Fallin signs new Rx pot rules
Gov. Mary Fallin signed new rules for Oklahoma’s medical marijuana market on Monday, but significant questions remain less than three weeks before patients can apply for licenses.
The Board of Health approved the new regulations on Wednesday, replacing those it had voted for on July 10. Fallin signed the original version one day after it passed.
The new version removes two controversial last-minute amendments, which forbade the sale of smokable marijuana and required dispensaries to hire pharmacists. It also got rid of other provisions the attorney general’s office had said exceeded the board’s authority, like capping the amount of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in medical marijuana
products and limiting dispensary hours.
While medical marijuana supporters had panned the original rules, they weren’t thrilled with the new version, either.
Bud Scott, executive director of New Health Solutions Oklahoma, a medical marijuana trade group, said he believes the board still had stretched its authority under State Question 788, even after paring back the regulations. For example, the state question didn’t give the board the right to require businesses to register with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, he said.
“The only solution to enforcing the will of the people who overwhelmingly voted to legalize medical marijuana is ... a limited special session,” he said.
Ron Durbin, a Tulsa attorney representing Green the Vote in a lawsuit against the state Health Department, said the new regulations included food safety rules that would make it impossible to operate a medical marijuana business. He urged the board to delay the vote until staff at the Health Department could reexamine the rules.
Tom Bates, interim commissioner of the Health Department, said Wednesday the marijuana rules will override the food ones, and that a framework was necessary so staff could move forward with implementation. The Health Department must begin accepting patient and business license applications by Aug. 25.
The rules leave some important questions unanswered, such as where growers are to find legal seeds for their first crop. It takes several months to grow marijuana, so any delay in planting while waiting for clarity could mean patients won’t have access to medical marijuana until next year.
The lingering uncertainty suggests the drama surrounding medical marijuana’s rollout in Oklahoma isn’t over. Since the board passed its regulations one month ago, two groups sued the state over the regulations; the Health Department’s general counsel was charged with two felonies, admitting she sent threatening messages to herself; and the head of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy was fired after text messages suggested she had attempted to bribe the general counsel with a better-paying job.
Fallin acknowledged the regulations aren’t comprehensive, but said the Legislature can take up those issues.
“These rules are very basic, and represent the best option in developing a proper regulatory framework for medical marijuana, with the highest priority given to the health and safety of Oklahomans,” she said in a written statement. “My approval of these rules moves medical marijuana to the realm of our Legislature.”
Fallin alluded to a bipartisan committee that has met to discuss medical marijuana on Wednesdays for the last two weeks and will meet again this week. The committee can make recommendations only, however, so any action will have to wait until February, unless Fallin decides to call a special session. She gave no indication Monday that she intended to do that.
“There are many opinions on how medical marijuana should be implemented in our state,” she said. “I encourage vivid discussion to develop policy proposals to make sure we have a medical marijuana regulatory framework in place that improves the health of Oklahomans who are sick and makes the business side work while protecting the safety of Oklahomans.”