Oklahoma Marijuana Campaign In ‘Home Stretch’ For 2026 Legalization Initiative, With Under Three Weeks To Collect Signatures

Oklahoma activists are in the “home stretch” to collect enough signatures to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s 2026 ballot, with just under three weeks left to go before a critical deadline.

Key to the campaign’s signature gathering operation are partnerships with retailers across the state—from existing medical cannabis dispensaries to tattoo parlors—that are carrying the petitions. Jed Green, founder of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA), tells Marijuana Moment that there are now more than 500 locations lending their support by serving as signing locations.

“A lot of folks are doubling down on their efforts,” he said. “We’re hoping to be able to do some things to try to drive voter and consumer traffic to those locations, as well as get out to a lot of the public events that happen in the fall. So we’ve been out working on those as well.”

ORCA will need to submit the required 172,993 signatures by November 3, after which point the secretary of state’s office will need to validate them. Then there will be a 90-day window for any legal challenges to the measure. If the campaign clears that barrier, it will appear on the ballot.

While the campaign hasn’t been actively verifying signatures it’s collected so far due to the “decentralized” nature of the effort, with a largely volunteer base of petitioners and retail partners, Green said “we’ve got some pretty big piles” of signed petitions on hand at this point.

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“Simply put, as we enter into the home stretch, it’s vital that our people reach out to their friends, to their family, and simply work to get everyone together,” he said. “We know that we have the votes here. It’s simply the logistical lift of getting them all together. So the more folks can do to reach out to their family and friends, get them to sign, the better off we’ll be.”

The turnaround to get the signatures delivered is tight, as the campaign only started collecting them in August and is quickly approaching the early November turn-in deadline.

There are challenges unique to this election cycle, as earlier this year Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) gave final approval to legislation that some advocates worry will inhibit future citizen-led policy changes, including cannabis reform.

The law puts additional requirements on initiative “gist” language that voters see on the ballot and also revise policies around signature gathering to make it so petitioners could only submit signatures from up to 11.5 percent of registered voters in a single county for statutory proposals and 20.8 percent for constitutional measures. The law is currently being litigated for reasons unrelated to the specific cannabis proposal.

Green previously said that one of the key differences between the initiative his organization is pushing and a previous one that failed at the ballot in 2023 is that it accounts for concerns about licensing rules. Many have criticized the rollout of the state’s medical marijuana law, which led to a dramatic proliferation of dispensaries, and Green said the failed adult-use measure effectively duplicated that licensing scheme.

Here’s what ORCA’s latest marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:

• It would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to eight ounces of cannabis for personal use. They could also grow up to 12 plants and possess what’s harvested, and they would be able to have up to one ounce of cannabis concentrates.
• The proposed constitutional amendment would also provide that Oklahoma banks would not be penalized simply for servicing state-licensed cannabis businesses.
• Further, the initiative includes protections to make it so any adults would be shielded from being penalized with respect to “healthcare, housing, employment, public assistance, public benefit, parental right, educational opportunity, extracurricular activity” and also “licensure or licensed activity” such as firearm ownership and driving rights due to any legal cannabis activity.
• As part of those protections, the presence of THC metabolites in a person’s system could not be used as evidence of impairment.
• Local governments would not be permitted to impose bans on the marijuana home cultivation, and any regulations they set on the activity could not be “unduly burdensome.” Additionally, no public ordinances on public smoking for marijuana could be more restrictive than what’s currently in place for tobacco.
• Existing medical cannabis dispensaries, as well as any new retail licensees, would be able to start selling to adult consumers starting 60 days after the measure’s enactment. After 180 days, they could start delivering cannabis products to adults.
• The same state departments that oversee the current medical cannabis program would be responsible for regulate the adult-use market.
• A 10 percent excise tax would be imposed on adult-use marijuana products, and the initiative stipulates that the legislature would be empowered to decrease that tax rate but not raise it.
• Revenue from those tax dollars would go toward the state general fund (40 percent), as well as county governments (30 percent) and municipal governments (30 percent) where retail sales occurred. For unincorporated jurisdictions, revenue would be split evenly, with 5o percent for the general fund and 50 percent for the counties.
• Sixty days after the measure’s enactment, the tax rate on marijuana for registered cannabis patients would be eliminated.
• It also states that state-licensed marijuana businesses couldn’t be prevented from engaging in interstate commerce if there’s a change in federal law, or a court action, permitting such activity. If that happens, the legislature would be authorized to place up to a 3 percent wholesale tax on cannabis exported beyond state lines.

As Oklahoma activists work to collect signatures, meanwhile, law enforcement leaders with the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have been raising concerns about cannabis.

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Meanwhile in Oklahoma, lawmakers in March advanced a bill aimed at protecting gun rights of state-registered medical marijuana patients, although federal law still bars cannabis users from owning firearms regardless of their patient status.

Another state bill filed in January by a GOP legislator would criminalize the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

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