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House Bill 2272 would put a temporary limit on the number of medical marijuana business licenses for dispensaries, growers and processors in the state. The cap would be the number of active licenses as of Sep. 1. This would include pending license applications submitted prior to that date.
The bill’s author, Rep. Josh West (R-Grove) said during a House session the measure’s purpose is to combat the black market.
“I think that we do have a thriving medical marijuana industry in the state of Oklahoma,” West said. “At the same time, we have a thriving black market industry in the state of Oklahoma too so this may not stop it completely, but I think this slows it down.”
Oklahoma’s Dispensary Licenses Fall for First Time Since Opening of Medical Cannabis Market March 12, 2021
Oklahoma’s Medical Cannabis Program: By the Numbers
In 2020, Oklahoma joined states like Colorado and Illinois in posting record cannabis sales for the year. Oklahoma patients bought a whopping $830 million-plus worth of medical marijuana, more than doubling the $345 million amassed across 2019.
The boost in sales is likely due to the vast increase in Oklahomians registered for the state’s medical marijuana program up from 220,000 patients in January to over 365,000 patients by December 2020. And those new patients generated a considerable amount of tax revenue for the Sooner State. While cannabis retailers generated about $30 million in state and local taxes in 2019, that number shot up to $71.6 million in 2020.
On September 18, 2020, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) officially partnered with Metrc, becoming the 14th state, along with the District of Columbia, to utilize the.
Many industries in Oklahoma faced unprecedented challenges in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state’s medical marijauna industry was an outlier,