Pot growers, sellers move to Bible Belt

Oklahoma, with its few restrictions, is now fertile ground for dispensing drug

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jessica Baker is a practicing herbalist, acupuncturist and aromatherapist who teaches classes on the health benefits of cannabis. Her husband, Chip, wears a jacket with a prominent “grower” patch and hosts a marijuana podcast called The Real Dirt. They started their pot business in rugged Humboldt County, Calif., when it was the thriving epicenter of marijuana cultivation.

But the couple bid goodbye to the cannabis-friendly West and moved somewhere that might seem like the last place they would end up — Oklahoma.

They’re part of a green rush into the Bible Belt that no one anticipated when Oklahoma voters approved medical marijuana less than two years ago. Since then, a combination of factors — including an open-ended law and a red state’s aversion to government regulation — have created such ideal conditions for the cannabis industry that entrepreneurs are pouring in from states where legal marijuana has been established for years.

Arkansas also has medical marijuana, but like many such states, it allows purchase only for treatment of certain medical conditions, such as glaucoma or post-traumatic stress disorder. It also requires a $100,000 surety bond for operators. Louisiana, which also tightly restricts prescriptions, has only nine licensed dispensaries.

Though 11 states have fully legalized marijuana for recreational use, Oklahoma’s medical law is the closest thing to it. Anyone with any ailment, real or imagined, who can get a doctor’s approval, can get a card allowing them to buy it. It’s not hard to do. Already, nearly 6% of the state’s 4 million residents have obtained prescription cards. And people who want to sell marijuana can do it as easily as opening a taco stand.

“Oklahoma is really allowing for normal people to get into the cannabis industry, as opposed to other places where you need $20 million upfront,” said Jessica Baker.

The Bakers have a marijuana farm about 40 miles from Oklahoma City, along with a dispensary, nursery and gardening shop in a working-class part of town where virtually every vacant shop and building has been snapped up by cannabis entrepreneurs in the past year.

Unlike other states, Oklahoma did not limit the number of business licenses for dispensaries, growers or processors.

In less than two years, Oklahoma has more than 2,300 cannabis stores, or the second-most per capita in the U.S. behind only Oregon, which has had recreational marijuana sales for five years. Oklahoma has four times more retail outlets than more populous Colorado, which pioneered full legalization.

Marijuana taxes approach 50% in some California communities and are a factor in some business closings.

California requires a $1,000 application fee, a $5,000 surety bond and an annual license fee ranging from $2,500 to $96,000, depending on a dispensary’s projected revenue, along with a lengthy application process. Licenses can cost $300,000 annually.

In Oklahoma, a dispensary license costs $2,500, can be filled out online and is approved within two weeks.

People in some rural towns are worried about the Wild West atmosphere of the boom, particularly where shops with funny marijuana-pun names, waving banners and blinking signs have opened near schools and churches.

A Republican state legislator, Jim Olsen, has proposed a bill banning dispensaries within 1000 feet of a church.

But Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and the GOP-controlled Legislature have shown no interest in reining in the industry since the ballot measure authorizing it passed overwhelmingly.

Marijuana sales generated $54 million in tax revenue last year, accounted for the sharpest ever annual decline in empty midsized industrial properties in Oklahoma City, and booked up electricians around Tulsa outfitting new grow rooms with lights and temperature controls.