Accused of violating the will of the voters who approved the state\u2019s medical marijuana law State Question 788 in June, the Oklahoma Board of Health released a new set of regulations for the state\u2019s nascent medical marijuana program on July 31. These were approved yesterday, Aug. 1, by a unanimous vote of the board.<\/p>\n
These new rules overturn emergency regulations instated at a board meeting on July 10 that had been met with much activist outcry. The emergency regulations had\u00a0banned smokable cannabis<\/a>\u00a0and also required that a pharmacist be on site at all dispensaries. Both of those provisions are removed in the new regulations \u2014 as are limitations on THC content.<\/p>\n The new rules are also less than a third of the length of the emergency regulations, seeming to cut down on needless bureaucracy. But advocates are nonetheless warning of new problems.<\/p>\n Ron Durbin II, a Tulsa attorney representing\u00a0Green the Vote<\/a>, the group that campaigned for\u00a0Question 788<\/a>, said that despite being shorter, the new regulations still contain \u201cvolumes upon volumes\u201d of unnecessary provisions for commercial licensees. Green the Vote is suing the\u00a0Oklahoma State Department of Health<\/a>\u00a0over its handling of the regulations. The nine-member\u00a0Board of Health<\/a>\u00a0is appointed by the governor to oversee the department\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n Durbin pointed to what the\u00a0Tulsa World<\/a>\u00a0newspaper described as a \u201cstatutory conflict\u201d in the new regulations. He told the newspaper that the new regulations would basically \u201capply a restaurant standard to a greenhouse operation,\u201d making it \u201cnearly impossible\u201d for cannabis businesses to be in compliance.<\/p>\n The state public health code bars the sale or marketing of any food or confection under a name, label or brand which \u201ceither precisely or by slang term or popular usage\u201d refers to a drug that is barred by state law. Cannabis, despite approval of Question 788, remains on the books as such.<\/p>\n By stating that the entire Oklahoma health code applies to cannabis businesses, the regulations may actually preclude the marketing, sale or distribution of cannabis products. At a minimum, this would appear to bar the marketing of edibles \u2014 which\u00a0were included<\/a>\u00a0in the text of Question 788. By a broader interpretation, it could also bar tinctures and extracts.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve created such a conflict where they\u2019ve authorized all these things and then with this one inclusion precluded it all,\u201d Durbin complained to the Tulsa World. \u201cIt\u2019s just indicative of the shoddy workmanship they\u2019ve put into this entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n As Oklahoma\u2019s\u00a0News 4<\/a>\u00a0reports, three groups were invited to testify before the health board voted to approve the new regulations on Aug 1: Green the Vote,\u00a0Oklahomans For Health<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0New Health Solutions Oklahoma<\/a>. All are advocates of the medical marijuana program, and all expressed concerns about the restrictions. Nonetheless, the regulations were approved without amendment. A next hearing will be held Aug. 8, when there will be another opportunity to amend the regulations.<\/p>\n As\u00a0News OK<\/a>\u00a0reports, two groups filed separate suits challenging the emergency regulations days after they were issued July 10. The two groups are Green the Vote and the\u00a0Bussett Legal Group<\/a>, which is representing various patients, providers and other potential stakeholders in the program. With the original regulations now overturned, the fate of these suits is uncertain.<\/p>\n \u201cOur civil rights as Oklahomans were violated by the Oklahoma Department of Health yesterday,\u201d Chip Paul of Oklahomans for Health told the\u00a0Tulsa World<\/a>\u00a0after the emergency regulations were passed in mid-July. \u201cWe had been working in good faith\u2026 There\u2019s no way we expected anyone to take away our right to smoke medical marijuana under 788. No way. If anyone thinks that reflects the spirit and intent of that law \u2014 well, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n Such outrage did evidently sway the bureaucracy. Yet, even if by oversight, the new regulations may also violate the spirit and letter of Question 788, which was\u00a0approved in the June primary elections<\/a>. Grounds for the litigation may still exist.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0how do you think the government should regulate cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Oklahoma Reverses Course & Allows Smokable Cannabis, But New Regs Still Hurt Businesses<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Accused of violating the will of the voters who approved the state\u2019s medical marijuana law State Question 788 in June, the Oklahoma Board of Health released a new set of regulations for the state\u2019s nascent medical marijuana program on July 31. These were approved yesterday, Aug. 1, by a unanimousContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,415,139,5202,2554,4935,81,5203,4443,420],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28310,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28309\/revisions\/28310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Legal Contradiction in the Medical Marijuana Regulations?<\/h4>\n
Oklahoma Legal Challenge Still Pending<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Oklahoma Reverses Course & Allows Smokable Cannabis, But New Regs Still Hurt Businesses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"