According to a report commissioned by the Medical Marijuana Authority last year, Oklahoma has 32-times more marijuana regulated than is necessary to meet patient demands.
By Carmen Forman, Oklahoma Voice
The state is trying to control the rapidly growing medical marijuana industry, so lawmakers extended the moratorium for another two years.
A new state statute extends the two-year suspension of new cannabis licenses to dispensaries and growers, as well as processors.
The 339,938 patients who are licensed to use medical marijuana and other licensees in the state will not be affected by this pause.
A law which took effect on November 1 has changed the moratorium originally scheduled to end in summer 2026 to August 1, 2026.
Porsha Riley, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, has confirmed that the number of licenses is beginning to decrease after more than a full year. She said that the decline in cannabis businesses is due to a number of factors, such as increased enforcement of medical marijuana laws by the state and a more stringent licensing process.
According to the Medical Marijuana Authority, the number of licensed growers in the state has decreased by almost 2,000 since the moratorium went into effect.
The number of licensed processors and dispensaries increased as a flood of new applicants applied for licenses before the moratorium went into effect. Riley explained that the Medical Marijuana Authority was given 90 days to review the applications. This allowed the number of businesses to grow despite the moratorium.
Oklahoma had 7,285 licensed producers, 2,374 dispensaries, and 1,464 processing facilities when the moratorium went into effect on August 26, 2022. She said that as of last week the state had 5,390 growers licensed, 2,602 dispenses and 1,575 processers.
Owners of marijuana commercial businesses can still sell or transfer the license to another party.
The Medical Marijuana Authority, in a report commissioned last summer, found that Oklahoma had 32-times as much regulated marijuana as was needed to meet the patient demand. Oklahoma’s marijuana industry has been criticized by some business owners for being over-saturated, both in terms of the amount of cannabis available and the number of marijuana companies.
Oklahoma has 9 798 licensed cannabis businesses down from 11 437 at this time last year.
Oklahoma voters approved medical marijuana in 2018. However, earlier this year, all 77 counties rejected a state referendum that would have allowed recreational marijuana.
This article was originally published by The Oklahoma Voice.
New York State Lawmakers send bills to Governor reducing marijuana tax, providing relief for local 280E businesses
The first time Marijuana Moment published the article Oklahoma extends its pause on new medical marijuana business licenses into 2026.
