Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Delayed

The implementation of a seed-to-sale tracking system for medical marijuana products in Oklahoma was delayed by a lawsuit seeking to transfer the cost of the program to the state. In April, an Okmulgee County judge postponed the rollout of the program to late June on a group of medical marijuana companies.

Oklahoma voters approved a polling initiative in 2018 to legalize the use and sale of cannabis for medicinal purposes. The following year, state lawmakers passed law, House Bill 2612, which included requirements for a system for tracking cannabis products from the cultivation to the manufacturing process, distribution and final sale.

The state regulatory agencies of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) have placed a contract with METRC LLC to track seed-to-sale through their system. The METRC program is used by at least a dozen other states, including California, the country’s largest legal cannabis market.

Attorney Ron Durbin filed a lawsuit against OMMA’s implementation of the system on behalf of several medical marijuana pharmacies, arguing that licensed companies should not be required to purchase identification labels for plants and products or pay a fee to use the system. Under current regulations, the marijuana business must pay a license fee of $ 40 per month and identification tags that cost 45 cents for plants and 25 cents for products. METRC’s contract with the state estimates the program’s annual cost to marijuana companies at $ 705.

In an interview with local media, Durbin said the charges are an illegal tax that has not been approved by lawmakers. Durbin also referred to OMMA’s communication about the implementation of the METRC program through press releases and social media posts as “backdoor regulation”.

“I claim that’s not the way you regulate and the regulation doesn’t ask for it,” said Durbin. “If that’s the case, we’re back to where we should be, which is: Put some lawfully appropriate regulations in place to implement your seed-to-sale tracking program. OMMA made this way too complicated. In all honesty, they dropped the ball and didn’t do their job to enforce the rules. “

Oklahoma is Fight against illegal cannabis

Seed-to-sale tracking systems are being put in place to prevent unlicensed cannabis products from entering the state market and to ensure that legally produced products are not illegally diverted from the state. In the past two months, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has suspended the unlicensed cultivation of nearly 30,000 illegal marijuana plants.

“We’re doing a lot of research across the country into growers shipping illegally out of the state and some stores selling products from overseas,” said Mark Woodward, an agency spokesman. “Black market breeders thrive in Oklahoma. With respect to seed-to-sale, tracking would be helpful with some of our investigations, but it hasn’t hampered our ability to build solid cases on top of those we’ve already closed. “

LeeAnn Wiebe, CEO of vertically integrated cannabis company Apothecary Extracts in Beggs, Oklahoma, said that her company implemented METRC before the original April 30 deadline and continues to use the system despite the delay. Using the system accounts for less than 1 percent of their business costs and is well worth the cost and effort, she said.

“Every time you have a new system it can be overwhelming or awkward, and it’s a little scary because you don’t know it,” said Wiebe. “But shortly after implementation, everyone was able to see the value of transparency and everyone was using the same system.”

Wiebe added that the vast majority of their wholesale customers have not yet used METRC. She believes that many of those who are reluctant to use the program are tampering with the current manual system.

“Based on working with hundreds of breeders at this point and our challenge to get license verifications, test results, or lot information, nine out of ten places we can’t work together because they can’t give us that information,” she said. “I think most people who don’t want Metrc don’t want it because it removes those loopholes or the ability to easily get unregulated products to market.”