Rx pot is legal, but more work remains
Information that patients, growers and sellers need to apply for medical marijuana licenses will be available online by July 26, state Health Department officials said Wednesday.
However, it is expected to take several more months
before new medical marijuana products will be available to Oklahoma consumers.
Because of federal restrictions on medical marijuana sales between states, making medical marijuana available to patients in Oklahoma will not be as simple as opening up a store and shipping packages of medical marijuana in from Colorado for resale, said Chip Paul, co-founder of the group that backed Oklahoma’s medical marijuana state question.
The medical marijuana that is to be sold in Oklahoma will have to be grown, processed and distributed to dispensaries for resale, he said.
Growing marijuana takes time — generally 88-110 days if growing a plant from seed, said Jimmy Shannon, owner of Ambary Health, which wants to obtain a license to grow medical marijuana and operate a dispensary in Oklahoma. Cloning a plant can shave about 21 days off that time, he said.
But before a business can grow the plants, it has to obtain the seeds, and that can also be a time-consuming process, said Chance Gilbert, founder of the Oklahoma Cannabis & Hemp Trade Association.
“You have to get the seeds. They have to be certified. You have to have paperwork for them so you can track the lineage. All of this is extremely arduous and scientific,” he said.
So when can Oklahomans expect medical marijuana products to be available?
“Right now we would say a conservative estimate of about 9 to 12 months,” Gilbert said.
Some, like Shannon, believe it’s possible medical marijuana could become available locally as early as October or November, but caution
there also could be delays if the state Health Department is slow in implementing rules or the state Legislature postpones implementation guidelines through a special session.
Oklahoma voters got the whole process started Tuesday when they approved a medical marijuana state question by a vote of 506,782 (57 percent) to 384,872 (43 percent).
The approved law changes established ambitious deadlines for the state Health Department to implement the medical marijuana program, but Tom Bates, the Health Department’s interim commissioner, said Wednesday that his agency is on pace to meet those deadlines.
Proposed emergency rules will be presented to the Oklahoma State Board of Health for its consideration on July 10, Bates said. If the board approves them, they will go to the governor.
Application information for the various types of medical marijuana licenses will be available online by July 26 at omma.ok.gov, Bates said. However, the agency will not begin the process of receiving or processing applications until Aug. 25.
The agency expects to accept or deny applications
within 14 days after they are received, he said. A two-year medical marijuana license will cost $100, but Medicaid/ SoonerCare or Medicare enrollees will pay a reduced cost of $20.
Bates said the agency anticipates processing 40,000 to 80,000 marijuana license applications and estimated about 100 employees will need to be hired to get the job done.
He urged Oklahomans to seek answers to their medical marijuana questions online at the omma. ok.gov website rather than visiting the state or county health department office. Information available there includes the text of State Question 788, an updated draft of proposed emergency rules for implementation of the state question, answers to frequently asked questions and a form for the public to comment on proposed emergency draft rules.
Gov. Mary Fallin could call the Oklahoma Legislature into special session to develop its own regulations, but Bates said he didn’t know whether that would happen.
Michael McNutt, spokesman for the governor, said Wednesday that the governor has been discussing the possibility of a special session with lawmakers, but no decision has been made.