Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has signalled his intention to implement greater controls over medical marijuana in his state.
Last week, the state’s voters had their say on making recreational cannabis legal in Oklahoma – and the result was a firm no. This result pleased Governor Stitt, who believed it was for the best. In a press conference following the vote last week, Govern Stitt said he believed Oklahomans were experiencing “fatigue” in relation to marijuana and there were dispensaries “on every single corner”.
“I think there’s an appetite to tighten up the medical side as well,” he said.
While stating if medical marijuana can help someone, that should happen:
“But we don’t believe anyone with a hangnail should be able to get a medical card.”
It’s true that Oklahoma’s program is pretty flexible, with a wide range of qualifying conditions. It’s also true there are many growers and dispensaries. As we mentioned last week, there were more than 369,000 registered patients in the state as at last month, 7,078 growers and 2,877 dispensaries.
In terms of registered patients, it works out to one in every ten Oklahomans having a medical marijuana card, which is quite astounding. The proportion would be significantly higher with children taken out of the overall population figures.
Governor Stitt says he has been told there’s enough marijuana grown in Oklahoma to supply the entire USA.
“That’s not what that’s supposed to be,” he stated. “This was supposed to be medical use in the state of Oklahoma, and it’s gotten way out of control.”
The Governor noted action has already been taken, with around a dozen bills signed into law last year. Among those was a new law greatly increasing the penalty for cardholders buying medical marijuana products legally, but then re-selling to others without a card.
While the road ahead for medical marijuana in the state is now uncertain, something that can be counted on is Governor Stitt attempting to further tighten things up – and it can only be hoped he don’t go too far the other way.
The Governor’s full comments can be viewed here:
