that must be tested is the finished product, which in this case would be the slushy itself – not just the components of it such as the syrup.
- Dispensaries are not allowed to alter, package, or label products.
Further detail can be found here.
While it’s good to have medicines of any nature available in a variety of forms to make them easier to administer and ingest, the question does need to be asked about where the line is. For adults, medicine doesn’t have to be “fun” or particularly tasty to be effective. A statin slushy isn’t a thing, nor is a propranolol brownie. The “won’t someone please think of the children” certainly has application here – a slushy is something that would be particularly attractive to children.
Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program has been incredibly popular. According to the latest statistics provided by OMMA, as at July 1 there were:
- 313,638 active patient licenses
- 2,322 active caregiver licenses
- 9,545 active business licenses
The active business licence breakdown:
- 5,970 grower
- 1,407 processor
- 2,113 dispensary
- 24 transportation
- 10 waste disposal
- 21 laboratory
All this for a state with just 4 million people. It works out there is one active patient license for every 7.8 Oklahomans. The growth of the program doesn’t appear to be slowing either. In June we reported there were 297,010 active patient licenses, so the number jumped by more than 16,000 in just a month.
In other news from the state, while Oklahoma has required testing of products since the program launched, it now requires products to be tested by a state-licensed lab. Patients are able to request to see a certificate of analysis for any product.
