Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt implied on Monday that voters didn’t quite understand the ballot initiative they overwhelmingly approved in 2018 to legalize medical marijuana. Or perhaps they were misled? The governor said he found the ballot to be “misleading, and it has tied our hands as we regulate the industry.”
The governor, reported Marijuana Moment, pointed to the relatively low cost of obtaining a cannabis business license, noting that without a cap on marijuana operators, the market has expanded at an unsustainable rate.
“Oklahoma charges just $2,500 for a commercial license,” Stitt said, noting that California charges far more, in fact up to 72 times more. “As a result, we have seven times the growers in California with just 10 percent of the people.”
Then the governor moved on to neighboring Arkansas. “Next door in Arkansas, they have eight growers. We have 8,300,” the governor said. “You know as well as I do that not all of that product is being sold legally. This is a perfect example of why we need to make sure initiative petitions represent Oklahomans and not out-of-state special interest groups.”
The governor advised that voters should be aware of all the details before changing voting to change the Constitution.
“While we can’t change the past, we can learn from it and improve our future. We’re getting the right leaders in place and untying their hands to enforce the laws.”
Stitt said he’s directed law enforcement to “crack down hard on the black market,” adding that “drug cartels, organized crime, foreign bad actors have no place in the state of Oklahoma.”
Meanwhile, Oklahoma legalization advocates filed another initiative recently in the hope of placing it before voters on the 2022 ballot.
Photo by R Rod of Benzinga
