Politics
Top GOP Oklahoma Senator Breaks With Governor Over Call To End Medical Marijuana Program At The Ballot
A top Oklahoma GOP lawmaker is breaking with the governor over his recent proposal to have voters revisit the state’s medical marijuana law and, ultimately, “shut it down.”
While Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R) initially expressed openness to the idea, he said he’s given it more thought and determined it’d be “really hard to completely undo” legalization and unfair to licensed medical cannabis operators who “invested their life savings into this program” and are “trying to do this for the Oklahomans that need that product—not for recreational, but for actual medicinal purposes.”
“It’s hard to unring that bell,” he said. “What I’m going to suggest to the governor is that we don’t run a state question on that, but instead we continue to push the regulations [and] we continue to regulate the industry.”
“What we got was this cartel-infested rural Oklahoma that was really, really the center of illegal marijuana in the nation,” Paxton said. “We have taken a big bite out of that, and we’re going to continue to work on it.”
He added that he’d “give the attorney general’s office credit as well,” as they’ve worked “very hard on it and continue to drive the illegal element out of the state.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) was asked this week about the governor’s call to have voters revisit the state’s medical marijuana program, and he said he’d “love” to see the state’s medical marijuana program wiped out.
However, he cautioned that doing so would mean reimbursing the hundreds of licensees participating in the market because the state would be “taking” a revenue source away from them.
The governor’s push for a reevaluation of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana law has drawn mixed reactions from top lawmakers and officials.
Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt (D), for example, said she’s “not into revisiting state questions,” and lawmakers should “trust the people, and we should actually implement them as well.”
“This legislature, before our time, could have made a decision to put guardrails in place before this state question passed,” the senator said. “Instead, they stuck their head in the sand and let that question pass and be mayhem.”
Chris Anoatubby, the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, aligned himself with Stitt’s position, stating that the medical marijuana program as currently implemented has “been a problem all over Oklahoma.”
He added that he’d “absolutely” support “reforming” the cannabis law.
During his speech on Monday, the governor complained that the state has “more dispensaries than we do pharmacies,” adding that marijuana retailers “hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and foreign influence in our state.”
While regulators and law enforcement have “done incredible work to hold back the tide of illegal activity,” Stitt said, the industry is “plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in.”
“We can’t put a band-aid on a broken bone,” he said. “Knowing what we know, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to the vote of the people and shut it down.”
While the governor’s rhetoric signals he may be interested in seeing the medical cannabis industry shuttered altogether, it’s not clear what exactly he wants voters to decide on and his office has not released specific language of a proposed ballot measure.
Back in 2022, Stitt similarly used his State of the State address as an opportunity to dig at the voter-approved medical marijuana law, arguing that residents were misled by proponents of the ballot initiative.
Meanwhile, in November, Oklahoma activists withdrew an adult-use marijuana legalization initiative that they’d hoped to place on the state’s 2026 ballot.
After a short but aggressive signature push to secure ballot placement, Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) ultimately did not turn in its petitions by the deadline, according to the secretary of state’s office.
ORCA said following the governor’s speech that the call for an end to the medical cannabis program is “simply an admission of his administration’s failure.”
“While we were busy advocating for common sense regulation, his appointees were busy importing thousands of illegal [Chinese Communist Party] grows,” the group said.”Fortunately, the Feds picked up prosecution.. because they weren’t getting held accountable by the State.”
“Fortunately, [Stitt] has no power here. It will take a vote of both the House and Senate to propose a vote to cancel SQ 788,” they said.”As we all move forward we must continue to be forward thinking, not backward acting. We look forward to talking and working with lawmakers, now and in the future.”
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Meanwhile, law enforcement leaders with the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have been raising concerns about cannabis.
Also 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 last year by a GOP legislator would criminalize the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.
