Oklahoma authorities crack down to fight ‘Wild West of weed’ reputation
State authorities said Tuesday they are fighting Oklahoma’s reputation as “the Wild West of weed” by cracking down on illegal marijuana operations and going after transnational criminal organizations operating in the state.
In Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control held a joint news conference with the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority during which the agencies discussed recent enforcement data.
Authorities said Oklahoma in 2021 had more than 9,400 licensed growers, but many of the farms were linked to transnational criminal groups from Mexico, China, Armenia, Russia and other countries.
Over the past few years, the bureau has identified numerous transnational drug trafficking organizations that moved their black-market marijuana operations to Oklahoma, using straw owners to illegally obtain licenses to operate.
“When you talk about some of this – national and transnational criminals – it’s to the point where we really gotta pay attention to what’s going on because it has become a huge issue in reference to national security, because you have communist and terrorist countries that are here in Oklahoma,” bureau Director Donnie Anderson said. “And they’re moving this product on the black market and laundering money – millions and millions of dollars – back to these countries, which is funding these terrorist
“Word has gotten out around the country that Oklahoma now has some of the most efficient, effective regulatory enforcement practices in the country.” Mark Woodward Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control
and communist states.”
Investigations uncovered other crimes including labor trafficking, sex trafficking, homicides, Ketamine trafficking, underground gambling operations and worldwide money laundering, authorities said.
“It is our job, my job, to the people who are distributing the product illegally on the black market, to go after them,” Anderson said.
“For three years now we’ve been very aggressive doing this. A lot of these are linked together.”
The narcotics bureau created full-time Marijuana Enforcement Teams across Oklahoma to target illegal operations.
Since 2021, MET agents have shut down more than 1,000 illegal marijuana farms, made more than 200 arrests and seized more than 700,000 pounds of marijuana destined for the black market.
Investigations led to evidence resulting in indictments and arrests against individuals and entities that facilitated straw ownership structures to fraudulently obtain licenses for criminal organizations.
Meanwhile, medical marijuana authority officials say the agency has been able to fully staff its compliance department and start up an Office of Investigations and Enforcement to investigate claims of illicit or non-compliant activity within the licensed market.
The authority has completed nearly 7,000 inspections and 4,600 operational status visits since becoming an independent state agency on Nov. 1, 2022. The agency has seized nearly five tons of illicit cannabis and embargoed around 3,000 pounds and 71,200 plants.
The authority has implemented what officials call “a rigorous license application review process” to prevent “bad actors” from entering the state’s medical marijuana market.
“At the end of the day, OMMA’s role is to ensure that any product that reaches a dispensary shelf has been properly tested and is safe for consumption,” agency Executive Director Adria Berry said.
Narcotics bureau officials say its registrations for growers dropped from 9,400 in 2021 to 6,400 in 2022.
Today, the number of registrations is down to roughly 3,200.
“This is not only about stopping these criminals from trying to get a foothold, thinking that Oklahoma’s the Wild West and a safe haven, which has kinda been our reputation,” bureau spokesman Mark Woodward said.
“Word has gotten out around the country that Oklahoma now has some of the most efficient, effective regulatory enforcement practices in the country.”