By John Dobberstein, Editor
Galloping abuse of Oklahoma’s lax medical marijuana laws attracted a lot of unflattering attention to the state. The execution-style slayings of four marijuana farm workers earlier this year drew even more scrutiny of the state’s status as a black-market marijuana kingpin.
But state officials released data Monday asserting law enforcement is making “significant progress” fighting organized crime in Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority said they’ve been targeting and dismantling criminal organizations that infiltrated the program.
Over the past 4 years, OBN Director Donnie Anderson said his agency has identified numerous transnational drug trafficking organizations that moved their black-market marijuana operations to Oklahoma, utilizing straw owners to illegally obtain a license to operate.
By 2021, Oklahoma had over 9,400 licensed growers operating across Oklahoma, with many farms linked to transnational criminal groups from Mexico, China, Armenia, Russia and other countries, Anderson said.
Additionally, OBN’s investigations into the organizations “uncovered evidence of other crimes including labor trafficking, sex trafficking, homicides, Ketamine trafficking, underground gambling operations and world-wide money laundering,” Anderson.
Just Monday, OBN served search warrants at a criminal marijuana distribution center in Mayes County as part of a year-long investigation into millions of dollars of illegal marijuana being transshipped from Oklahoma farms to black markets across the U.S.
OMMA Executive Director Adria Berry said that since January, investigations have yielded 1,314 administrative cases.
“We are incredibly grateful to our partners at OBN as well as law enforcement agencies across the state for their tireless efforts to combat the crimes that accompanied the legalization of the medical marijuana industry in our state,” he said.
To address the criminal activity in the state’s medical marijuana program, OBN created full-time Marijuana Enforcement Teams (MET) across Oklahoma to strategically target illegal operations.
Since 2021, OBN MET Agents have shut down more than 1,000 illegal marijuana farms, made more than 200 arrests, seized over 700,000 pounds of marijuana destined for the black market, and provided evidence resulting in indictments and arrests against individuals and entities that facilitated straw ownership structures to fraudulently obtain licenses for these criminal organizations.
Additionally, Anderson said, OBN has implemented “a more stringent review and background process for every person and entity applying for a new or renewed OBN Registration.”
With the legislature’s support in 2021, OMMA said it was able to fully staff its compliance department and start up an Office of Investigations and Enforcement (OIE) to thoroughly investigate claims of illicit or non-compliant activity within the licensed market.
The agency has completed almost 7,000 inspections and 4,600 operational status visits since becoming an independent state agency on Nov. 1, 2022, seized nearly five tons of illicit cannabis and embargoed around 3,000 pounds and 71,200 plants.
The addition of investigators and enforcement agents gives OMMA the opportunity to assist law enforcement across the state to investigate complaints and conduct search warrants. As with OBN, OMMA has implemented a rigorous license application review process to prevent bad actors from ever entering the state’s medical marijuana market
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OBN and OMMA said Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program has seen a “drastic reduction” in the number of criminal organizations operating illegal farms in Oklahoma.
OBN Registrations for growers dropped from 9,400 in 2021, to 6,400 in 2022, and today that number is down to approximately 3,200.
“Oklahoma’s marijuana program is no longer viewed nationally as the so-called ‘wild west of weed,” Anderson said. “Oklahoma now has gained a proud reputation of having some of the most efficient and effective regulatory oversight and criminal enforcement of any medical marijuana state.”
“The state’s medical marijuana industry started in an unprecedented way allowing for a relaxed free market that resulted in a 64:1 oversupply in product,” Berry noted.
“Through data-driven decisions, support and feedback from medical marijuana patients, industry leaders, partners across state government, and Oklahomans spanning the state, we are able to tackle the illicit operators and non-compliant licensees efficiently and effectively.”
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