Ever since Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana back in 2018, the market has exploded. People for whom cannabis can alleviate medial symptoms and growers and processes of the medical marijuana have exploded onto the scene. Growth has been huge and shows no signs of slowing down. In a little over a year, the state has licensed 200,000 medical marijuana patients to use the new treatment.
According to sources, the 200,000th patient was licensed on October 1 2019 by regulators in Oklahoma. To satisfy the demand, the state has also issued over 7,000 business licenses to stores, growers and processors. If you want to be one of that 7,000, you need to familiarize yourself with this page on the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority website.
Supply and demand
When State Question 788 was originally passed back in June 2018, authorities estimated around 20,000 people would apply for a license to use it. That’s around 2% of the population of Oklahoma. It seems they drastically underestimated demand and just how many people regard medical cannabis as a viable treatment for conditions. And how many doctors also consider it a viable treatment!
Oklahoma is now one of the leading states for users of medical cannabis and has more users than most other states combined. With ten times as many people applying for medical cannabis licenses, we expect that figure to increase many more times before it levels out.
Regulators still have a huge number of license applications to process before that leveling out. They won’t say how many but conservative estimates put it at least twice as many as they have processed already.
The legality or medical marijuana in Oklahoma
Even though the medical marijuana market has exploded, many people still profess ignorance about what is legal and what is not. With state regulations saying one thing while local rules are trying to say another, it has been more difficult than usual to sort out what’s legal and what isn’t.
This page over at Tulsa World has a good breakdown of city ordinances regarding medical cannabis. It lists some of the main cities in the area and outlines what local laws have to say on the subject. It covers Cushing, Shawnee, Grove, McAlester, Tulsa, Broken Arrow,, Yukon, Sulphur, Weatherford, Collinsville, Moore, Sand Springs, Muskogee, Stillwater, Elk City, Okemah and most towns and cities within Oklahoma. If you need information on what’s going on with medical marijuana in your city, this is the page to check.
If you need information on the larger picture of medical marijuana in Oklahoma, this page has a useful overview. This page includes an overview of HB2612 and everything you need to know about what has been going on.
Medical cannabis businesses will still need the same licenses and permits any other business requires. They will need to prove compliance with fire, waste and building code and all the other hurdles any new business needs to jump in order to open their doors.
The legalizing of medical marijuana in Oklahoma is undoubtedly good news but there is still work to be done to clarify the picture and assess exactly what is legal and where. The resources on this page should help with some of that but so will time. Time for legislators and cities to get their act together and work in unity for the benefit of all those patients for whom medical cannabis has a genuinely positive effect.
