Category: News
The Path Continues
The Path Continues
By James Bridges
“That was a long year.” How many times have you heard that? Usually in a negative tone it seems. Well, it has been a long year. A year is a long time. 365 days to be exact. Each and every one of those days are long too. Each day. Each Minute. Each second. Soak it up, buttercup.
What are you going to do with it?
There was an abundance of, what seemed like, magic in the air starting from the moment SQ788 passed. It seems so long ago. However, sometimes it’s a blur. There have been so many shifts in the industry as it matures. 2022 may have been the ugly pre-teen years, if you were to compare to what I believe is to come.
You need to remember why you wanted cannabis to be legal in the first place. That, my friends, is your own personal choice as well. Medicine comes in many different forms. No one has the right to tell you differently.
I’ve witnessed the market in Oklahoma shift from a territorial atmosphere into what has now become more of a collaborative effort to navigate not only the market trend, but also the constant changes tossed down from our governing bodies. This, in my opinion, is key. If there ever were a plot to kill legal cannabis, then this idea of collaboration could indeed squash it.
Now I go to my creative mind. I like to imagine dark,angry, and dried up individuals sitting around a boardroom table and pounding their fists out of anger and frustration. One of them stands and screams, “Why must they fight together!” The dark “overlords” smoke their smokey cigarettes and discuss ways to split the damn pot heads up. I digress.
The simplest way to kill something is to gain its trust. It is a shady way of doing things. It’s a way of doing things that we all must look out for. It’s ok to listen to your intuition… Unfortunately many businesses in the cannabis industry have failed. That’s not uncommon in most industries, to be honest. However, the way that it has come about is a tad tacky in my book. I don’t speak much about politics publicly, but I do love my community.
There are mom-and-pops in this great state that feel robbed. They feel that the system which was put in place during the first years of legalization in Oklahoma was a money grab. They blame many players involved in the governing bodies. They feel that those players would benefit the state rather than the industry itself. Some feel that this grew into an even more greedy situation. Major players within the cannabis industry itself have been accused of having a hand in the pocket of some of those benefitted.
It’s been interesting to observe to say the least.
I won’t give you a BS promotional speech that makes you feel that there is a pot of gold waiting for us all. What I will do is encourage you to keep moving forward. Make a more collaborative effort to accomplish your goals. Stick together and create your own ideas. Have fun doing it. We are in a cannabis industry.
That’s supposed to be fun right?
Those that oppose our lifestyle and understanding of what good medicine is are waiting for us to trip up. Make sure they trip first. They want this to fail. When it all comes down to it, this is about money. The blanket of fear that is covering the eyes of justice must come down once in a while. At times Justice needs to look the liar in the face in order to gain access to the truth.
A Face of a Million Faces
By Michael Kinney
Trying to pin Andrew Martin down on a simple answer can seem like trying to drink water out of a thimble. The co-founder of Sherweed Forest admits it is a problem, especially when trying to explain what his company is.
Martin sees what Sherweed Forest is, but also what it can become. “We are not a traditional mechanism. I would say Sherweed Forest is an idea,” Martin said. “I don’t mean that in a cheesy, branding way. We didn’t start as a formal organization. We began this process as two guys from the town of Mannford (Okla.) and essentially identified a problem in the market that we saw was unfolding. We saw it as a fateful problem. If it wasn’t solved, it could be the fate of access to cannabis.”
Yet, it all started as a simple project. He and Branden Chaney were looking to find some cannabis.
While that may seem easy these days with a dispensary being on almost every corner around Oklahoma, the two friends were actually looking for a special kind of cannabis.
Chaney, who is a plumber by trade, suffers from severe pain in his back. His doctors had prescribed pain blockers as far back as 10 years ago in the middle of the opioid epidemic. Yet, they did not solve his problem.
But then in 2019, the two friends started to look into medical marijuana.
“We were trying to find the right, discreet dosing item for him that would actually be consistent and get him where he needs to be,” Martin said. “We weren’t able to find it at first. That kind of set us off on this particular angle.”
If somebody was new to cannabis and its effects and how to use it and they wanted to use it for a specific reason, they would use something like weed maps. But according to Martin, those are based on a broken system.
They would also use strain names, which Martin says are completely made up by the seller and can change the name when it’s not selling well. That makes finding the right product difficult. Martin and Chaney saw a problem and decided to fix it themselves. They created Sherweed Forest with the idea of educating those who use medical marijuana on what is the right product for them and why.
Sherweed Forest now also includes Brook Miller, Kayvon Taghizadeh, and Tarra Quin.
Andrew added, “I realized instantly after I first introduced the Bazaar and partnered with Brook as the lead events coordinator that he was the second half that would make the entire thing possible.”
Andrew then informed me that Kayvon keeps all of them on their toes. They do not want to become an inspiration for his stand up comedy. “He is a technology repair specialist by day. It is that level of attention to detail that he brings to to team that we couldn’t live without.”
Tarra Quinn, Advertising Director for Herbage Magazine, is an amazing asset to the Sherweed team. “Personally, my son is a pediatric patient and this event allows me to medicate him monthly.” Tarra expressed her gratitude. “I also gain more knowledge by meeting the makers of his medicine.”
“We created Sherweed Forest to try and meet people and create an environment of the community,” Martin said. “We are just a collection of like-minded people who have a common cause. We create goals and try to accomplish them. There are opportunities for patients to find a product that almost feels made specifically for them. “What we are trying to do is make it easy for patients and for vendors to do this process, to be able to come together into a room and exchange information and education, and be able to try those products.”
From that concept, the Sherweed Forest’s Throw Down Bazaar sprung to life.
With the bazaar, Sherweed Forest partners with a local dispensary and holds a massive sale for low-cost cannabis and other products.
“We want to be able to give you a guide that can help you find that precision,” Martin said. “Whether you understand what that means or not.”
The first Bazaar was held in November of 2021. Since then there’ve been three iterations of Sherweed Forest Throwdown Bazar. The most recent took place in January. The event raised more than $23,000, which is by far the most product the Throwdown has sold in their short run. However, while Martin said the Throwdown was a success, they also had to deal with a few hitches that kept it from being a total success to some involved. A big part of that was not anticipating the large swell in attendance.
“So, I take the blame for it, but I also own it. I wanted it to work like that. It just grew too fast. This was only the fourth one,” Martin said. “And we’ve been doing them about every 30 days. And their only complaint is that it was just a pressure system at the dispensary level and a bottleneck. And that’s just due to the insane amount of response.”
One of the reasons for the Bazaar’s quick growth was due to the generosity of Randy Luck, formerly General Manager of Kind Love and now GM of Bodega Boyz. According to Martin, Luve attended the second Throwdown event and really liked the concept, but also saw the low number of sales being made.
“So then he offered us a 0% markup, and that’s actually what made it blow up and get to the $23,000,” Martin said. “And made it what it is to this day. We just accepted that offer. But we only really had contact with him when it comes to Kind Love. So, it’s a lesson we learned in regards to, we don’t know how much the owner is necessarily on the same page or if they were or weren’t. And just a lesson we learned is to dig and be thorough in regards to getting our hands on the owner of collaboration, to make sure everybody’s on the same page.”
One of the factors they will have to consider going forward is the size of the dispensary. When they first started, they could hold the Bazaar at smaller stores because they weren’t getting a ton of people coming through the door. But now, the Sherweed Forest group has grown so fast in a short amount of time, that a larger facility may be needed in the future.
“So that event went great. It just felt like we had a hard time knowing what was going on on the dispensary side,” Martin said. “And so we chose the small one because they would let us get behind the counter, in a metaphorical way. They let us work with them up to the point of the delivery of the product. And I was hoping that with my admin team, that would be helpful enough that a small shop would then be able to do the event.”
Sherweed Forest has learned from the mistakes they have made and hopes to make future events run more streamlined, or as Martin says, like Disney. “The simplest answer is the process to be pristine from the moment that a vendor, and I’ll talk in dual terms here, the moment that a vendor or a patient enters the experience, whether that’s walking into the bazaar as a patient, whether that’s beginning their correspondence with us as a vendor, our dream is for that to be like a Disney process,” Martin said. “You know how Disney runs like an oiled machine. They’re all about that experience and everything is dialed in. My dream and goal for the next one, what I’m working hard on right now to ensure it happens, is that every patient who attends the event feels welcome and able to meet the makers of their medicine.”
At the end of the day, it all goes back to the basic idea of educating people on the best cannabis and getting it at a lower cost. That has been the foundation of Sherweed Forest and Martin wants to make sure that is never forgotten.
“I want to be able to reach people where they’re at and with what they’re going through and where they are in life at this moment, and be able to come to their level,” Martin said. “I want this event to be able to find people where they are. It’s a free event. It always will be as long as I’m running it.”
Martin added, “We could not do this without the community. I myself am really just an artist who knows how to create expression and to generate awareness. I am here in cannabis because I am a lover of the plant.
2022 Medical Marijuana Legislation in Oklahoma What bills will become law and how will it change the industry?
2022 Medical Marijuana Legislation in Oklahoma
What bills will become law and how will it change the industry?
~ By Felina N. Rivera, Attorney
Every year, Oklahoma legislators propose bills for our state congress to consider in hopes of creating new laws. Since the passage of State Question 788 in 2018, hundreds of bills have been proposed pertaining to medical marijuana, but only those that pass both the House and Senate and are signed by the governor actually become law. The Second Regular Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislature is scheduled to convene on February 7, 2022. Legislators had a deadline of January 20th to introduce bills they want considered this session. This year over 100 bills proposed relate to regulation of medical marijuana. Next, they will be debated, voted on, amended, and could potentially change the landscape of the cannabis industry by the time the Legislature adjourns on May 27. Between now and the end of May, I will be following cannabis related legislation in Oklahoma as these bills make their way through congress and share my findings with you each month.
Most of the bills proposed this session come out of the House of Representatives. Representative Scott Fetgatter from District 16 is a regular contributor of cannabis legislation, and this year is no different. Some of the bills he has proposed include:
HB3019 – would do away with opaque product packaging requirements, instead requiring dispensaries to put products in opaque “exit packaging” upon purchase.
HB3347 – would allow medical marijuana businesses to take the normal business tax deductions generally disallowed by Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code on Oklahoma State Tax returns.
HB3634 – would create a new “Medical Marijuana Wholesaler” license, that would allow for the purchase and sale of products on behalf of other licensed businesses in the state. Wholesale licensees would also be subject to seed-to-sale tracking.
HB3734 – would create a temporary medical marijuana business license for dispensaries, grows, and processors, requiring all those seeking licensure to first apply for a temporary business license. The license would be valid for 180 days while applicants seek annual licensure. Applicants would also be expected to submit more information than previously required, including information about sources of funding, ownership of property, security, power sources, water diversion plans, cultivation plans, proof of insurance, and other information OMMA requests.
HB3742 – would penalize growers who abandon land used for harvesting marijuana crops without restoring it to its previous condition.
HB3754 – would create the “Oklahoma Adult Access to Marijuana Act” and outline regulations for the recreational purchase and use of marijuana by individuals over the age of 21.
Other popular topics covered by proposed legislation involve different ways the number of licenses issued can be capped (see HB2987, HB2989, HB3726, HB3727), limiting ownership of businesses to Oklahoma residents only (HB3268), or changing tax revenue allocations (HB3083, HB3037, HB3530).
Next month, I will share some of the bills proposed Oklahoma Senators and provide an update as to what bills look to be moving forward – and which ones will likely die before the end of the session. Between now and then, please feel free to reach out to me if you would like a complete list of proposed cannabis legislation or have any other medical marijuana legal questions!
Felina N. Rivera
Managing Attorney
Renaissance Legal Solutions, PLLC
Phone: (405) 247-0647
Felina@RLSLawyer.com
Instagram @okclatinalawyer
FREE ENTERPRISE REIGNS IN OKLAHOMA’S MMJ SYSTEM!
FREE ENTERPRISE REIGNS IN OKLAHOMA’S MMJ SYSTEM!
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer1
1 Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
In the final days of 2021, a liberal newspaper on the East Coast published an offensive piece about Oklahoma and its medical marijuana system. Of course, anything one reads today in The New York Times (“NYT”) should be taken with a grain of salt, but this particular article, How Oklahoma Became a Marijuana Boom State by Simon Romero with photos credited to Brett Deering, published December 29, 2021, is especially offensive, even for that periodical. As a third generation Oklahoma attorney, I take such insulting words about my home state personally.
The article epitomizes rubbish spewed by those who consider themselves the elite, the refined, the educated, and the holier-than-thou liberals who look down their proverbial noses at “poor”, uneducated, “trailer park” Oklahomans. Yes, the writer of the article has the audacity to use those words. The very reduction of such beliefs to words frankly flies all over this author. Clearly, Romero and his cohorts at the NYT know nothing of Oklahoma, of its hard-working people, many of whom are in fact better educated than they—whether it be through state or Ivy League institutions or the difficult, enduring lessons learned through living life itself. Indeed, many Oklahomans elected to return home after forays into other states upon the realization that Oklahoma is, in fact, an incredible place to live and work, enhanced by none other than its people. 
A good lesson to learn from Oklahoma is that one’s value is not calculated by net worth, institutional degrees, or the landscape where one lives.
The above-referenced article in the NYT, not unlike most of that paper’s content these days, is riddled with pejorative words and phrases, including those quoted above and, additionally, “old chicken coops”, “trailer parks”, “Pentecostal church” (not that a Pentecostal church is negative, but the NYT writer clearly intends that it be construed as such), “mobile homes”, “culture shock”, and unsupported claims that Oklahoma is “a state that remains among the poorest in the country” with “pressures on the state’s prisons”. These statements are not only appalling, but also are indicative of prevalent, misguided views that divide this nation—and here, I speak of America, not the Sooner Nation.
In light of such rubbish clearly intended to depict Oklahoma and its hard-working people, including those in the medical marijuana industry (public and private), in a derogatory manner, it is important to take an unbiased assessment of Oklahoma’s outstanding medical marijuana (“MMJ”) system. What better time to do so than on the last day of calendar year 2021, the date of this writing.
Oklahoma continues to stand alone in this country as the only free market medical program, enacted by the people and for the patients. State Question 788 (“SQ 788”) was passed on June 26, 2018, making medical marijuana legal in the state. The medical program was implemented in record time by dedicated state employees working overtime and likely underpaid, when the
© 2021 Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish. All rights reserved.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (“OMMA”) launched its online application process for patients and businesses on Saturday, August 25, 2018.
Today, three short years after SQ 788 was passed, Oklahoma’s medical program continues to thrive in the face of inevitable obstacles—some anticipated and some not. And as human nature long ago established, when someone – or something – is successful and stands out, critics load and lock. In case you are wondering, yes, this is a nod to Oklahoma’s Second Amendment Sanctuary status.
SQ 788 established a simple medical marijuana program with reasonable license application fees allowing everyday people with entrepreneurial dreams and a passion for the healing properties of cannabis to enter Oklahoma’s industry and thrive. What a blessed reality!
To reiterate, Oklahomans created something unique to the cannabis industry—namely, the country’s only free market medical marijuana program. There are no qualifying conditions for medical marijuana patients here, and, in addition to the original adult patient, minor patient, and caregiver licenses, today short-term licenses, reciprocal patient cards, and temporary patient licenses are available.
Mercifully, OMMA and Oklahoma’s Legislature have upheld the spirit of SQ 788 for the most part, refusing to smother the fledgling industry with over-regulation. OMMA officials demonstrated a remarkable ability to implement Oklahoma’s medical program in record time—a mere 30 days after passage of SQ 788 in late June 2018, to the first day of applications in late August 2018. Initially, OMMA had only 14 days to accept or reject any license application. It is difficult to comprehend what the working environment must have looked like during those early days. While the 14-day period for patient licenses remains unchanged, today the period within which OMMA can grant, deny, or reject a commercial business license application (“denials” differ from “rejections”, the latter of which can be rectified through resubmissions) is 90 days—a much more reasonable time period for such a process.
Looking back, it is difficult to imagine how OMMA onboarded the entire application process in a mere 30 days and managed to process the plethora of patient, caregiver, and commercial business license applications in 14 days. OMMA’s dedicated state employees somehow managed to make it work, to the great benefit of Oklahoma patients and entrepreneurs. OMMA is “the little engine that could,” in a state where the wind still comes sweeping down the plain and the waving wheat, with some weed now from outdoor grows, can sure smell sweet.
Today, it is interesting to reflect on how Oklahoma’s medical program has evolved and to contemplate what the future holds. It has been said that Oklahoma basically has an adult use system, given that there are no preexisting condition requirements and that doctors who will write potential patients a medical marijuana recommendation are plentiful. Perhaps this observation is correct. However, there are limits on how much medical marijuana a patient can possess, and patient licenses are required to legally purchase and consume medical marijuana products here.
The NYT article correctly notes the plethora of medical marijuana businesses in Oklahoma, and that prices have decreased due to increased supply. However, here in Oklahoma we respect and
© 2021 Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish. All rights reserved.
encourage free enterprise and capitalism. The law of supply and demand is a fundamental tenet of both, and while some may choose to ignore those principles, we here in Oklahoma applaud and support them. After all, they have formed the backbone of America’s economy since its inception.
While the NYT piece opines that “growers in Oklahoma . . . are feeding illicit markets around the country” – an assertion made with no objective criteria or documentation whatsoever, as is customary for that paper now, it is no secret that efforts by OMMA, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics have intensified to ensure this does not occur. Additionally, the scale of any Oklahoma illicit grows would assuredly pale in comparison with other states that boast more mature markets where production of illicit product has been the norm for decades, and here, we have a statute that actually prohibits ownership of agricultural land by foreign nationals. Hmmm….
So, what’s the take-away?
Free enterprise still reigns in Oklahoma’s medical marijuana system, and when it draws fire from a liberal paper back East, that is a sure sign something is incredibly successful!
P.S.
It’s going to be a very busy spring here in the Wild, Wild West!I
“Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV‐2 and the Emerging Variants”
Chip Paul @chip_paul_ecs Forensic Researcher of The Endocannabinoid System
“God has always provided “the cures”. The cures are in nature. It is only our lack of knowledge that keeps us from these cures”
A new study published in the Journal of Natural Products is causing a stir in the cannabis world. The study, entitled “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV‐2 and the Emerging Variants” is a look at how cannabinoids affect the entry point of SARS-COV-2 (Covid) and the early variants. The entry point for Covid is well known and a receptor called ACE2 (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2). This receptor basically is an entry point from the outside, through your lungs, and into your coronary system. In the coronary system oxygen is combined with red blood cells and this is EXACTLY what covid likes to disrupt.
Blocking the ACE2 receptor is an effective strategy against Covid. This is the mechanism of action of Ivermectin which has shown tremendous promise in altering the trajectory of Covid. At GnuPharma we have a product called Defender which contains licorice, a known blocker of the ACE2 receptor. Other natural products will also block this receptor including mugwort and wormwood.
From the research conducted and summarized in the paper, it is looking like CBD-A, CBG-A, and THC-A all influence the ACE2 receptor. They don’t block it, but they modify it enough to block the entry of Covid. CBG-A, CBD-A, and THC-A all exist in large quantities in unprocessed hemp. Processing of hemp usually involves decarboxylation (breaking off the acid) of the cannabinoids. This study found that the decarboxylated version of the cannabinoids had NO effects on the ACE2 receptor.
This is EXCELLENT news for hemp farmers. Hemp has traditionally been monetized for translation into decarboxylated cannabinoids as they are more neurologically active. Providing cannabinoids in their acid form can be done in the form of leaves, stems, stalks, and flowers with NO PROCESSING needed.
THE TRUE, DARK HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING
THE TRUE, DARK HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING
By Mary Belle Zook
Provided By Citizen Potawatomi Nation Public Information
Although many Potawatomi and others across the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, the factual history behind the holiday is something to be less than thankful for. While communing with loved ones and showing appreciation for the bounties and gifts provided is one positive aspect of the national holiday, teaching a false narrative of its beginnings perpetuates colonialism and ignores more than 400 years of atrocities committed against Native Americans and First Nations’ people.
“It just disregards (the centuries of brutality) against Native Americans and chooses to take this one tiny snapshot, and in the world of social media, it puts all the pretty filters on it so that it doesn’t look the way it truly did,” said Dr. Kelli Mosteller, Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Cultural Heritage Center director.
According to an article published in The New York Times by Maya Salam in 2017, “Thanksgiving facts and Thanksgiving myths have blended together for years like so much gravy and mashed potatoes, and separating them is just as complicated.”
The formation of Thanksgiving as an official, United States’ holiday, did not begin until November 1863 during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln officially established the holiday as a way to improve relations between northern and southern states as well as the U.S. and tribal nations. Just a year prior, a mass execution took place of Dakota tribal members. Corrupt federal agents kept the Dakota-Sioux from receiving food and provisions. Finally at the brink of death from starvation, members of the tribe fought back, resulting in the Dakota War of 1862. In the end, President Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota men to die from hanging, and he felt that Thanksgiving offered an opportunity to bridge the hard feelings amongst Natives and the federal government.
“It was propaganda,” Dr. Mosteller explained. “It was to try and build this event so that you could have a deeper narrative about community building and coming together in shared brotherhood and unity.”
While the Thanksgiving celebrated today may not have complete, factual roots, Native Americans, Europeans and other cultures across the world have held festivals and special meals in gratitude for bountiful harvests and to reflect on the past year. Many across Indian Country continue these traditions by simply sharing a meal with friends and loved ones without referencing it as a true “Thanksgiving.”
“A lot of people don’t acknowledge it as Thanksgiving. They say, ‘I’m going to get together with family, and it’s going to be about sharing the meal, but we’re not going to acknowledge the Mayflower and the pilgrims because it’s holding up this false moment of friendship and completely disregards the genocide and the mass land theft and the brutality that all Native peoples experience,’” Dr. Mosteller said.
Plymouth and pilgrims
Textbooks often indicate the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, because the harsh winter was approaching or a storm sent them off course from their original Virginia destination.
“Winter’s onset cannot have been the reason, however, for the weather would be much milder in Virginia than Massachusetts. Moreover, the Pilgrims spent six full weeks — until December 26 — scouting around Cape Cod looking for the best spot,” Loewen wrote in Lies My Teacher Told Me.
The Dutch possibly bribed the Mayflower’s captain to sail north, a good distance from New Amsterdam in present-day New York. Some historians believe their arrival in Cape Cod was purposeful.
“Historian George Willison has argued that the Pilgrim leaders, wanting to be far from Anglican control, never planned to settle in Virginia,” Loewen continued. “They had debated the relative merits of Guiana, in South America, versus the Massachusetts coast, and, according to Willison, they intended a hijacking. Certainly the Pilgrims already knew quite a bit about what Massachusetts could offer them, from the fine fishing along Cape Cod to that ‘wonderful plague,’ which offered an unusual opportunity for English settlement.”
Disease
Prior to European arrival, America’s Indigenous did not experience illnesses attributed to livestock, overcrowding or poor hygiene.
“Residents of northern Europe and England rarely bathed, believing it unhealthy, and rarely removed all of their clothing at one time, believing it immodest,” Loewen wrote in Lies My Teacher Told Me.
“The Pilgrims smelled bad to the Indians. Squanto ‘tried, without success, to teach them to bathe,’ according to Feenie Ziner, his biographer.”
In fact, three years before the pilgrims landed, English and French fisherman transmitted diseases to tribes as they came ashore to find fresh water, firewood and capture Native Americans for slave trade.
“Within three years the plague wiped out between 90 to 96 percent of the inhabitants of coastal New England. Native societies were devastated. Only ‘the twentieth person is scarce left alive,’ wrote Robert Cushman, an English eyewitness, recording a death rate unknown in all previous human experience,” Loewen wrote.
Those who did survive left their communities to join others, bringing the illnesses along with them. This caused many Native Americans to perish, even though they had not encountered Europeans. Once the pilgrims did arrive in 1620, the epidemics across Indian Country were far from over.
Throughout history, religion has served as a means of justification, and for the English Separatists, it was no different. They believed the wide-spread death and devastation of Native Americans due to disease was divine provenience and that God willed them to take over the land.
“By the time the Native populations of New England had replenished themselves to some degree, it was too late to expel the intruders. … If colonists had not been able to occupy lands already cleared by Indian farmers who had vanished, colonization would have proceeded much more slowly. If Indian culture had not been devastated by the physical and psychological assaults it had suffered, colonization might not have proceeded at all,” Loewen wrote.
Squanto (Tisquantum) and the Wampanoag
The story of Squanto, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, is much less innocent than the narrative that he assisted the pilgrims with teaching them how to grow crops and take advantage of North America’s bounties.
Six years before the Mayflower arrived in present-day Massachusetts, a slave-trader captured Squanto — Tisquantum — and a group of Native Americans. With help from the Catholic Church, Tisquantum escaped and found his way to England where he learned English. He eventually returned to North America in 1619.
While Tisquantum was overseas, New England’s Indigenous experienced a monumental death rate, with some communities losing nearly every tribal member to the decimating effects of European diseases.
Upon returning to North American and his village of Patuset, Tisquantum found only piles of bones of his fellow tribesmen killed by the plagues. He realized he was the sole survivor of his village. The illness spread so quickly that many local tribes never had time to bury their dead.
Where Tisquantum’s village once thrived, the pilgrims established Plymouth Plantation.
During this time, the Wampanoag lost up to 75 percent of its people, while a nearby enemy tribe, the Narragansett, did not. Wampanoag leader Massasoit saw the pilgrims as possible allies against the Narragansett. Due to his English-speaking abilities, Massasoit used Tisquantum as a translator, though the Wampanoag leader did not trust his fellow tribal member and held him as a prisoner.
Rather than continue a life of servitude to Massasoit, Tisquantum established himself as a key resource to the pilgrims, teaching them how to survive.
The Wampanaog and the pilgrims made a treaty that established an understanding that the tribe would look out for the pilgrims against their enemies and vice-versa.
“Squanto’s travels acquainted him with more of the world than any Pilgrim encountered. He had crossed the Atlantic perhaps six times, twice as an English captive, and had lived in Maine, Newfoundland, Spain, and England, as well as Massachusetts. All this brings us to Thanksgiving,” Loewen wrote in Lies My Teacher Told Me.
The pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest in 1621 by shooting their guns into the air, which caused Massasoit to bring together warriors and prepare for battle. Instead of fighting, the Wampanoag and pilgrims worked together to prepare a feast.
In an article published by Indian Country Today in 2011, Thanksgiving Day is a time of grief for Native Americans. Many Natives continue to gather at Cole’s Hill near Plymouth Rock and remember the losses experienced for the past 400-plus years through the National Day of Mourning. The event began in 1970 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Wamsutta (Frank) James to address the public on behalf of the Wampanoag people. However, once organizers learned the subjects of his speech, which included highlighting the death and broken promises at the hand of settlers, colonial powers and the United States, James was no longer invited. This prompted the formation of the National Day of Mourning.
James wrote, “This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end.”
Ways to combat the false narrative
For those in education, Dr. Mosteller encourages seeking alternative curriculum and guest speakers from Native communities that can shine an appropriate light on the holiday’s history.
“The Chickasaw Nation, for example, has a curriculum specialist who develops curricula to make available to school districts, not just on Thanksgiving, but on a whole list of issues where the Native narrative has been either turned on its head to make something that it wasn’t or we’ve just been erased from the narrative altogether,” she said.
While many will continue getting together with friends and loved ones to celebrate and recognize the gifts provided since the year before, incorporating traditional ingredients and recipes as well as teaching the factual history can go a long way in healing and restoring the Native narrative within the American culture.
OKLAHOMA’S RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS: WILL THEY SURVIVE ANOTHER FEDERAL COURT CHALLENGE?
OKLAHOMA’S RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS:
WILL THEY SURVIVE ANOTHER FEDERAL COURT CHALLENGE?
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish,
Cannabis Lawyer
I previously explored Oklahoma’s residency requirements applicable to medical marijuana business licensees in my article, “ARE OMMA’S RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS UNCONSTITUTIONAL?”, where I commented on the change in residency requirements for OMMA licensees imposed by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, nicknamed the Unity Bill (“UNITY”), which Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed into law on March 14, 2019, and became effective on August 29, 2019.
UNITY changed the residency requirements for OMMA licensees from the simple, easily-met standard in SQ 788, which required applicants to “show residency in the State of Oklahoma” by producing an Oklahoma state driver’s license, identification card, residential lease, mortgage, deed, or similar document, to a strict, two-year residency requirement or five years of continuous Oklahoma residency during the preceding 25 years immediately prior to the application date. Additional, substantial, documentary evidence has been required as proof, ever since.
As I previously observed, federal district courts across the country have started to invalidate residency requirements for cannabis business licensees on the basis that such protectionist statutes violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution (U.S. CONST. ART. I, § 8, cl. 3.), by explicitly and purposefully favoring state residents over non-residents. Indeed, this is the purpose of Oklahoma’s residency requirements set forth in UNITY, as well as the preexisting 75% Oklahoma ownership requirement.
At the time of my original article, an action had recently been filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (where I served as a federal law clerk just after I first finished law school), by a Washington limited liability company, Original Investments, LLC d/b/a Dank’s Wonder Emporium. That legal battle concluded in June 2021 with United States District Judge Stephen Friot’s dismissal with prejudice of the action by relying on the federally-illegal status of marijuana under the Controlled Substance Act (codified in Title 21 of the United States Code). Specifically, Judge Friot refused to “facilitate the plainly criminal activity in which plaintiff proposes to engage in the State of Oklahoma.”
Nationally, the battle continues. In early October 2021, a case filed in the Maine federal district court, NPG v. Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, where the court struck down Maine’s residency requirements for marijuana business licensees as violative of the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution (despite the fact marijuana remains federally illegal), made its way to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, as the first federal case to reach a United States Court of Appeals, a feat which is no small matter in legal circles.
The NPG decision and its appeal occurred months after Maine had settled a similar federal action alleging Maine’s residency requirement violated the dormant Commerce Clause, by declaring Maine’s cannabis regulators simply would no longer enforce the residency requirement.
Notably, Maine U.S. District Judge Nancy Torrensen, who handed down the NPG decision, stayed her own injunction barring Maine regulators from enforcing the residency requirement, opining that long-term consequences could result if regulators were forced to grant cannabis licenses to non-residents pending appeal, and if the First Circuit reversed her decision.
Regardless of the outcome, it is clear that the First Circuit’s opinion in NPG will prove instructive for other federal courts in the country, given the lack of precedent from any other federal appellate court on the issue.
In the interim, federal district courts are taking notice. For example, earlier in October, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey of the Western District of Missouri ordered a permanent injunction overturning Missouri’s residency requirements for cannabis licensees after an eight- minute bench trial in Toigo v. DHSS.
So…what’s the take-away?
Oklahoma has not seen the last of federal court challenges to its residency requirements for OMMA licensees.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
IMPERIOUS – OKCC | Oklahoma Cannabis Convention November 12-13, 2021
A personal witness to pain and tragedy inspires a co-founder
Imperious co-founder Eric Norton witnessed pain and tragedy in 1990 as a licensed chemical dependency counselor. He worked as a case manager in the Dallas County Judicial Treatment Center, a nine-month program that treated convicted felons for addiction, giving them a chance to re-join society instead of serving long terms in prison.
For Eric, the tragedies he faced daily became personal, leading to a short career as a drug counselor. But, years later, when a family member suffered debilitating pain, reality hit home. Although treatable with medical cannabis, that method of relief was not legally available at that time in Texas. Fortunately, they now lived in Colorado. However, the inequity struck Eric as evident, “Something needs to be done.” So Eric did.
A new business model: “Business Before Pleasure”
In October 2015, Imperious Expo, LLC was founded in Tyler, Texas to promote the legal use of cannabis for medical and industrial purposes. The vehicle would be well-planned business expositions, B-to-B trade shows in emerging markets across the U.S.
Because they planned to exclude recreational traffic, Imperious championed this new cause with the slogan, “Business Before Pleasure,” leading to a successful 2016 launch in Seattle-Tacoma in 2016 followed by Phoenix in 2017.
Valuable information resource, professionally led forum
Imperious Expo has evolved into a committed group of professionals from different walks of life who combine unique talents to bring the highest possible level of education, networking opportunities, and investment information. We have also become a reliable source for employment advice and contacts in the emerging national market
Our network consists of well over 40,000 people from the west coast to the east coast. Their consistent participation is evidence that they look forward to joining our two-days events that average 120 exhibits, 70 plus speakers, and 3,000 to 4,000 attendees. Our focus is now on the “Ark-La-Tex” region: Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
Our philosophy stresses knowledge, experience, and integrity
The Imperious approach is to bring top-level cannabis experts together under one roof. The mission of this diverse talent pool is to teach and acquaint peers and newcomers with the most current, up-to-date information about the expanding legalized cannabis market.
Because we focus only on medical cannabis and industrial hemp, our philosophy and business model set us apart. You see, we go to great lengths and expense recruiting speakers with the highest level of integrity. To that end, we do not sell our educational stages to the highest bidder.
All of our speakers are pro-bono. We only cover the bare travel expenses for our keynoters. As Eric will tell you, “The reason for this is simple: we have all been lied to about this plant (cannabis) long enough!”
A loyal following gives Imperious rave reviews
We credit our expo success (and your enjoyment of these events) to our loyal exhibitor following. They continue to humble us with a substantial reoccurring compliment, saying, “Imperious Expo has the most diverse exhibits in the industry, well done!” This accolade is a direct reflection of our nation-wide recruiting process and large contact base of cannabis industry professionals.
But, the best compliment yet? It’s when many continue to tell us, “We can send our grandmother to your show, and she could ask a question without feeling awkward or be offended.” Eric’s response? “We just smile and say thank you.”
Imperious is a story of people helping people improve human health, well-being, and productivity. Please join us. The best is yet to come.
Eric Norton, Co-Founder/CEO, Imperious
Expos, launched at Seattle event in 2016
In 1992, Eric became youngest licensed
drug counselor in the state of Texas.
After stops in Seattle, Phoenix, and Little
Rock, Imperious has scheduled an encore
event in Little Rock with its fourth show,
the upcoming Ark-La-Tex cannabis expo.
Imperious events average 120 exhibitors,
70-plus speakers, and 3,500 attendees
and boasts a support network of 40,000.
OK 2021 SPEAKER LINE UP
We’re excited to have Ed Rosenthal back as our keynote speaker! Everyone knows Ed. He’s a pioneer in the Cannabis Industry. His life is a legacy. If you’re new to the space, just Google him, or visit his website.
Chip Paul was named by Cannabis Business Executive Magazine as one of their 100 most influential people in cannabis due to his work in Oklahoma with Oklahomans For Health and discoveries made within his company – GnuPharma.
We’re just getting started here! Our speaker line-up will grow tremendously as we get closer to our Oklahoma City show date.
Check back for here as we’ll be adding more speakers soon. You won’t want to miss a single speaking event. This is where we all learn and grow. Thank you!
THREE CHANGES IN THE WORKS FOR OMMA LICENSED BUSINESSES
THREE CHANGES IN THE WORKS FOR OMMA LICENSED BUSINESSES
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish
Cannabis Lawyer
The past several months have seen numerous changes to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana system, including new OMMA Permanent Rules; Amendments to OMMA Permanent Rules by September 16, 2021 Emergency Rules; passage of new bills by the state legislature such as HB 2272, HB 3228, HB 2646, and SB 1033 among those impacting medical marijuana and signed into law by Governor Stitt, with varying effective dates; and litigation over OMMA’s selection of METRC for seed-to-sale tracking.
This writing will discuss three important changes among the plethora of developments, of which all OMMA business licensees should be aware:
1) implementation of OMMA on-site inspections to confirm all licensees are in fact operating and doing business;
2) removal of the 2-year Oklahoma residency requirement for transporter agents; and
3) allowing OMMA-licensed dispensaries and growers to package and sell medical marijuana as pre-rolls.
1. OMMA’s OPERATIONAL STATUS VISIT
Under OMMA’s Permanent Rules as Amended by the Emergency Rules, OMMA has implemented an “initial operational status visit” for all growers, processors, and dispensaries, effective September 1, 2021. Pursuant to this new provision, OMMA will be scheduling on-site visits at licensed growers, processors, and dispensaries to verify whether the licensee is “actively operating” or is “working towards becoming operational.” (See Title 310, Oklahoma State Department of Health Regulations, Chapter 681-5-4.1.) These visits shall occur within the first 180 days after a new licensee receives their OMMA license.
If the licensee fails to provide proof that they are “actively operating or working towards operational status”, then OMMA will grant the licensee a grace period of an additional 180 days from the date of OMMA’s initial operational status visit, within which to become operational. Follow-up visits will occur and, in the event the required proof is not provided upon the second visit, then OMMA may grant a discretionary, additional 180 days to the licensee, to become operational. However, the grace period shall not extend beyond the one-year license term. If compliance is not established and/or OMMA elects not to grant an additional grace period, then OMMA will seek revocation of the commercial business license.
2. REMOVAL OF THE CURRENT 2-YEAR OKLAHOMA RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT FOR TRANSPORTER AGENTS.
OMMA’s Permanent Rules as Amended by the Emergency Rules remove “transporter agent” from the definition of a “commercial license” but still require that all transporter agents provide proof of 2-year Oklahoma residency. On November 1, 2021, this will change. House Bill 2646, which becomes effective on that date, clarifies the residency requirement to require that transporter agent applicants provide only proof of current Oklahoma residency, as opposed to the
2-year Oklahoma residency requirement applicable to 75% of the ownership of medical marijuana commercial business licensees.
3. DISPENSARIES AND GROWERS CAN PACKAGE AND SELL PRE-ROLLS.
House Bill 2646, which becomes effective November 1, 2021, authorizes OMMA licensed dispensaries and growers to package and sell medical marijuana as pre-rolls, thus eliminating any confusion about whether they can do so.
What’s the take-away?
While there are many changes coming to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana system in the coming days, it remains the Wild, Wild West.
Stay alert.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
DO OMMA’S NEW EMERGENCY RULES IMPACT PATIENTS?
DO OMMA’S NEW EMERGENCY RULES IMPACT PATIENTS?
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish
Cannabis Lawyer
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority enacted a new set of Emergency Rules that became effective on June 28, 2021. These new Rules implement numerous changes, most of which apply to OMMA-licensed commercial medical marijuana businesses. However, some of the Rules also impact patients, as discussed below.
- The new Rules prohibit caregivers from charging patients for cultivating medical marijuana “in excess of actual costs incurred in cultivating the medical marijuana.” OAC 310:681-2-3.
- The new Rules amend the definition of “marijuana” to exclude Delta 8 and Delta 10 hemp products, which allows individuals to purchase such products without an OMMA-issued medical marijuana patient license. Hemp is grown under the Oklahoma Industrial Hemp Program administered through the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, not OMMA, and it is legal federally, unlike marijuana—whether medical or adult usage.
Other provisions of the new Rules of interest to patients in particular, while not new to the June 28, 2021, version, include the following:
- A physician can recommend a patient for a short-term medical marijuana license lasting only sixty (60) days, instead of the standard, two-year patient license term.
- Out-of-state patients with unexpired out-of-state medical marijuana patient licenses may apply for a temporary patient license that is valid for a term of thirty (30) days from the date of issuance; provided, the temporary patient license for non-residents “may not extend beyond the expiration date of the underlying out-of-state medical marijuana patient license.” OAC 310:681-2-5(e).
- Patients whose licenses have been terminated on the basis that the recommending physician has determined the patient no longer meets the requirements for the license are entitled to notice and a right to hearing, as mandated not only by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, 63 O.S. § 427.1, et seq., but also by the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act, 75 O.S. § 250, et seq.
- Patients shall not sell or otherwise transfer any medical marijuana or medical marijuana products to another individual or entity. First offenses may result in a $200.00 fine, and second offenses carry a $500.00 fine and revocation of the patient’s license if it is shown that the violation was willful or grossly negligent. The same applies to licensed caregivers, who may not sell or otherwise transfer any medical marijuana to any individual other than the licensed patient on whose behalf the caregiver is licensed to grow, possess, or purchase the medical marijuana.
- Patients and caregivers may only grow medical marijuana on real property owned by the patient or on real property for which the patient has the property owner’s written permission to grow. Patient grows shall not be accessible to the general public, and shall not be visible from any street adjacent to the property. The Rules define “visible” as “viewable by a normal person with 20/20 eyesight without the use of any device to assist in improving viewing distance or vantage point.” 310:681-2-9 (c).
- Patients and caregivers are prohibited from operating or otherwise using “any extraction equipment or processes utilizing butane, propane, carbon dioxide or any potentially hazardous material in or on residential property.” 310:681-2-9 (f).
- Patients smoking any smokable, vaporized, vapable and e-cigarette medical marijuana and/or products are “subject to the same restrictions for tobacco” as set out in the “Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act”, codified at Title 63 O.S. § 1-1521, et seq.
So…what’s the take-away?
Patients must be mindful of OMMA’s most current Rules, as they apply not only to OMMA commercial business licenses but also to licensed medical marijuana patients.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
Changing The Law
Changing the law
By Michael Kinney
Like many people across the country, Cheri Cowan sees the federal laws concerning marijuana as antiquated. As a 31-year-old single mother in Norman who makes her living in Oklahoma’s cannabis industry, she watched her home state thrive when medical marijuana became legal in 2018.
Cowan said she wants to see that same type of access across the country with the changing of federal laws that look at marijuana as an illegal drug. But she doesn’t want to see them change just because it would be a boom for her industry. It is also because it may be the only way she can regain custody of her 5-year-old daughter Arrow Iyah’s Cowan.
Cowan hasn’t seen her daughter since April and is separated by more than 1,000 miles.
However, Cowan, a member of the Choctaw Nation, knows that in order to bring her daughter back home to Oklahoma she may have to force the third-largest Indian Nation in the United States to change its stance on marijuana.
“The custody case once finished will set a precedent in the Choctaw Nation court system meaning it will allow them to use my case in case studies,” Cowan said. “I have spent countless hours lobbying the Choctaw Tribal members including speaking at their monthly board meeting held in Talihina at the Choctaw headquarters.”
Cowan and her ex-husband, Roy Wesley Cowan, are involved in what appears to be a bitter custody battle over their daughter, Arrow. According to court reports and records from the Department of Human Services, both parents have made accusations against the other since they divorced.
However, that is not the story we’re here to tell. Divorces and custody battles can be messy, ugly and full of accusations that cannot always be corroborated.
Yet, it is one of those accusations that has led to Cheri Cowan having primary custody of Arrow taken away and has her wanting to overhaul federal drug laws.
“My end goal, aside from federal legalization, is to ensure that no mother or child or parent has to through what I have been through,” Cowan said. “These last six months have been a nightmare. I am a mess. And it’s because of my child, I don’t know where she is. Right now, at this moment, I couldn’t tell you where my daughter is. That is a flaw in our justice system.”
Along with being a courier for RockinT Cultivation, Cowan holds a portion of the processing license for Dunder Mifflin LLC and DBA 77 Extracts. She is also the company’s compliance officer.
Cowan said she has a license for her work and has a state medical marijuana card.
Up until the first week of 2021, Cheri Cowan held primary custody over Arrow. Her ex-husband had limited visitation rights. But that did include certain holidays, such as Christmas.
“Around Christmas time I let my ex-husband have his Christmas visitation,” Cheri Cowan said. “He ran an exposure follicle test on her and it tested positive. It tested positive for THC (0.8 pg/mg).”
According to court reports, Roy Cowan, who is currently living in Florida, had the test taken because of photos he saw on Cheri’s social media accounts that showed Arrow in the vicinity of marijuana.
However, Cheri Cowan contends she doesn’t smoke around her daughter and keeps her products locked away.
“There are over 3,000 active grows in the state of Oklahoma. My argument is she simply could of have gotten exposed simply by being in Oklahoma,” Cheri Cowan said. “My main job is compliance. I am not smoking around my child. I have all of my medication stored in a lockbox. I really don’t know, other than being around the groves, how she was exposed to it. But that is legal in Oklahoma. I brought that to the nation’s attention.”
Despite her argument, on Jan. 4, Roy Cowan was awarded temporary custody of Arrow through the Choctaw Nation’s court system. Cheri Cowan believes it’s because she works in the cannabis industry.
“That’s my fault. This is all because I thought my people would protect their people,” Cheri Cowan said. I thought whenever med passed it medicinally, the nation would jump on it because it’s beneficial for their people. We are a holistic culture. I don’t understand why this isn’t more pressing and at the forefront of their lives as the right thing to do.”
According to Cowan, if she had gone through the state of Oklahoma courts with her custody battle, she wouldn’t be in the position right now of having to fight to get her daughter back. Because Oklahoma is one of 19 states (including Washington, D.C., and Guam) that have legalized marijuana in some form, the claims her ex-husband made would not have been enough to take her daughter away.
Cowan’s battle to regain custody of her daughter coincides with a new push for the federal government to legalize marijuana. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, recently offered draft legislation to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and begin regulating and taxing it.
Under the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, businesses and individuals in states that have legalized its use would be free for the first time to sell and consume without the risk of federal punishment.
“It’s not just an idea whose time has come; it’s long overdue,” Schumer said at a press conference July 14. “We have all seen the agony of a young person arrested with a small amount of marijuana in his or her pocket. And because of the historical over-criminalization of marijuana, they have a very severe criminal record they have to live with their whole lives.”
Cowan believes it will take legislation like Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act to remove the stigma nationwide that is often associated with the cannabis industry across the country and on tribal lands.
However, the Choctaw Nation has recently started to address its laws concerning marijuana.
In April, the Choctaw Nation Tribal Council held a Special Session and voted to amend its Public Health and Safety Code to temporarily recognize medical marijuana. Before the vote, Choctaw nation members in possession of a valid state medical marijuana license, within the Choctaw Nation reservation, could have been arrested and charged for marijuana-related offenses in tribal court.
This ruling is only in effect until Nov. 13, when it will be repealed and the Choctaw Nation Tribal Council adopts other legislation.
In a release, the Choctaw Nation stated, “Tribal Council indicated that their intent is to research this issue further and propose better rules and regulations concerning medical marijuana for Native Americans within the Choctaw Nation reservation that minimize misuse of medical marijuana.”
Cowan said this move is a giant step forward for the Choctaw Nation.
“This is a huge milestone as patients who live in native housing were not allowed to consume their prescribed medications on tribal land in housing provided by the nation,” Cowan said. “Members of the tribe, such as myself, have been stripped of their rights due to the fact of the Nation’s hands being tied. We are a sovereign nation within a nation only allowed to operate within the (parameters) set forth by the federal government.”
Unfortunately for Cowan, none of this affects her custody case. The last time she appeared in court was March 22. At that time, Judge Mark Morrison with the District Court for the Choctaw Nation, ordered Arrow can stay with her father.
Yet, Cowan’s case is still alive.
“They are supposed to give me a decision on whether or not I regain my custody or I lose my custody,” Cowan said. “But I don’t know they can take my custody when they are currently infringing upon my civil liberties as a patient. That is my main argument. How is it that the state of Oklahoma can allow me to do
all these things and the Choctaw Nation not? So my attempt is that the Choctaw nation needs to be at the forefront of federal legislation being passed. My court case can set a prece
8 Ways to Advertise Your CBD Brand Online
by Teresa Shields
8 Ways to Advertise Your CBD Brand Online
Since the 2018 Farm Bill, the CBD market has grown tremendously. With so many brands trying to make their way into consumers’ hands, competition in the industry is high. However, the CBD market is facing strict regulations since it’s not federally approved.
The good thing is, there are several ways brands can advertise their products regardless of the hurdles. From social media marketing, SEO-based marketing to using trusted vape marketing agencies, companies can now take advantage of these diversified channels and create awareness of their products.
Image source: Pexels.com
Here are some of the ways you can promote your CBD brand online.
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Creating a Website
The website is where customers can find your products after searching or through referral. The page should contain clear and high-quality photos and videos about your CBD products because clients find attraction in quality visuals.
The website is a good place to provide users with your contact details, a brief description of the products, and probable reviews from previous customers. Having a company blog about CBD products attached to the website is also a great way to educate your customers and persuade them.
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Content Syndication
Another way to market your CBD brand is by being an author in some else’s blog. For this to work, choose a host with a good following of your target audience. Once done, write a blog post talking about your CBD products or company and have it republished by the host.
The best part about guest posts is that you can attach backlinks to your website and maintain the post’s originality. It is also a great way to reach a bigger audience and market your CBD products.
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Organic Social Media
Although social media platforms like Facebook have had restrictions on CBD advertising, the situation appears to be changing over time. While you may not have ads featuring CBD products on Facebook, You can create a page and build some following for your company.
The process may take some time and is recommendable as a long-term investment for the company. Frequently posting on your page ensures your followers remain engaged, and it could win them over to make a purchase.
Image source: Pixabay.com
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Influencer and Affiliate Marketing
Taking advantage of social media influencers with a massive number of followers can be beneficial to your company. However, you must choose someone with a good number of your target audience to be effective.
You should use affiliate links that the influencers can attach to their posts, leading to your website. Once customers make a purchase, the influencer gets a commission from the purchase, so it’s a win-win situation.
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SEO Marketing
One thing to note about this method is that it takes time, so if you are looking for instant results, you should incorporate other advertising methods mentioned above. However, although SEO marketing may take time, it is a good investment for the long term.
Image source: Pexels.com
If your company website achieves the SEO target and is better ranked by Google, customers can find it much faster. With customers having better access to your products, the sales target increases at a faster rate.
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Creating “How To” Videos
Today most products sell fast from watching videos concerning specific products. You can create videos educating customers on your CBD products’ uses and importance and post them online. By taking advantage of platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, you can reach a more significant number and persuade them to make a purchase.
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Podcasts
Many people are now listening to podcasts, so you can create a podcast that talks more about CBD products and the industry in general. Through the podcast, educate your audience about your products. Also, back that up with some evidence from research to win their trust. Since podcasts are a less competitive advertisement method, you can take advantage of that and win a more significant number of potential customers.
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Marketing Agency
There are a lot of marketing agencies supporting CBD products today. It is good to contact such agencies since they have the right tools to run your advertising campaigns. You need to note, though, there are several fraud agencies, so a little research before entrusting another company with your data is crucial.
Bottom Line
CBD advertising is a bit tricky and requires knowledge on how to go about it because of the restrictions. Before engaging in any advertising for your CBD products, it is advisable to contact your lawyer and have them advise on the right procedure to follow.
These tips, plus more research, will help you get started in the right direction. Remember, your goals have a huge influence on the method you settle for. Do you need instant or long-term results to maximize your investment? Your answer will guide you on the right approach.
References
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/congressional-testimony/hemp-production-and-2018-farm-bill-07252019
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974011/
https://www.usa.gov/style-guide/seo
BRAVO, JUSTICE THOMAS
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish
Cannabis Lawyer
If you are in the cannabis industry, you have a very powerful friend, a man who sits on the United States Supreme Court. The dissenting Statement respecting the denial of certiorari handed down on Monday, June 28, 2021, by United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Court’s most conservative justices, proves he is a friend of the industry and even suggests that change may be in the air.
While numerous bills have been introduced in Congress to accomplish needed changes in federal marijuana policies (I previously have written about these), when a U.S. Supreme Court Justice basically opines that federal marijuana policies have become nonsensical, one must wonder whether the courts will implement change if Congress fails to muster the courage to do so.
Standing Akimbo, LLC, et al. v. United States
The case in which Justice Thomas issued his Statement arrived at the Supreme Court on appeal from the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Standing Akimbo, LLC, et al. v. United States, No. 19-1049 (10th Cir. 2020). Notably, Oklahoma is one of the states under the jurisdiction of the Tenth Circuit.
This particular Tenth Circuit appeal arose out of a lower federal court (trial court) opinion issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, granting the government’s motion to dismiss a petition filed by Standing Akimbo, LLC, a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary, to quash certain summons the IRS had issued to the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division to confirm the dispensary owners’ tax liabilities under a civil audit of their federal tax returns.
The IRS had issued several summons in an attempt to uncover evidence that Standing Akimbo had claimed business deductions prohibited by § 280E of the IRS Code, and the dispensary asked the Court to quash (prohibit) the issuance of those summons. The Tenth Circuit rejected Standing Akimbo’s position and affirmed the trial court’s opinion allowing the various summons to be issued. Subsequently, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Standing Akimbo’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Standing Akimbo, LLC, et al. v. United States, No. 20-645 (decided June 28, 2021), 594 U.S. ___ (2021).
Justice Thomas’s 5-page Statement respecting the denial of certiorari
read it at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20-645_9p6b.pdf, provides “…federal policies [to prohibit the local cultivation and use of marijuana] of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning. Once comprehensive, the Federal Government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana. This contradictory and unstable state of affairs strains basic principles of federalism and conceals traps for the unwary.”
Citing the Department of Justice’s infamous Cole Memorandum dated August 29, 2013 (read it at https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf), wherein U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole advised federal prosecutors to refrain from
marijuana prosecutions in states where marijuana had been legalized (with eight exceptions), and a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion prohibiting expenditures on the prosecution of persons in compliance with state law (United States v. McIntosh, 833 F.3d 1163, 1168, 1175-55 [9th Cir. 2016]), Justice Thomas opined that “one can certainly understand why an ordinary person might think that the Federal Government has retreated from its once-absolute ban on marijuana[.]” (Statement at p. 3), and that “[o]ne can also perhaps understand why business owners in Colorado, like petitioners, may think that their intrastate marijuana operations will be treated like any other enterprise that is legal under state law.” Id. However, as the petitioners learned, “legality under state law and the absence of federal criminal enforcement do not ensure equal treatment.” Id.
Justice Thomas also noted that the “disjuncture between the Government’s recent laissez-faire policies on marijuana and the actual operation of specific laws is not limited to the tax context,” mentioning banking issues, among others, that state-legal marijuana businesses must face. Notably, Justice Thomas concluded that “[a] prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the Federal Government’s piecemeal approach [to cannabis regulation and policies].” Statement at p. 5.
NORML’s Executive Director, Erik Altieri, commented that “Justice Thomas’s comments reflect what has been obvious to the vast majority of Americans for some time now…This intellectually dishonest position [of federal marijuana prohibition] … complicates the ability of states to successfully regulate and oversee state-legal marijuana businesses … It is time for Congress to end this untenable situation by removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act so that states can make their own decisions with regard to marijuana and marijuana commerce free from undue federal interference.”
Sha’Carri dreams muffled by idiocy
Sha’Carri dreams muffled by idiocy
By Michael Kinney
There was no bigger name coming out of last month’s U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials than Sha’Carri Richardson. The Dallas native and LSU alum had been known for fashion style and fiery personality, but what she did during the trials showed she was more substance than flair.
Richardson not only won the 100-meter dash, but her qualifying time of 10.86 seconds also shattered the U.S. Olympic trials record. At the tender age of 21 Richardson had earned a spot on the US Olympic team and was set to head to Tokyo as one of the faces of the entire United States contingent.
Then it all fell apart.
On July 1 unsubstantiated reports emerged that Richardson had tested positive for a banned substance and could miss the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-Aug. 8). At the outset, most believed it was some type of steroid or performance-enhancing drug, which have cast a large shadow over previous Olympic games.
Richardson tweeted out a cryptic “I am human” early that morning, which only added to the speculation.
By the next day the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that it wasn’t steroids, but THC that was found in Richardson’s system during testing at the Olympic Trials, which were held in Oregon.
Because Cannabis is still on the banned substance list, Richardson accepted a 30-day suspension, which will keep her from running in the 100-meter dash at the Tokyo Olympics. It also wiped away her record time in the event.
Richardson spoke live on “Good Morning America” July 2 and said she had smoked marijuana after finding out from a reporter about the recent death of her biological mother.
“I was definitely triggered and blinded by emotions, blinded by badness, and hurting, and hiding hurt,” Richardson said. “I know I can’t hide myself, so in some type of way, I was trying to hide my pain. I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions, or deal with my emotions, during that time.”
Even though international regulators had already relaxed what constitutes a positive test for marijuana from 15 nanograms per milliliter to 150 ng/m, enough was found in Richardson’s system to show she had used it during the Olympic Trials.
According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency all synthetic and naturally occurring cannabinoids are prohibited in competition, except for cannabidiol (CBD).
I know what I did, I know what I’m supposed to do, what I’m allowed not to do,” Richardson said. “And I still made that decision.”
Regardless, public support has defiantly been on Richardson’s side. Her supporters spanned the entire spectrum of celebrities, athletes and political figures and they all are blaming the system for still looking at cannabis as illegal.
“The criminalization and banning of cannabis is an instrument of racist and colonial policy,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) said. “The IOC should reconsider its suspension of Ms. Richardson and any athletes penalized for cannabis use.”
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes posted on his Twitter account “This is so trash man… just let her run!”
NIKE, which is a major sponsor of Richardson, also has stood by her side.
“Sha’Carri Richardson’s situation is incredibly unfortunate and devastating for everyone involved. Athlete health and well-being continue to be one of USATF’s most critical priorities and we will work with Sha’Carri to ensure she has ample resources to overcome any mental health challenges now and in the future,” a statement read.
The loss of Richardson to Team U.S.A and the Tokyo Olympics, in general, will be huge. But the light she has put on the Cannabis industry maybe even bigger.
The support she has received from every walk of life shows that the stigma that use to be attached to marijuana is dissipating. People are no longer afraid to publicly support someone who uses it for recreation, medical or personal reasons.
Richardson still has a chance to still make it to the Olympics as part of Team USA 4×100 relay team. The event will take place after her suspension is over.
“Right now, I’m just putting all of my energy into dealing with what I need to deal with to heal myself,” Richardson said. “If I’m allowed to receive that blessing, then I’m grateful for it, but if not, right now I’m just going to focus on myself.”
Economic Impact
Economic Impact
by James Bridges
Herbage Magazine
Since 1971, the war on drugs has cost the United States an estimated $1 trillion. In 2015, the federal government spent an estimated $9.2 million every day to incarcerate people charged with drug-related offenses that’s more than $3.3 billion annually.
State governments spent another $7 billion in 2015 to incarcerate individuals for drug-related charges. North Carolina, for example, spent more than $70 million incarcerating people for drug possession. Georgia spent $78.6 million just to lock up people of color for drug offense 1.6 times more than the state’s budget current for substance use treatment services.
In contrast, marijuana legalization would save roughly $7.7 billion per year in averted enforcement costs and would yield an additional $6 billion in tax revenue. The net total $13.7 billion could send more than 650,000 students to public universities every year.
From The Front Line
by Chip Paul
Efforts are happening behind the scenes which will soon be very public around a repetition of the State for medical marijuana. While we, perhaps, have the best national situation in our program now, it can still be better. We have had a pretty good run with lawmakers who have helped us defend and nurture the program as it has developed. Sadly, but as with most things political, coalitions falter and sometimes break down. That is what we have seen this year in the Oklahoma State Legislature. The Oklahoma Senate seems to want very little to do with the pro- gram. The House is not the bulwark it used to be and we saw some things make it to floor votes that would have been detrimental to the program. Further, we still have people in jail for simple marijuana possession charges. We still have people be- ing denied jobs, or housing, or medical care because they hold a medical marijuana card.
So what will a petition look like?
Actually there will be two petitions. One will deal with criminal justice reform, patient rights, adult use, and full decriminalization. Basically cannabis becomes like turmeric. You are free to grow it, trade it, hold it, etc. The second petition will make some needed changes to the medical program. In particular, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority would be moved out from the Department of Health to a stand alone board. The board will be empowered to build and maintain the regulatory and issue licensing. We will tighten up the doctor patient relationship and will require a physician to have an OMMA license and also pass a proficiency exam. We will change track and trace to congeal around laboratory testing. Batch sizes for flower will be defined as a homogeneous environment (so strain, environment). All raw flower must be tested as it is today. The lab will be responsible for inputting, by batch number, the results. These results will be available in a public database accessible to patients and other commercial businesses.
The only other test that ever would be required is if you are concentrating the flower. After concentration it will need to be tested for metals, pesticide, and residual solvents. There is no other testing that is needed. Final products should rely on the COA’s of the underlying concentrates for potency calculations, just like in the FDA regulated food industry today.
If you would like to get involved watch the OK4UApproved facebook page. Also watch something called the Oklahoma Institute for Plant Molecule Medicine which will be coming online soon. We will have numerous opportunities to help, signature gathering the most needed!
Watch for ways you can sign up and help!
REGULAR SESSION OF OKLAHOMA’S 2021 LEGISLATURE HAS ENDED: WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE MMJ BILLS?
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer
Earlier this year I provided an introduction to some of the more substantive bills filed in the Oklahoma House and Senate pertaining to Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Program, and this spring I wrote about highlights concerning the more important bills that were passed by the legislative body in which they originated, and were referred to legislative committees in the other, non-originating legislative body at the time of my writing.
The regular session of Oklahoma’s 2021 Legislature ended on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The House and Senate adjourned after each passed last-minute bills that, should Governor Stitt sign one or both of them, would make minor changes to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana system. The Legislature passed several bills that the Governor has signed into law, which concern the MMJ program. Below are highlights.
House Bill 2272
HB 2272 is 7 pages long and becomes effective on July 1, 2021.
The most publicized aspect of this legislation concerned its original language that implemented a 2-year cap on any new OMMA commercial business licenses. This language was deleted from the bill as amended and passed. Thus, there remains no license cap in the State of Oklahoma.
HB 2272 does contain some provisions of which you should be aware, including the following:
1.HB 2272 addresses and requires the disclosure of foreign financial interests in MMJ business operations and includes new provisions concerning on-site “assessments” of a licensee or applicant to determine compliance, as well as limitations on inspections to twice per calendar year with 24-hours advance notice, unless OMMA determines an additional inspection “is necessary due to a violation or noncompliance”.
2.HB2272 codifies OMMA’s right to review relevant records and allows OMMA to interview persons affiliated with MMJ businesses, provided they are given time to secure legal counsel.
3.HB 2272 sets out circumstances under which disciplinary actions may be imposed on a MMJ business licensee, and monetary penalties for violations. It sets out what persons or entities may request a hearing to contest an action proposed or taken by OMMA, in accord with Oklahoma’s Administrative Procedures Act. In other words, OMMA will now be creating the framework for its administrative procedures.
4.HB 2272 provides that OMMA will begin scheduling on-site meetings and compliance inspections of your business starting September 1, 2021, for the primary purpose of confirming that you are “actively operating” or “working towards operational status.” If neither applies, then you will have a 180-day grace period to become operational. OMMA is authorized to grant one additional, 180-day grace period if needed.
Additional Bills Passed and Signed by the Governor, To Date
Additionally, the Legislature passed and Governor Stitt signed House Bill 2646, which is 90 pages long and becomes effective November 1, 2021. This legislation clarifies OMMA’s duties, among many other matters, and its provisions are simply too lengthy to discuss here.
Another notable bill signed but amended prior to its passage by both chambers is House Bill 2674, which is 16 pages long and becomes effective immediately under an emergency provision. Notably, the amended version of HB2674 does not impact Oklahoma’s MMJ system because a provision in earlier drafts of this bill that would have transferred OMMA from the Department of Health to the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission was removed, prior to passage of the final version which Governor Stitt signed.
What’s the take-away?
Be alert as these new laws become effective in the coming months.
Liberate & Celebrate
by Jasmine Harvey
Without truly knowing Juneteenth as a child, I was enthralled with the love and camaraderie during my first celebration of this historic and recently declared “national holiday.” Now as an adult I wanted to know more.
On September 22nd, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves from their bonds in the United States. Word of this proclamation reached the ears of former slaves over two years later, on June 19th, 1865.
It was the driving force of the late Senator Maxine Horner and Senator Penny Williams who brought Juneteenth to Tulsa in 1988. Senator Horner and Senator Williams created the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame to help push it forward. Senator Horner wanted black culture to have a voice – one that brings awareness to the trials and tribulations of the Black Community, and local & international talent gave voice and celebration to Juneteenth.
It was in 1994 that Juneteenth became a known holiday in the state of Oklahoma.
I was recently given the opportunity to sit down and speak with two of the organizers of the inaugural Tulsa Juneteenth: Connie Holt-Fisher and renowned Soul Singer and Producer Charles “Chuck” Cissel.
Connie was very excited to announce Senators Maxine and Penny didn’t have many hurdles during the festival preparations as everything was provided by very generous sponsors.
With Chuck pioneering jazz, blues, gospel and local artists to perform. Most of them were national and in some cases international artists. An Induction Banquet Gala as well with an award ceremony for the artists.
Maxine went for help to get the legislature passed and funding secured for Juneteenth celebrations. After getting sponsored by the state legislature the process became easier. Maxine was able to raise about $200k to get started from legislation.
Chuck was the CEO of the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. He was heavily involved with putting the programs together for the celebrations. “I brought in talent such as Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis to Wynton Marsalis, Maryln May, Taj Mahal and Eddie Palmieri, a Latin artist. A number of great talents have come through to celebrate with us at Juneteenth and the Induction Banquet Gala.”
I had the opportunity to ask Chuck about his biggest triumphs when Juneteenth came to be here in Oklahoma. He felt it was a “triumphant undertaking and experience for here in North Tulsa. Opportunity for Black folk to celebrate themselves. Juneteenth was when the slaves were freed and the Texas area got the news late. Two years later. That was our Fourth of July. When Connie and I were children we would go to Mohawk park in Tulsa, OK to celebrate Juneteenth.”
“We had to bring what our families made because we could not buy things then. In our lifetime we still couldn’t buy things in certain areas. It was a celebration of African American-hood. That for me was triumphant. I grew up here and we couldn’t even go Downtown.” Chuck and Connie were recalling.
They both concurred that Tulsa at that time was very segregated and for the most part felt they were unaccepted in the downtown area.
I was taken back while listening. It seemed as if it were just yesterday when members of the black community were discouraged to say the least from venturing into downtown for celebrations or a simple visit.
Chuck reminds us to read about what Juneteenth really is. “Learn your history. It’s important for us to know where we have come from in order to know where we are going.”
“Because they will not teach it,” Connie added.
For many of our families still alive today they have witnessed and been on the receiving end of oppression and segregation blatantly by those around them. As an African American Woman, I have personally witnessed this myself.
I have learned so much from my elders and am forever grateful for those who have paved the way for us today. As I listen to them speak of their past and current experiences, I will continue to strive for more knowledge about our history.
Juneteenth has long since been a celebration in the black community and allies alike. If you want to get involved or simply want to learn more about this historic time, research or reach out. With Juneteenth now marked as a National Holiday in the United States in 2021, I hope this is the step in the right direction for many more things to come. Hopefully for the better.
Today I celebrate!
Celebrate your heritage or if it’s not your heritage join in anyway.
Know why you celebrate.
Happy Juneteenth!
Texas – Landlocked and Surrounded by Legalization
by Veronica Castillo
Texas, the second-largest state in the United States, largest city Houston, largest metro Dallas- Fort Worth, and surrounded by legal/decriminalized states on all sides- refuses to legalize cannabis for medicine.
Present day, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are medicinally legal and/or decriminalized cannabis states. Meanwhile, Texas doesn’t want smokable hemp legal, they don’t want cannabis available for medicine in any flower form, and they still want to put people in jail for a gram of cannabis.
Recently, Marijuana Moment reported:
“The latest developments that have come after a week where Texas lawmakers have considered a medley of marijuana reform measures. But arguably the most significant piece of cannabis legislation to move out of committee would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.”
Texas- what are you doing? This is asked because in the same piece referenced above, it was reported that:
“Other decriminalization proposals that were under consideration by the panel this week would not prohibit that enforcement action, which is key because police are currently able to incarcerate people who are arrested for class C misdemeanors even though the charge itself does not carry the risk of jail time in sentencing.”
Texas Medical Cannabis Program
It’s weak to say the least. In Texas, medical cannabis means that cannabis products cannot contain more than .5% THC. Medical cannabis in Texas means that cancer, chronic pain, and PTSD are qualifying conditions for veterans only. The Texas medical cannabis program is so limited that decriminalization still hasn’t happened. CBD oil is the only thing safe.
Hear from Texas Residents and Refugee’s About Cannabis Legalization
Below, you’ll see and hear from three women, Texas residents and Texas refugee’s, all in support of cannabis legalization in Texas. Humans who have a desire to choose for themselves, the plants that they consume to treat their medical conditions. Humans that want the government to to release the shackles placed on a plant with a track record of success dating back to the ancient days.
Alexis Olive- Texas resident and supporter of cannabis legalization in Texas:
Lizzie Maldonado– Texas resident and supporter of Texas cannabis legalization:
Khadijah Adams– former Texas resident- relocated for access to cannabis:
Final Thoughts
Cannabis will prevail! The old south mentality is being laid to rest and a new day has arrived. It makes no sense to continue to write prescriptions for opioids in Texas. In 2018, Texas medical providers wrote 47.2 opioid prescriptions for every 100 people. Cannabis isn’t available there to treat with, so will Texas still use the “cannabis is a gateway drug” lame and outdated excuse?
Could it be that cannabis is the plant that sustains their prison system? Prison Policy reports that:
“Texas has an incarceration rate of 891 per 100,000 people; it locks up a higher percentage of its people than many wealthy democracies do.”
Texas- the time for legalization has come!
Harborside Decision
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer
Harborside was brilliantly briefed and argued before the Tax Court by my International Cannabis Bar Association colleague, Henry Wykowski, an exceptionally talented cannabis attorney headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If you are in the cannabis industry in Oklahoma or, for that matter, anywhere in the United States, you likely have heard of 280-E and the infamous 2018 Harborside decision of the U.S. Tax Court. If not, you need to know about both, along with a new decision filed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on April 22, 2021, upholding the Tax Court’s Harborside decision.
What is the Harborside Decision?
In Patients Mutual Assistance Collective Corporation d.b.a. Harborside Health Center v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 151 T.C. No. 11 (November 29, 2018) 2, the Tax Court determined Harborside, a well-known dispensary and brand based in Oakland, California that was co-founded by cannabis legend Steve DeAngelo, owed approximately $11 million in back taxes because it took business deductions and exclusions “in connection with the sale of a federally illegal substance.”
Harborside appealed the decision in Patients Mutual Assistance Collective Corporation, d.b.a. Harborside Health Center v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, No. 19-73078, filed April 22, 2021. On appeal, the issue considered by the Ninth Circuit was whether Harborside, a dispensary that purchases and resells marijuana and uses the cost method to value its inventory, must account for its inventory cost in accord with Section 1.471-3(b) of the Treasury Regulations.
While the issue sounds complicated, the impact on OMMA licensees is simple: for purposes of federal income tax, the only deduction available in calculating gross income is the cost of purchasing or producing the goods being sold (“cost of goods sold” or “COGS”). No standard business deductions are available to cannabis businesses in our country.
What is Section 280E and Who Cares?
A provision in the Internal Revenue Code known as Section 280E prohibits cannabis companies from claiming deductions and exclusions available to every other business in the country. Section 280E was enacted in 1982 after a U.S. Tax Court decision allowed a drug dealer to deduct expenses associated with his illegal business activities and provides:
No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within 2 the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by federal law or the law of any state in which such trade or business is conducted.
Since marijuana remains a Schedule I illegal substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), then OMMA licensees doing business within Oklahoma’s medical marijuana system are considered to be “trafficking in controlled substances” under the CSA and, as such, are not allowed any deduction or income tax credit for amounts paid or incurred in the course of their business activities.
To simplify how this impacts Oklahoma cannabis businesses, it means that the only deduction available in calculating gross income for purposes of federal income tax is the cost of purchasing or producing the goods being sold by that business (COGS). This would include, for example, the wholesale price of medical marijuana a dispensary owner pays to a grower or processor, or the cost a grower incurs from actually growing medical marijuana. It does not include expenses such as wages or rent.
In practice, Oklahoma medical marijuana companies (and cannabis businesses across the United States) often pay a tax rate of 80% to 90% to the IRS, unlike other businesses. Even if an OMMA licensee has a net loss on its books, the company will still incur significant federal tax liability.
So…what’s the take-away?
The Harborside decision, along with the IRS’s admission it has been training agents for at least eight years “in the finer details of auditing marijuana companies, using PowerPoint presentations that outline everything from legal precedents to questions that should be asked during interviews with business owners” should send you running to your cannabis CPA—which, by the way, is a must-have member of your team.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
Found Myself in Texas
by Brittiany Ralls
Visiting family and friends in Texas quickly reminds me of the days of the past. At least for a lot of the country at this point. Texas is still one of the few states that does not have a cannabis program in place that allows for a majority of their citizens to access their medicinal cannabis. The Texas program is limited to an extreme and is denying many of its citizens the medical option they need in place of the pain management facilities that are the current option. Many of which are just fueling the war on drugs that has clearly been lost. So many people are still relying on this as an only option, leaving many using substances that are detrimental to their long-term health and no end in sight with the current climate of regulation. There are hopes of new regulations coming that could change cannabis laws. In Texas, there is always hope. But, never quite the reform that is necessary.
We as humans all have an endocannabinoid system that is directly affected by the cannabinoids we take in just like any other vitamin or nutrient-rich substance necessary for the sustainment of life. Especially a happy one. Yet there are children, elderly, disabled, shit every human in a way has had to suffer without the correct cannabinoids to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Science is completely disregarded as if it isn’t a part of this that matters. When in reality our doctors haven’t even been taught about a system that does exist within our bodies. So how would they even begin to know how to practice with a medicine and bodily system they know nothing about. They can’t in good conscience tell you anything about the endocannabinoid system, they never even learned about it. Since cannabis is an illegal substance that somehow decided that the system within our bodies no longer existed also?! I didn’t realize that’s how science worked. This is why we need access to information that we can rely on as patients. With the current climate, we can’t even go to our doctors to get information that we know we can rely on. That is why utilizing resources like Herbage Magazine is so vital. Writers, like me, want the real information. We want to give you the information you can count on, the information you know is helpful.
Which is what our goal will be, impacting the Texas community by educating and stimulating the community through volunteering. Showing the citizens of Texas, who are hesitant about cannabis, that we are wanting to be a part of society and impact it in a good way. That we are more than willing to prove our intentions through action within our communities by providing the bridge needed for the path necessary for growth as humans, and righting the many wrongs done by the war on drugs. By showing who we are, what we support, and being honest about our needs, we can make changes to the current medical cannabis program. With the help of those in support we need everyone we can get to make the changes we want to see for those that we care about and the life we know we are deserving of. Which includes access to cannabis as a medicine for as many Texans as possible. Who’s ready for this wild ride? I know I am!
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Brittiany Ralls | Consultant
brittiany.adilas@gmail.com
936.239.6257
From the Front Lines
by Chip Paul | Gnupharma/OK4U
What is up with the OMMA? Has your commercial cannabis business been inspected? Did you know every other license the OMMA issues, you MUST be inspected BEFORE you are awarded your license? A marijuana commercial business license is the only Oklahoma State Department of Health issued license you can get WITH ABSOLUTELY NO INSPECTION. Does anyone else find this odd?
Further, with the lack of physician education on the endocannabinoid system, patients have to rely on and trust a budtender for advice about a substance they are using medically. What training is that budtender required to have? Yep, ZERO.
Where is the protector of patient rights and patient protections? This should be our Oklahoma State Department of Health. Why are they not suggesting these additional protections to lawmakers? Hair Cutting is more tightly controlled than marijuana at the moment. Now why would that be?
A METRC Primer
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish |
Many months ago, OMMA announced that it had awarded METRC its seed-to-sale contract. Now, implementation is in full swing, with initial training and credentialing classes available and completion required by March 26, 2021. Notably, OMMA also has announced that it will require beginning inventory to be completely reported into METRC by April 30, 2021. Perhaps this spring’s million-dollar question in Oklahoma is, “What does METRC mean for OMMA commercial business licensees?”.
What is METRC?
METRC is a privately owned track-and-trace system that depends on 1) physical, proprietary RFID tags that must be purchased only from METRC, and 2) METRC’s online, cloudbased software. This software requires an internet connection and computer for access, and supports an open “Application Programming Interface” (“API”) that allows licensees to use METRC with any third-party point of sale systems (“POS”) that have the appropriate API to integrate with METRC. However, such a third-party POS is not required, because a licensee can input its sales data into METRC directly, if they so desire.
METRC’s implementation by OMMA is not for the benefit businesses or patients. Instead, the METRC system benefits the governmental agency who has contracted with it—here, OMMA. METRC offers online training, inventory and lab testing guides, and an Oklahoma-specific supplemental guide. METRC’s website states that it has provided track-and-trace solutions for 13 other states and the District of Columbia. Thus, while it is not in use by all medical (or adult-use) programs, it certainly has a significant stake in the market share.
METRC charges licensees $40 per month, per license, as a reporting fee to access the platform and for ongoing support, maintenance, training, and the like. In addition, METRC’s proprietary RFID tags are 45 cents per plant tag and 25 cents per package tag. These tags are not interchangeable or reusable. They contain barcodes and chips that uniquely identify each plant and package, as the case may be, operating like serial numbers for each plant. These RFID tags must be read with an RFID tag reader. Here in Oklahoma, where we have only a medical system, the tags will be yellow. Blue tags are used for adult-use/recreational systems. Users must manually enter additional information, including weight, custody transfers, and test results into the METRC system. All information is only available to each specific licensee and to OMMA.
Training Requirements
OMMA requires all licensees—those currently operating and those with commercial business licenses that are not currently operating—to complete METRC training and credentialing classes. METRC began offering daily training classes for employees on March 1, 2021, and all METRC training and subsequent credentialing of businesses into OMMA licensees’ user accounts must be completed by March 26, 2021.
After completion of the training and credentialing, then licensees will have access to a Beginning Inventory Guide, which provides the information necessary for licensees to enter their initial plant and/or package inventories into METRC’s system. Given the short time fuse on full integration requirements mandated by OMMA, licensees should complete their METRC training and credentialing, and review the Beginning Inventory Guide as soon as possible.
Impact on Licensees
OMMA requires all commercial business licensees to enter and report their beginning inventory into METRC by April 30, 2021. What does this mean, exactly? On April 30, 2021, the beginning inventory period for METRC closes and OMMA commercial business licensees who are actually operating must report all inventory transactions to, and into, METRC. In other words, the last monthly report OMMA commercial business licensees (who are actually operating) will submit to OMMA will be the April 2021 report, which will be filed by licensees in May 2021. However, OMMA licensees who are not actually operating will continue their filing of “zero inventory” monthly reports with OMMA.
Every licensee must have a designated “METRC Administrator” in the METRC system, to complete the credentialing process. The METRC Administrator must be an owner or a designated manager of the OMMA licensee, and must complete METRC’s new business training course, which is provided in a webinar-format at this time. OMMA has advised that advanced training classes will become available in the future, and will be tailored for administrators according to license type. Licensees should select the METRC Administrator with great care, given that these persons will have complete access to, and control over, the licensee’s governmental reporting system. Any missteps or sabotage by a disgruntled employee could prove fatal to the licensee’s compliance and could likely result in fines or loss of the license.
While OMMA has not overtly stated this, it is axiomatic that METRC will lock down genetics statewide. What does this mean? As of April 30, 2021, no out-of-state genetics will be considered acceptable under OMMA standards and Oklahoma law. While the issue of out-of-state seeds has arguably remained somewhat of a gray area, METRC’s implementation transforms the gray to a clear black and white. OMMA’s statewide track and trace system will easily flag any seeds that cannot be accounted for as having originated in the State of Oklahoma, and genetics acquired from outside the state will not be acceptable or legal.
So…what’s the take-away?
It could be a stressful spring here in the Wild, Wild West.
Changes In the Wind
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish | Cannabis Lawyer
Has the pandemic given Oklahoma legislators too much time to ponder what changes they would like to see in Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program? Perhaps. As of January 22, 2021, they have filed a combined number of approximately 38 bills (some are only one-page titles and several are arguably redundant) relating to medical marijuana in some form or fashion.
Authors of Bills Filed
Authors in the House of Representatives filing bills relating to medical marijuana include Representatives May, (Josh) West, Roberts (Dustin), Davis, Frix, Kannady, Echols, Ford, Pfeiffer, Sneed, West (Rick), Fetgatter, Townley, and Humphrey. Authors in the Senate of bills filed that relate to medical marijuana include Dahm, Paxton, Daniels, Standridge, Rader, Bergstrom, Leewright, Montgomery, Taylor, and Hicks.
Whether some of these bills actually make it out of committee and to a floor vote in either legislative body, much less approval by both bodies and signed into law by the Governor, all remains to be seen. However, it is important to track what has been filed and each bill’s ultimate fate in the upcoming 2021 legislative session.
Highlights
The bills filed by the above-named state legislators cover a plethora of topics related to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program. Descriptions of several substantive bills filed in the state House of Representatives include the following: revenue and taxation changes (House Bill [“HB”] 1908); delivery by dispensaries to certain private residences (HB1960); referendum to Oklahoma voters for the “Oklahoma Adult Access to Marijuana Act of 2021 (HB1961); and clarification of OMMA’s duties and functions with amendments to S.Q. 788 via the “Oklahoma Marijuana Act of 2021” (HB2004).
Descriptions of some substantive bills filed in the state Senate include the following: directing OMMA to contract with one or more third-party vendors to provide licensing services (Senate Bill [“SB] 522); criminal penalties for OMMA-licensed patients who carry or use firearms when “under the influence of medical marijuana” and additional preclusions for Oklahomans eligible for a handgun license under the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act (SB442); amending current restrictions on smoking medical marijuana in certain areas including: airport restrictions on medical marijuana use “in any area that is open to or used by the public” indoors or outdoors if within 175 feet from an entrance, same as to an “indoor workplace”, basically designating all state-owned, county or municipal-owned buildings and educational facilities as tobacco and marijuana free (SB445); modifying workplace drug and alcohol procedures and safety-sensitive positions, including additional rights of medical marijuana patients (SB459); amending definitions in the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act (“Unity Act”) concerning testing laboratory licenses, requiring testing of medical marijuana waste prior to transfer and separation of such waste into waste batches, and clarifying or revising certain definitions (SB680); permitting pharmacists to compound products containing marijuana or THC in the event marijuana becomes legal under federal law (SB696); and basically prohibiting schools and landlords from refusing to enroll or lease, respectively, to OMMA-licensed medical marijuana patients, unless doing so would cause the loss of monetary of licensing-related benefits under federal law (SB1033).
As the 2021 legislative session progresses, it will be interesting to see whether Oklahoma’s legislature chooses to avoid the traps that have snared so many other states’ medical and adult-use marijuana programs—chief among them over-regulation, over-taxation, and unduly burdensome regulatory requirements with little, if any, benefit to medical marijuana patients and state-licensed medical marijuana businesses.
So…what’s the take-away?
Once again, it’s going to be a very busy spring here in the Wild, Wild West.
From the Front Lines
by Chip Paul
GnuPharma
Some of you are old enough to recall the effort that Austin TX started maybe 20 or 25 years ago. Austin made a very conscious effort to become the hub of the next Silicon Valley. They created State incentives, they started research, they started University level programs. They attracted the first wave of tech companies. The first wave of tech companies then brought the second wave of tech companies. And now they have major opportunities, like Tesla, which they have landed.
In Oklahoma, how do we compete? What advantageous situation do we have that we can capitalize on? Well, if you see it, certainly medical marijuana. We have the most unique and open medical program in the country and we have a research license written into our law. What about hemp? We certainly have an opportunity to lead there. Plant-based molecules, which is what we at GnuPharma do, are advancing scientifically, and we have a whole new wave of therapeutics based on hallucinogens headed our way. Is Oklahoma very uniquely positioned to attract a new wave of pharma companies? Pharma companies that base their science on safe plant-based medicines?
I certainly think so. Many of you also are thinking this way. Many of us believe that the majority of pharma will, over the coming years, trend toward these safe alternatives. Pharma of today has a place, but that place really is in acute and critical care. If I get run over by a truck, give me my morphine. However, for a headache, or an allergy, or minor inflammation, there are effective natural products and cannabis solutions that can be administered without safety concerns. Pharma is and will continue to trend toward natural products, meaning plant-based molecules. They work, sometimes better than pharma, and have a high degree of safety.
So what do we do? Well, we are currently socializing an effort to look at attracting these companies. I do not know exactly what that effort will look like yet. It will take shape based on what we want to start with and who we want to approach. I do know that both the Lt. Governor’s office and the Secretary of Commerce offices are both willing to at least scratch the surface and see what we can do.
We have come a long way in two years! Let’s continue to press the advantage Oklahoma has with marijuana and extend that advantage. Sound like a plan? If so, you can join the non-profit efforts at www.ok4uapproved.com and watch for a newer non-profit to emerge.
Congress Boards the MJ Research Train
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer
In the wake of passing the MORE Act, which I wrote about in my December 2020 column, two other Acts related to marijuana were passed by Congress at the end of 2020. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Medical Marijuana Research Act (“MMRA”) on December 9, 2020. MMRA is bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Andy Harris (R-MD) that addresses the burdensome impediments to legitimate medical research. Subsequently, on December 15, 2020, the U.S. Senate approved its own bipartisan bill, the Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act (CMREA). The CMREA also promotes cannabis studies and addresses current impediments.
A 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that “research on the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids has been limited in the United States, leaving patients, health care professionals, and policy makers without the evidence they need to make sound decisions regarding the use of cannabis and cannabinoids.” Thus, passage by the House and Senate of MMRA and CMREA is good news moving into 2021. It appears that Congress finally recognizes the value of cannabis research, and plans to encourage studies by removing antiquated federal roadblocks. The caveat is that, in order for federal legislation to become law, it must be passed by the House and the Senate, and signed by the President. Hopefully, Congress will reach an agreement on a unified version of these two bills during the early months of 2021.
Barriers to Cannabis Research
Federal law severely limits studies concerning health benefits of cannabis. There is a burdensome registration procedure, protocol reviews are redundant in many instances, security requirements are onerous and unnecessary, especially given that approximately ninety-nine percent of Americans now live in a state where marijuana is legal in some form, and there is just a complete lack of significant research. Limitations also apply to where marijuana for research can be obtained and unfortunately, the quality of that marijuana has been poor—a recognized fact now—which has inevitably hampered accurate results of any significant research studies concerning its health benefits
Source Limitations for Marijuana Used in Research Since “marihuana” remains a Schedule I substance under the federal 1970 Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) regulates its cultivation for research purposes. The DEA controls registration requirements and establishes annual aggregate production quotas under the authority of the CSA. Unbelievably, the DEA has issued only one registration for research marijuana cultivation—to the University of Mississippi. Thus, only the University of Mississippi has been authorized to grow marijuana for use in research studies. Every few years, the University designates the land where marijuana crops are grown based on current and expected demand. Then, the marijuana is grown, harvested, stored, and made available in bulk or as particular elements of the plant, for use in research. The subpar quality of the University-grown marijuana renders it almost useless in conducting serious studies that might yield reliable, usable data leading researchers to significant conclusions about marijuana’s health benefits.
Additionally, studies have shown that this marijuana has lower levels of THC and CBD as compared to commercial grade cannabis products and is, in fact, genetically closer to hemp than the marijuana varieties sold at dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal. Given that marijuana and hemp are genetically distinct, reliance upon the low-grade marijuana cultivated at the University of Mississippi for research about its health benefits is problematic. Participants in studies who consume the varieties cultivated at the University may experience vastly different effects than patients and adult-use consumers that obtain their marijuana product from dispensaries, yielding unreliable results and faulty conclusions. However, efforts by the DEA to expand the number of federally authorized marijuana cultivators for research purposes are underway, and passage of the above pieces of legislation will likely ensure that higher quality marijuana becomes available for research purposes.
Medical Marijuana Research Act
The MMRA achieves four main goals. It addresses the poor quality and inadequate supply of medical-grade marijuana available for use in research; provides a clear path for researchers to study cannabis products used by patients and adult-use consumers pursuant to state-legal programs; streamlines the unduly burdensome, redundant process that researchers must navigate before obtaining a license to conduct marijuana research while guarding against misuse and abuse; and requires that the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provide a report on the status and results of new research concerning the health benefits of marijuana.
The full text of the MMRA can be found here.
Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act
The CMREA, passed by the Senate, is primarily intended to streamline the application process for researchers to study marijuana and to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to develop cannabis-derived medicines. The congressional summary of the Act states that it allows “accredited medical and osteopathic schools, practitioners, research institutions, and manufacturers with a Schedule I registration” to cultivate their own cannabis for research purposes. This provision would insulate researchers from the requirement of using the poor quality marijuana cultivated at the University of Mississippi.
The Act also specifies that physicians can discuss the risks and benefits of marijuana with patients, and, in similarity to the required report under the MMRA, requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to submit a report concerning the potential health benefits of marijuana and addressing barriers to cannabis research and how best to overcome those barriers. The CMREA has been endorsed by mainstream medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
The full text of the CMREA can be found here.
Differences in MMRA and CMREA
One major difference in the MMRA and the CMREA is that the House bill (MMRA) allows scientists to obtain marijuana from dispensaries in legal states for research purposes, whereas the CMREA allows them to cultivate their own marijuana for such purposes. Both provisions are clearly designed to circumvent current federal requirements that marijuana used for research purposes must be cultivated at the University of Mississippi. Another difference in the two pieces of legislation is the provision in the CMREA protecting physicians from penalties under the CSA, to allow discussion of risks and benefits of marijuana products with patients.
Will we see more federally-approved marijuana research projects in 2021?
Stay tuned.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
From the Front Lines
by Chip Paul
At this writing 2020 is coming to an end. Perhaps the craziest year of my lifetime. In addition to not knowing the truth about a mask, we cannot even conclude a Presidential election. We are beginning to learn about numerous foreign influences in our politics and major institutions. I would wager there will be accountability and justice soon. Let’s just hope this doesn’t hit too close to home.
Our cannabis industry was thankfully and necessarily declared an “essential” business that needed to stay open even during the worst of the china flu. Man have we come a long way since this all kicked off in 2014.
So what will happen with cannabis in Oklahoma in 2021? Here are my predictions:
- – we will increase our patient count to 15% of our overall population
- – the number of active and open cannabis commercial business will decrease
- – an adult-use bill will be considered by the Oklahoma State Legislature
- – the OMMA will greatly increase inspections
- – the OMMA will partner with industry groups and trade organizations to help educate patients
- – Oklahoma will continue to lead the cannabis market with new innovations
- – TRUE marijuana research will begin in Oklahoma
- – education will continue to be a huge issue in the gap between medicine and cannabis
Happy new year everyone! Good bye and good riddance to 2020! Let’s make 2021 a rebuilding and renewing year.
More Act
WILL THE MORE ACT LEGALIZE MARIJUANA ACROSS THE COUNTRY?
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer
One of the questions I often am asked is whether, or when, Congress will legalize marijuana. Federal legislation has been introduced to accomplish this—either for medicinal purposes (CARERS Act of 2019) or for whatever purposes each particular state has legalized marijuana (STATES Act). The MORE Act decriminalizes marijuana and recognizes the rights of states to enact their own laws concerning it.
Significantly, the MORE Act is set for a floor vote in the United States House of Representatives the first week in December 2020, somewhere between Wednesday, December 2 and Friday, December 4, 2020. This upcoming floor vote is historic because it is the first ever Congressional roll call concerning a bill that would end federal marijuana criminalization, and by the time you read this, that vote likely will have occurred.
What is the MORE Act?
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (“MORE Act”) would remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Currently marijuana, like heroin, is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance under that Act.
Decriminalization vs. Legalization
The MORE Act would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. However, decriminalization is not the same as legalization. Decriminalization is the removal of criminal penalties, whereas legalization is the removal all penalties.
However, the MORE Act would also recognize each state’s law concerning marijuana, thereby permitting states to enact their own regulation policies so that marijuana would continue to remain illegal in some states while legal in others. If the Act passes, then those states which have legalize marijuana for medical or adult (recreational) use, including Oklahoma’s medical system, would no longer have to live under the threat of federal interference with their marijuana laws or federal prosecution for the use, possession, or distribution of marijuana.
Assistance for Victims of The War on Drugs
Notably, the MORE Act would expunge and seal previous nonviolent federal marijuana-related arrests and convictions for those not currently serving their sentences. Those currently serving sentences for federal marijuana arrests and/or convictions would have the opportunity for a review of their sentences, with the potential to have their records expunged and their sentences vacated. As such, this aspect of the MORE Act represents a welcome reprieve for those adversely impacted by the war on drugs.
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish
Additional provisions include the establishment of an Office of Cannabis Justice within the Department of Justice. This Office would be responsible for administering grants to aid communities negatively affected by the war on drugs, including an “Opportunity Trust Fund” and a “Community Reinvestment Grant Program”. The Act would prohibit the denial of any federal public benefits, like housing, on the basis of marijuana use, and prohibit any adverse impact under federal immigration laws for those who use or possess marijuana. The MORE Act would also impose a five percent commercial sales tax on marijuana, the proceeds of which would be designated, at least in principle, to assist those adversely impacted by the war on drugs.
Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, stated back in August 2020, when House lawmakers were originally preparing for a September floor vote on the MORE Act, that “Passage of the MORE Act is essential in order to truly right the wrongs of federal marijuana criminalization, and to once and for all allow the majority of states that have legalized cannabis for either medical or adult-use to embrace these policies free from the threat of undue federal prosecution or interference.”
Will we see federal policy change by 2021?
Stay tuned.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
From the Front Lines
by Chip Paul | Chief Innovator GnuPharma
At this writing we are a few weeks away from perhaps the most important election in our history. Further, it seems our world is upside. Covid, corruption, rioting in US cities. What to make of it all? I tend to take the optimistic view.
How do you create change? It isn’t by “going along”. You create change by fighting an entrenched system and that is difficult. What is happening is about change. We, the American People are demanding it. We want truth, as hard as that may be to swallow.
In my mind, America is “waking up” just like #wethepeople did here in Oklahoma when we demanded change. Our Oklahoma medical marijuana movement is a beacon of what can be done when we unify around a cause.
And why is marijuana important? Marijuana works first and foremost. It has medical efficacy with numerous disregulation/diseases. By WHY does it work? Therein lies the magic.
It works because it affects an internal system we have called the endocannabinoid system (ECS). This system is currently severely under studied and under appreciated by pharma and medicine. When this system is fully understood great strides can be made in medicine. In fact great strides are being made right now by numerous people in the endocannabinoid field.
For instance, our company, GnuPharma, is now getting exceptional results with autism symptoms in a safe formulation. We were able to develop it due to our understanding of the endocannabinoid system. Autistic people have disregulations in the ECS.
As the ECS model is fully understood by researchers, physicians, and educators, no disease of disregulation will be out of reach! Brave new world a’comin’…let’s stick together here in Oklahoma and see where we can take it!
The latest from Chip Paul…
Buckle Up
By Michael Kinney
In 2016 Daniel Lewis took a trip to Santa Rosa, Calif. While the views of Sonoma County are amazing and touring the wineries can be enjoyable, that’s not why he took the 1,600 mile trip to the West Coast.
Lewis was attending the Emerald Cup, which he describes as the biggest Cannabis Championship and Harvest Festival in the nation.
“I had a great time and really enjoyed the environment,” Lewis said. “I said it that weekend, when Oklahoma legalizes cannabis, that this is what I want to do. I wanted to throw a cannabis championship. I liked the business model. I liked the atmosphere. I loved the camaraderie that it brings. To be able to finally smoke cannabis in front of everybody and not be this thing we’re trying to hide is huge, Oklahoma needed an event like this.”
Lewis had only one problem. At the time cannabis was still illegal in Oklahoma. But he knew at some point that would change. He just didn’t know when. The moment came sooner than Lewis expected when State Question 788 was put before the people in 2018.
“I knew we had a really good chance of passing it when we got it on the ballot,” Lewis said. “I just didn’t expect that it would have happened so soon in Oklahoma. We’re a pretty red state, we’re a conservative state, and the fact that we did it here, I mean, that speaks volumes for medical cannabis.” As soon as Lewis got over being stunned, he knew what his next move needed to be: bring a cannabis festival to Oklahoma as soon as possible.
That idea spawned into what is now the annual Cowboy Cup. It was held for the first time in 2019.
“We hosted the event the first year we could do it,” Lewis said. “They passed 788 in October of 2018, so we didn’t have time to do it that year. So we started planning for 2019. We set it in December to include outdoor. It’s not a comprehensive state-wide competition without outdoor flower.”
The 2nd Annual Cowboy Cup is set for Dec. 4-5 at the Tumbleweed Dance Hall in Stillwater.
Lewis and the other event sponsors didn’t want to settle for just a one day showcase. When they put together the festival, they wanted it to be, as their tagline suggests, ‘A Cannabis Event Oklahoma Can be Proud of.’
In addition to naming this year’s champions, the Cowboy Cup offers a variety of entertainment throughout the weekend, including glass blowing expositions, live art, cannabis-ed seminars, food trucks and live music. Friday night’s line up includes music from Big Smo, Jack Waters and the Unemployed, and TJ Mays. Saturday features several acoustic acts on the Herbage Lounge Stage, and the Full Flava Kings and Rousey on the main stage starting at 7 p.m.
“The Cowboy Cup is an inclusive celebration for all that support the choice of cannabis. The music, food, and people are diverse and last year’s event blew me away with how many people come together to celebrate,” said Chet Tucker of Arcadia Brands.
“There’s a vendor tent with cultivators, processors, dispensary booths, and other goods and services for the cannabis community. There’s a lounge tent to take a load off and have a bite to eat, a drink, and smoke if you choose. And most importantly, within the iconic Tumbleweed, you have the clean dance hall, a stage for live music, artist booths, and even seminars to learn about products and services. The staff and volunteers of The Cowboy Cup are there to ensure everyone is enjoying their time and their level of dedication to serving vendors, sponsors, and ticket holders are second to none. Put simply, it’s a two-day celebration of enjoying what Mother Earth naturally provides us.”
Arcadia Brands is one of several sponsors who have dedicated their time, products and money to making the Cowboy Cup a success. Others include Express Toxicology, Escalated Greens, Bros Grimm, Oaksterdam, Simply Green Farms, Golden Trends, Ruby Mae’s, Argent, Green Green Expo, Kosmik Brands, Green Mountain Farms, Zenoa Cannabis and Red Sky.
“On top of working with our excellent sponsors, we pride ourselves on partnering with media and marketing companies, like iHeartMedia, Herbage Magazine, Custom 420 and HotBox Digital to promote medical cannabis and all of the great folks in this industry,” Lewis said.
“Who doesn’t love a great event? Daniel and his team work year-round to make sure the Cowboy Cup is just that, a great event,” said Kaylen Newbury of Express Toxicology Services. “It ties together patient advocacy, education, competition, community and a deep-rooted love for cannabis.”
One of the main goals of the Cowboy Cup is to spread the word about the importance of cannabis in the medical industry.
With the passage of SQ788, it gave Oklahoma a chance to be a major player in the medical marijuana field. And it’s an opportunity the people of the state have taken advantage of so far.
According to Cannabisreportworld.com, Oklahoma is second to only Oregon in the number of dispensaries per capita at 15.6 per 100,000 residents. There were nine Oklahoma cities listed within the top 30 rankings as well.
The rankings were introduced at the start of 2020. So undoubtedly the market share has increased.
“If you want to go get a grower’s license in California, it’s somewhere around a million dollars,” Lewis said. “You can do that same thing with unlimited plants in Oklahoma for $3,000. That’s an open market that helps keep out all the big businesses because we’ve got plenty of little businesses supplying the market. We don’t need big stores coming down here. Our medical marijuana industry is growing to be the biggest one in the nation. We’re not ranked yet, but that’s coming.”
Golden Trend’s Celina Harrison agrees with Lewis.
“With its free-market approach, Oklahoma is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the county,” Harrison said. “To other states with more restrictive licensing, Oklahoma represents the financial future of what cannabis can become. It’s a new industry that is highly entrepreneurial in nature. Standardization, quality control and continuing research will benefit the citizens of Oklahoma immeasurably.”
The objective of the Cowboy Cup is to get all of the facets of the Oklahoma cannabis industry in one place so they can strengthen their position nationwide.
“It’s about getting everyone together in one place. Growers, processors, dispos, patients and the canna-curious,” Lewis said. “It’s a harvest celebration, party and overall great time, but at its core, it’s a good competition that helps the industry. A lot of collaborations come out of this. We do provide a festival environment, but at the same time, we want to provide a good networking environment. The competition helps set the standard for quality cannabis.”
Oklahoma-based, Desarae Gibson of Escalated Greens says “The Cowboy Cup means everything to this industry. It’s a patient-focused event celebrating Oklahoma’s cannabis companies wherein the industry gets to indulge in the community; sharing ideas and trade secrets. The man behind the event is an Okie with a passion for this community and the businesses within it and this event will be proof of just that.”
Gibson reiterated, “We want to share what we’ve learned along the way and learn from others companies what they’ve discovered, but the most exciting part is educating the patients and learning from them what they like and what they’re looking for in their medical marijuana.”
The Cowboy Cup features two divisions for growers to enter their products for competition. They are Sun Grown Flower Entry and Sun Grown Light Assists Flower Entry.
Growers and processors compete in 19 different categories, including sun-grown flower, sun-grown light-assist flower, indoor flower, pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, tinctures and topicals.
“I believe the Cowboy Cup puts a spotlight on the best products in the state,” Chet Tucker said. “Those that submit their products are vetted through two phases of testing and independent judging. To me, it means transparency and a celebration of the freedom of choosing plant-based medicine.”
Winners in each category are awarded high quality sterling silver, gold and brass belt buckles custom made by Montana Silversmiths.
The winners also receive a $500 scholarship to Oaksterdam University that is transferable to whomever they wish. Oaksterdam University is recognized as leader in academic rigor and applied learning in cannabis education. “The overall winner, The Grand Flower Champion receives a special buckle and a full ride scholarship to Oaksterdam,” Lewis said. “This winner is chosen between the winners of indoor and outdoor flower categories. Competitors who rank high in our competition find their products selling more rapidly and at higher profits due to increased demand. This competition lets consumers know who has the best products in the state.”
Since the inception of the event, Lewis focuses on the integrity and legitimacy of the competition. He has seen other festivals fall prey to cheating scandals and biased results and he doesn’t want that to happen in Oklahoma. Their motto is “You Can’t Buy our Buckle”.
“Our judging is and always will be completely fair, unbiased and educated. We will gather judges from across the state. Some of which will work in the industry and some will simply be patients,” Lewis said. “This year we have made some big changes to our judging. We not only have expanded our judging panels from 10 to 20 judges per category, but also we have partnered with the world-renowned Oaksterdam University to assist in setting our judging criteria and scales. On top of that, they are providing a training workshop for all of our judges. Our judges will receive blind, coded samples for each entry with the exception of the edibles and tincture categories, which we have changed to “branded” categories this
year.”
“I am so proud to associate with Daniel and his team of experts that are bringing the true nature of our loving cannabis community together,” James Bridges said. “Herbage Magazine and all of our team are very pleased to team up with positive and caring people and their brands.”
Because the championship is known for its honesty and transparency, companies want to be associated with it.
“The Cowboy Cup increases visibility and highlights the professionalism Oklahoma producers are bringing to the medical cannabis industry in Oklahoma,” Harrison said. “At Golden Trends we were eager to throw our support behind the state’s first cannabis championship by being a Gold Sponsor. We encourage everyone to come out and support the efforts of so many within the industry. Whether you are already a patient or just cannabis curious, you should attend this event and enjoy the music, food and competition.”
The Cowboy Cup has the ability to affect several areas at once, according to Newbury with Express Toxicology. “Oklahoma is so different from other states in how we operate our Medical Marijuana program,” Newbury said. “Master and novice growers have the opportunity to enter and show off their babies. They put their hearts behind their products and patients’ health and well-being first.”
According to Lewis, the first Cowboy Cup had around 130 total entries vying for the championship titles in various categories. He is expecting much more this year.
“I think we had 50 or 60 flower entries last year. We have 81 of them this year,” Lewis said. “The concentrates went crazy. The edibles went crazy. The numbers really went up in those categories. So we’re at 175 total entries so far, and the sun-grown flower won’t be in until mid-November. And I imagine we’ll get another 40. So I think I expected a number over 200 this year and I felt if we got that, we’d be on target. If the outdoor growers show up like the other categories, we’ll easily meet that goal.”
In many ways the Cowboy Cup is a reflection of the cannabis industry in the state. Despite its youth, it has gained national attention and continues to grow unprecedented. The same can be said of what is taking place in Oklahoma. In just a few short years the state has made its mark in the world of cannabis, and
the future seems to be even brighter.
“The cannabis industry in Oklahoma is continually evolving and growing. We’re a central piece within the United States and we’re being heard loud and clear across the country,” Tucker said. “We’ve had some amazing cross-pollination of people from states that have had a jump on the legalization of cannabis and I see it continuing. I do love, however, how Oklahomans are learning about the locally built companies and supporting them while also learning which medicinal offerings best suit them. I believe it’ll continue to grow as we support those producing the best cannabis and products in the state.
National Expungement Week, Black Cannabis Week, and How Supporting Black Owned Helps Society
by Veronica Castillo
Photo Credit: www.classpass.com
The truth is the truth, in this country, black people have been at the bottom of importance, since Columbus and his boys showed up. So much of this country’s history is rooted in the oppression of black people and suppression of our rights. Changes have been made, but we are still being attacked.
If not slavery then Jim Crow, and if not that then the War on Drugs, and if not that then being targeted and likely murdered by the police. It takes a village to fix these problems and National Expungement Week and Black Cannabis Week have been making great strides to do that. Last week was a celebration of rights, freedoms, and justice; which was necessary.
Did you know that many black owned businesses lack capital, therefore are sole proprietors, unable to hire employees- because of the lack of funding? This isn’t just in Cannabis, where we all know federal prohibition keeps loans at bay. This is the neighborhood market, the restaurant, the print shop, this is black businesses across the board.
Going forward, society can help further the mission of equity and equality by supporting black owned businesses. Doing so helps more than just the business.
In doing so you’ll:
- Supporting diversity boosts economic vitality, which uplifts the community.
- Help close the racial wealth gap: the median wealth for white families is about 12 times that for Black families averaging around $140,000.
- Help combat racism and prejudice.
For the racists, the idea that the black family wealth median will be $0 by 2053, makes them happy. For the black family to fail is celebration to racists. But the majority of us, in support of black lives, black businesses, black advancement, can help, along with National Expungement Week and Black Cannabis Week, fix the problems.
In her piece in Apartment Therapy, Danielle Deavens writes:
“Supporting black businesses is an even more significant form of protest when coupled with the fact that the mere existence of black companies and communities has long been held as a threat to white supremacy.”
National Expungement Week: Re-Entry, Repair, Healing
by Veronica Castillo
Photo Credit: PR Newswire
Last week was National Expungement Week: Sept 19- Sept 26, and it was the third annual week of awareness to the 77 million Americans with criminal records. Though awareness is highlighted with events, clinics, workshops, and food pantries during this week, founder of National Expungement Week- Latorie Marshall says:
“Our year-round work never stops, and we are determined to use this week to inspire communities to take action, clear records, and restore the rights of some of the 77 million justice-impacted people in the U.S”.
National Expungement Week, also known as N.E.W, is led by people of color, supported by Cage-Free Repair, and working within the community through a group of grassroots community organizers and advocates. We need them! I often write about the injustice within the system and how those injustices target certain groups.
N.E.W steps in and fights for the people by way of offering relief clinics and leading discussions and healing sessions that provide access, relief, equity and opportunity, to the communities negatively impacted by the War on Drugs. Not just Cannabis, but the War on Drugs as a whole:
“We advocate for automated expungement of all records, the de-escalation of police enforcement, and investment in marginalized communities.”
Thank goodness for this organization and the others that consistently fight for the rights of those targeted and impacted by the War on Drugs. A war that led to the creation of an agency that has caused more harm than good. I’m speaking of the D.E.A.
N.E.W is all about spreading awareness and isn’t seeking to be the only organization out here fighting. Collaboration is how we win and so, check out what N.E.W has to say about how helping push awareness to the mission:
“We want to make this accessible for everyone, so we put together a toolkit to help guide you through the process from beginning to end. Events don’t need to be limited to National Expungement Week, we urge you to make it happen year-round, as there is much work to be done and many lives waiting to be repaired”.
Washington State Wildfires During the Pandemic- The Community Sends Love
by Veronica Castillo
photo credit: Accuweather.com
Washington was the first state that I toured a Cannabis farm in. Washington introduced me to $5 infused joints, $10 eighths, and my first ocean living experience. While there, nature was happy, green, growing fruit, and enjoying crisp weather.
Today, that same nature is under attack due to the 2020 wildfire season.
Wildfires aren’t typical in Washington, not even in Oregon. California experiences this season but in 2020, we are seeing that not a hurricane, not a snow storm, not a wildfire, not a pandemic- is leaving the U.S behind. Seattle Times reports that destructive wildfires continue to rip through the state, with firefighters battling some 30 fires in Washington.
Since the fires started about a week ago, about 790K acres have been burned. Washington state doesn’t have a lot of outdoor/sun grown farms due to the region being wet most of the year and all, but the Cannabis community is still in and experiencing devastation. Many like me, thought that outdoor cultivators have it worse but, Seattle Weekly interviewed testing labs across the country and were told:
“As bad as it may seem for outdoor grow-ops, indoor facilities have it worse. Hydroponic systems, ceiling tiles, drywall, and other construction materials can all absorb and hold on to airborne toxins. In some cases, just wiping down the walls and flushing hydration systems may be enough for a producer to get back to normal- but in others, entire facilities may have to undergo severe renovations before they are clear”.
Washington contributed to Cannabis in various ways:
- In 1971, the Washington State Legislature recognized that marijuana is neither an opiate nor a narcotic.
- By the 1990s, the public continued questioning the effects of marijuana so much that law enforcement stopped aggressively pursuing users.
- In 1998, Washington state legalized for medicinal use under initiative 692.
- The state of Washington, which along with Colorado, was actually one of the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2012.
No matter where we may all be in the world; Washington needs our collect love. These wildfires are raging.
Let’s make sure the west coast can feel our love.
Light and Love for the West Coast- Oregon Wild Fires During a Pandemic
by Veronica Castillo
Photo Credit: Apple News
Oregon is one of my favorite states. It’s the perfect blend, in my opinion, of California flavor mixed with Pacific Northwest hippiness. Portland is described as “weird” and the coolest thing about Portland- they embrace it! There are signs everywhere that read “keep Portland weird”.
So much of my love for Cannabis and Cannabis culture is because of Oregon. Oregon is where I honored Cannabis in April (2020), the first time it was 420 all month long. I did so by living on hemp farms.
I camped, on site, and lived in nature where Cannabis grows under the beautiful sun (unless grown indoors). Fern Valley Farms (CBD) and The Botanical Joint, sponsored my stay on their farms; Medford, OR and Salem, OR. And so, when much of Oregon is on fire because of raging wildfires, my heart hurts.
California is known as the mecca, but Oregon has made significant contributions to Cannabis as well. Oregon Live reports:
- Oregon was the first state in the U.S to decriminalize Cannabis.
- In 1998 Oregon legalized medical Cannabis.
- In Oregon, adults 21 and older are allowed to have an ounce of Cannabis on them, in public
As of September 14- Oregon has had 935,377.631 acres burned and there are 34 active fires. The entire state is facing catastrophes as bad as California. In the northern part of the state, there are a lot of indoor cultivation sites in southern Oregon, cities like Medford and Ashland are majority outdoor, sun grown farms/ cultivation sites. And many of them are in trouble because of the wild fires:
- “A lot of farms are completely destroyed. A lot of our friends have lost everything down there”, says East Fork Cultivars President and co-founder Nathan Howard.
- The Oregonian reported that roughly 20% of the state’s licensed marijuana companies, or 408 businesses, are located in areas that are being evacuated because of the fires.
Like California, Oregon is in need of our light and love. No matter where we may all be in the world; California needs our collect love. These wildfires are raging.
Let’s make sure the west coast can feel our love.
Oklahoma seed-to-sale tracking
OMMA has signed a contract with Metrc to implement a statewide seed-to-sale tracking system from a plant’s growth stage through sale to patients. It is expected to take up to six months, according to OMMA Interim Director Dr. Kelly Williams.
Metrc offers integration features with many seed-to-sale software systems used at an individual-level by licensees, and all commercial licensees in the state will be required to either integrate with or input their information into the state’s seed-to-sale system.
For more about Metrc, click on this link:
Please let me know if you have questions or would like to discuss.
My best,
Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish PLLC
405/815-3434 (office)
www.sarahleegossettparrish.com
@slgparrish
Wild Fires During a Pandemic, Light and Love for the West Coast- California
by Veronica Castillo
It’s important for me to thank Herbage Magazine for allowing me the space to share this west coast wild fires series. No matter where we are from, even if we have never visited, even if California isn’t linked to our daily lives- we must remember that through Cannabis, we all connect to California.
California is on fire and my heart is heavy. Our mecca, the place that grew the Cannabis that saved me from chronic migraine, the place that 80% of this country gets their meds from, the hills with rich soil managed and protected by the OG’s, this magical place- is suffering something serious.
I want to help, I want to help raise money, I want to support as much as I can, and I am not sure how to or where to start. I’ve been told that Cannabis- marijuana cultivators and other Cannabis businesses, are unable to fundraise, they get shut down on Go Fund Me, and can have their licenses compromised if caught doing anything close to raising money by way of contributions/gifts.
I want to research that a bit more, but honestly, this sounds like our government. Legalization in this country isn’t really legalization. In the industry that threatens many, it doesn’t surprise me that the government makes the playing field uneven.
What I can do at this very moment, is hold the west coast close to my light and my love, and help spread the word that more light and love is needed. Collectively, we have to stand with and behind California because without it, would we really know dank meds?
Here are some ways that California contributed to the Cannabis community. In this country, the first ones always have it the hardest.
The Cannabis progression made in California, helped us all.
- Cannabis grown for recreational use in California began around the 1850s, during the Gold Rush.
- California Senate Bill 95 (The Moscone Act) in 1975, which downgraded cannabis possession of an ounce or less from a possible felony to a misdemeanor.
- Early reform efforts for the legal medical use of Cannabis in California began around the early 1990s in San Francisco
- In 1996, Proposition 215 – also known as the Compassionate Use Act – was passed via a statewide ballot initiative and allowed California citizens the right to obtain and use cannabis for any illness with a doctor’s recommendation.
- Richard Lee- founder of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, which helped pass Oakland’s Measure Z making private sales, cultivation, and possession of cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority.
No matter where we may all me in the world; California needs our collect love. These wildfires are raging.
Let’s make sure California can feel our love.
We Shouldn’t Turn Our Noses up at Those Convicted of Cannabis Part 2
by Veronica Castillo
The Substance Probably Wasn’t Cannabis Anyway
Crimes tied to illegal substances ; what should happen when someone is arrested for Cannabis, or any substance.
Imagine a system that tells people that their baby powder is cocaine, throws them in jail, and then at trial- lie about the test results. Or a system that tells people that they have a half a pound of Cannabis, and the reason so, is because they intend to distribute. Or a system that created 400 years of dark heavy weight over a group of people, and then telling those people that it’s their fault that they have a harder time than most, in day to day life.
So many have to imagine this but so many don’t because it’s actually their life, and/or a part of their life. We live in a country that has allowed our government to do all of these things and continue to do them. We live in a system where substances should be tested before anyone spends a day in jail, but instead, we allow lab chemists to get high at work, while lives are suffering behind bars for much less.
When someone is arrested for anything related to an illegal substance charge, like the police find a bag of white powder in a vehicle- THAT SUBSTANCE SHOULD GET- SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO GET- THE ONLY WAY IT’S FAIR IS- GET THE SUBSTANCE TESTED!
Generally, someone is arrested, the substance(s) are sent to state/state approved labs for testing by a lab chemist, who is required to analyze and test the substance to determine if it is in fact an illegal substance. This is the very fast run through- the process isn’t as brisk.
But what happens in places like Massachusetts, is the state prosecutes cases and convicts’ people of crimes tied to illegal substances, that weren’t even tested. The state of Massachusetts convicted hundreds of people for lab results that were “dry lab tested” by a lab chemist that was consuming drugs in and out of work.
Dry lab testing in this case, is the lab chemist not actually testing the sample but instead, visually analyzing and making an “expert opinion”.
Like in the Massachusetts case of Annie Dookan; a lab chemist that used dry labbing which resulted in the destruction of lives. She admits that instead of testing individual substances as required, she’d gather a handful of cases—around 13 or 15—and eyeball the substances altogether to make a decision.
This is just a short, make you aware of the system piece. My hope is that with this, you’ll dig a little deeper and maybe even watch a docu-series about crimes tied to illegal substances which tell the story in more detail and with more context. The docu-series is a great look into the many lives never deserving to be in prison/jail, and why we should stop turning our noses up at those them. It likely wasn’t an illegal substance anyway.
From the front lines
by Chip Paul
On June 26th at the 2 year anniversary of the passage of SQ788, a new trade organization and patients rights organization will be launched. We have the most unique situation in the country here in Oklahoma with our medical marijauna law. We have been fortunate that things have “gone our way..” as an industry. We have been blessed with some willing lawmakers who respect the way we have done this and have supported the will of the majority of Oklahomans. That being said, we cannot expect this “perfect” situation to continue. We MUST organize and defend what we have.
That is why Jay Wright (founder of Green Grow Expo, founder of the #okla57 patient movement), Jed Green (co-founder of New Health Solutions, co-founder of Oklahoma Cannabis Industry Association), Ron Dubin (commercial business champion, has protected the industry through numerous lawsuits, author of HB3228), Cynthia Paul, and I are joining forces to form this new organization.
We intend to do this right and will have many benefits for our members. Discounts for patients, tools for businesses, compliance audits (friendly!), website discussions, networking events, and a very organized and focused lobby effort are all in store. The founders of the organization along with many volunteers have been working behind the scenes for months to build this organization and provide value to it. We have the blessing of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. This organization will be how the industry begins to “talk” and “interact” with other trade organizations. How do we increase the number of banks banking marijuana businesses? By forming relationships with the Oklahoma Banking Association for a start.
#itstime we grew up as an industry. OK4UApproved hopes to be a beacon to guide us on that journey. You can learn more at www. ok4uapproved.com
WHAT’S UP WITH THE GRANDFATHER CLAUSE IN THE UNITY ACT?
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish,
Cannabis Lawyer
Oklahoma House Bill 2612, known as the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, became effective on August 26, 2019. Now, with a significant number of commercial business licenses coming up for renewal since that effective date, UNITY’s “grandfather clause” on Oklahoma residency requirements is causing anxiety and confusion. You have likely heard about this clause, and you may wonder what it is all about. Misinformation abounds.
What Is UNITY’S Grandfather Clause?
UNITY provides, essentially, that owners of commercial business licenses granted by OMMA prior to UNITY’s “enactment” date will be grandfathered in under the original, SQ 788 residency guidelines, and that UNITY’s more stringent residency requirements will be inapplicable to those licensee owners. What are UNITY’s more stringent requirements? License applicants must now provide proof of Oklahoma residency for at least 2 years immediately preceding the date of application, or 5 years of continuous Oklahoma residency during the preceding 25 years immediately preceding application date.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter wrote an AG’s opinion construing this language—as courts have done—to mean the date on which the law (UNITY) was passed by the Legislature, March 15, 2019, as opposed to UNITY’s effective date of August 30, 2019. I expected this opinion because it is consistent with the statutory definitions of “effective date” and “enactment date”, and the language in UNITY references the enactment date. However, and I have mounted this argument to OMMA’s legal and compliance staff, AG Hunter’s construction results in much confusion and gives rise, in my opinion, to constitutional issues if enforced because hundreds, if not thousands, of licensees who suddenly become unable to qualify as Oklahoma residents and obtain their renewals, as they would not meet UNITY’s new residency requirements.
Had Governor Stitt not vetoed HB 3228, this unacceptable result would have been remedied, as that HB 3228 provided that everyone with an OMMA license on August 30, 2019 UNITY’s effective date), would be grandfathered in as to the pre-UNITY residency requirements. But Governor Stitt vetoed it. So…
I believe officials are working on an acceptable and fair resolution and I am confident they will accomplish their goal. A lawsuit challenging this has also been filed. In the interim, OMMA is holding renewals for licensees who fall within this catch—those with original licenses granted after UNITY’s enactment date of March 15, 2019, but before UNITY’s effective date of August 320, 2019—in a perpetual “pending” status until the issue is resolved. All of these licensees whose renewals are in the perpetual “pending” status can continue to legally operate under their original licenses. This is great news.
What’s the take-away? Stay tuned.
Information contained herein provides general information related to the law and does not provide legal advice. It is recommended that readers consult their personal lawyer if they want legal advice. No attorney-client or confidential relationship exists or is formed between you and Ms. Parrish as a result of this article.
Half Baked News
May 2020
by Rayne Graham
It’s Blooming in Oklahoma
West Coast based Bloom brand is making its way to Tulsa Oklahoma. The company made the announcement on both their main brand Instagram and their Bloom Oklahoma account the last week of April. Known for the Bloom Dart, Bloom One, and Bloom Vape, the company has partnered with Oklahoma based Goatneck LLC. The icing on the cake? Bloom’s CRO had such nice things to say about the Oklahoma cannabis community when he spoke to Benzinga,” The cannabis community in Oklahoma is incredible and I’m thrilled to bring Bloom here. Our roots are in the medical market so I am confident that our experience, particularly in New Mexico, will provide a strong foundation to proudly become Oklahoma’s leading brand.” Here’s to giving it a try!
No Hard Feelings Arkansas
We are known for being competitive when it comes to football and our neighbors the Razorbacks. But it seems that rivalry has spilled into the field of medical marijuana. I mean, we might not intentionally be competing, but Oklahoma is totally winning, just saying. Due to our laws here in the Sooner state being a little different than our neighbors, our patient count is higher and that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are over 200,000 Medical Marijuana patients as of the end of April in Oklahoma while Arkansas has only a little over 40,000. Another major difference? In Arkansas, patients must have a certain disability or illness but here in OK, are aren’t any requirements when getting a doctors recommendation. Last is pricing, a gram of cannabis flower from our neighbors can be purchased for double the amount of the same quality flower here. And that my friends, is what we like to call a touchdown!
Rolling in the Green
It isn’t news that the Oklahoma Cannabis Industry has been raking in the tax dollars for the state of Oklahoma since the passing of SQ788. However, we have reached yet another milestone in the journey of solidifying our name in the national cannabis community. According to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Cannabis dispensaries have generated $7.7 million in total tax revenue in the month of March. This makes it the highest grossing month in Medical Marijuana Tax collected since the first tax dollars were reported in November 2018. Although we would like to point out that the number for April isn’t in yet so, I mean, 42020 anyone?
Half Baked News
by Brittney Graham
The DEA Has Approved Cannabis Research Application
It has been 4 years for researchers anticipating the approval of their applications to the Drug Enforcement Administration to grow Marijuana for medical research. Finally, the DEA has announced that they will evaluate 37 applications and also proposed new ruled for the prospective growers that outlined how the program would work. Because it wouldn’t be big brother if there wasn’t a booklet of outlines! But in all seriousness, this could possibly open up the path for traditional drug development in the United States so that’s a win.
Move Over Toilet Paper Cannabis is Being Added to the Stockpile
As COVID-19 lands on the United States, everyone is stockpiling for social distancing, isolation, and quarantine. We all know that toilet paper is at the top of that list but guess what other industry has experienced an unprecedented boom? Yep, the Cannabis Industry. According to Politico, almost all of the 33 states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana have classified marijuana-related business as essential, thereby allowing them to remain open and operational. The report also boasts that some states are witnessing a surge in sales up to 20%.
The portal American Marijuana conducted a survey on 990 US Marijuana consumers and almost half of the respondents stated that they had ensured supplies of cannabis to face the lockdown and the pandemic. Although 95% reported that in light of the situation, their priority went to food, toilet paper, and hand sanitizers, 28% of them claimed that they considered marijuana to be more important than face masks. Move over normal self- care supplies, cannabis is coming through!
When Your Special Delivery is Sent to the Wrong Place
Last month the Staff at the Governor Calvert House in Maryland received a package that wasn’t addressed to anyone staying or working there. When they got a call form a man who said he needed to pick the package up from a blocked number, the staff thought it might be a good idea to call the police. Because people always get their mail delivered to places that they have never stayed right? Come to find out, the brown cardboard box was allegedly packed with over 14 pounds of marijuana and approximately 1,000 grams of concentrate from California.
Greg Harris, the alias used by the subject showed up to collect his bounty and was greeted by two police officers and arrested under his real name Michael Clayton Kenney. The 24-year-old was charged with importing between 5 and 45 kilograms of Marijuana into Maryland, possession with intent to distribute drugs and possession of more than 10 grams of marijuana- 6,554 grams, to be exact, all stated by court records.
OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE’S 2020 SESSION
MEDICAL MARIJUANA HIGHLIGHTS
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer1
On Monday, February 3, 2020, Oklahoma’s new legislative session began and within a matter of days, Oklahoma legislators had filed numerous bills relating to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry. Between now and 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 29, 2020 (the Legislature’s scheduled adjournment date, which is always subject to change), Oklahoma’s House and Senate will consider these proposed pieces of legislation and likely pass a few of them. Highlights of surviving bills and those dead in committee are discussed below. But first, what are the legislative deadlines of which you should be aware?
The deadline for bills to be advanced by House and Senate committees was Thursday, February 27. Significantly, bills not heard in committee are now basically dead. For the bills making it out of their initial committee (as the result of a favorable vote), the next deadline is March 12, the date on which bills must make it out of their chamber of origin (the House or the Senate), in order to move forward.
On or before April 9, surviving bills must then obtain a favorable committee vote to make it out of committee in the opposite chamber (if the bill is a House bill, it must make it out of Senate committee; if the bill is a Senate bill, it must make it out of House committee).
Finally, on or before April 23, 2020, the bills advanced by committee in the opposite chamber must be voted upon by that chamber and, if they survive the vote and make it out of the opposite chamber from which they originated, then they will be presented to the Governor for consideration and signing into law.
With these dates in mind, what are the major bills that could impact Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry? Below are the highlights.
SIGNIFICANT BILLS STILL ALIVE
Bills that passed in committee pursuant to a favorable vote and now must make it out of their chamber of origin (the House or the Senate) by March 12, 2020, in order to move forward, include the following.
House Bill (“HB”) 2779 as amended is perhaps the most alarming piece of legislation that has passed in committee. The bill, as amended, would ban new dispensaries from locating within three hundred (300) feet of a church or “any public or private school entrance”. The bill defines a “place of worship” as follows:
“1. Any permanent building, structure, facility or office space owned, leased, rented or borrowed, on a full-time basis, and used no less than biweekly for worship services, activities or business of the congregation, which shall include, but not be limited to, churches, temples, synagogues and mosques; and
2. Any permanent building, structure, facility or office space owned, leased, rented or borrowed for use on a temporary basis of no less than twelve (12) months, and used no less than biweekly for worship services, activities or business of the congregation, which shall include, but not be limited to, churches, temples, synagogues and mosques.”
HB 2779 also provides that, “[r]etail marijuana businesses established prior to November 1, 2020, which do not conform to the distance requirements provided for in this subsection shall be authorized to continue operating in their current locations.”
This legislation, proposed by Representative Jim Olsen of Sequoyah County, originally provided for a limitation of one thousand (1000) feet and was amended in committee to reflect the more restrictive limitation of three hundred (300) feet. While Representative Olsen describes his bill as “just a zoning law” in a January18, 2020, article written by Kelsy Schlotthauer of the Tulsa World, passage would have an astronomical impact on potential location sites for new dispensaries in our state, known for having a church on practically every corner.
Additionally, the new, shorter distance limitation from any public or private school would further impact location sites for new dispensaries.
The proposed bill also contains notable provisions concerning the ability of employers to “take action against a holder of a medical marijuana license if the holder uses or possesses marijuana while in his or her place of employment or during the hours of employment”, but curtails when such action may be taken, stating that “[e]mployers may not take action against the holder of a medical marijuana license solely based upon the status of an employee as a medical marijuana license holder or the results of a drug test showing positive for marijuana or its components”. How this bill will impact current law and designations of ‘safety-sensitive jobs” by employers remains to be seen.
Home delivery of medical marijuana may be in your future under HB 3227, filed by Representative Jon Echols of Oklahoma City, which provides for home delivery of medical marijuana to licensed Oklahoma patients and reduces the fee for a transporter agent license from $100.00 to $25.00. The bill also removes the Global Positioning System (“GPS”) tracker requirements for transporter agents’ vehicles.
HB 3959, filed by Representative Scott Fetgatter of Okmulgee, would establish the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (“OMMA”) as an independent agency with a nine-member governing board and a governor-appointed executive director.2 The proposed nine-member board would serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority and each member could be removed or replaced without cause.
OMMA’s current Director, Travis Kirkpatrick, is protected from removal until July 1, 2022.
The nine board members include a chief of police of a municipality with a population over one hundred thousand (100,000), a sheriff of a county with a population under twenty-five thousand (25,000), a district attorney selected by the Governor from a list submitted by the District Attorneys Council, and one member who represents the health care industry.
The remaining five members shall be directly involved in Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry, including one member appointed by the Governor who is a licensed medical marijuana commercial grower; one member appointed by the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives who is a licensed medical marijuana processor; one member appointed by the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives who is a licensed medical marijuana dispensary owner; one member appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate who is a licensed medical marijuana transporter; and one member appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate who is a licensed medical marijuana testing laboratory owner.
A stand-alone OMMA could be a significant step forward, and the involvement of nine board members in future rules and regulations could be beneficial to our industry.
SB 1248 would allow pharmacies to apply for dispensary licenses and operate as dispensaries “[u]pon action by the federal government to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act”.
HB 3474 would remove the statutory cap on OMMA’s issuance of medical marijuana waste disposal licenses, which licenses are currently limited to ten during year one, pursuant to Oklahoma’s Waste Management Act.
Another bill relating to dispensaries, HB 3957, would allow dispensaries to produce and sell their own pre-rolls without the need for a processor’s license. This would be a welcome change for dispensary owners.
BILLS NOW EFFECTIVELY DEAD.
Bills that were not heard and/or voted upon in committee and are now effectively dead include the following.
SB 1519, which would allow municipalities to call a vote to prohibit medical marijuana, was not heard in committee. Similarly, the much-discussed SB 1520, which would raise the medical marijuana business license fee from $2500.00 to $10,000.00, was not heard in committee.
Additionally, SB 1469, which would require all medical marijuana businesses to obtain worker’s compensation coverage and $1 million in liability insurance, died in committee.
Notably, bills that would have restricted billboard advertising and medical marijuana use in outdoor seating areas or standalone bars, SB 1257 and HB 3533, respectively, also were not heard in committee and are now dead.
This is all good news for Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry.
Unfortunately, HB 3061, which would prohibit counties from discriminating against medical marijuana businesses through zoning, was not heard in committee and is now dead. This is disappointing, given that the zoning issues with municipalities arising out of the new certificate of compliance requirement have become protracted and difficult to resolve in many instances.
Similarly, it is unfortunate that HB 3941, which would provide nursing home patients and hospice care recipients the right to use medical marijuana, was not heard in committee.
So…what’s the take-away?
It’s going to be a very busy spring here in the Wild, Wild West.
Safe and Strong
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer
Dear Herb-Age Readers,
In these days of uncertainty it is important that our industry remains calm, united, and strong. It is my hope that dispensaries will remain open through this harrowing time because they are, in fact, pharmacies. They are such a necessary component of the medical treatment for Oklahoma patients, and any modifications that must be made, such as curbside service, would no doubt be welcomed and appreciated. As a cannabis lawyer, I am concerned for our small businesses out there who will bear much of the economic burden caused by the novel coronavirus. Oklahoma’s medical marijuana businesses are legal and legitimate. Please apply for any and all aid that is made available to small businesses by governmental entities.
For you patients, Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry stands with you during this difficult season. Dispensaries will remain open as long as any pharmacy is allowed to do so, which should be “always”. The supply chain that includes Oklahoma growers and processors is will operate as long as allowed to do so, which, again, should be “always”.
Speaking of human possibilities, please remember the power of optimism and know that this too shall pass, and when it does, we Oklahomans will emerge stronger, closer, and even more committed to helping others. No industry contributes more to the well-being of others than our healthcare industry—a sector in which you, as medical marijuana businesses and patients, play a vital role.
Stay safe. Stay strong. May God bless and protect us all.
Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish
How to provide for your health in the middle of a pandemic!
While it seems beyond belief to some folks (kinda like this Covid virus), you have more power in your spice cabinet than your medicine chest. At GnuPharma we have been working on something special just for Covid. You see, herbs and spices are antibiotic, antifungal, anti inflammatory, and ANTIVIRAL. An antiviral substance means it will help fight viruses. There are many types of viruses and Covid is a particular type called SARS. Would we have anything in our powerful spice cabinet that could fight a SARS type virus? It turns out YES, you probably do! If you have licorice in your spice cabinet you have a great antiviral medication. 
Get Your Medicine On!
We are very happy to announce our new partnership with the Town of Medicine Park Events.
Medicine Park is one of Oklahoma’s favorite events spaces.
You can check out more information here Medicine Park Events
List of Upcoming Events
PARK STOMP
March 14-15, 2020
Ending Spring Break featuring a jazzed-up version of Hillbilly bluegrass music presented live on the outdoor stage.
FOOLS DOZEN MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE
April 3rd, 4th & 5th
Two days of mountain bike rides, races, music, and events featuring the Trails of Medicine Park.
THE ROOTS BALL
May 22nd, 23rd & 24th
This event will feature live Americana/Roots music over Memorial Day weekend.
ROCK’N THE PARK
July 3rd, 4th & 5th
The Medicine Park Birthday celebration combined with a festival celebrating authentic American Rock music featuring regional and local performers. This year will include a Jeep “show and shine.”
THE BLUES BALL
September 3rd, 4th & 5th
Our premier event that features live Blues music throughout town over the Labor Day weekend.
ARTWALK/ FLUTE FESTIVAL & KCA ANNUAL POWWOW
October 9th, 10th & 11th
A two-day celebration of Native American Festival and Art Walk flute music, a juried art show featuring regional and local artists, and a Native Dance competition and the KCA Annual Powwow.
Each Presidential Candidates Stance on Cannabis
Just in time for Super Tuesday, here’s an overview of the presidential candidate’s stances on federal Cannabis legalization.
After all, this green plant holds a very dear place in our hearts and the hearts of over 30 other states. So, before you hit the polls tomorrow make sure you check out our list below!
Republican Candidates
(Incumbent) Donald Trump
The president has made it clear in the past month that he is against legalizing cannabis on a federal level. The Trump Administration has proposed removing medical marijuana protections in the 2021 fiscal budget. This means that the federal government would again have funding to arrest, fine, or harass state medical marijuana agencies and patients.
“I think what the president is looking at is looking at this from a standpoint of a parent — of a parent of a young person — to make sure that we keep our kids away from drugs,” Mr. Lotter, the director of strategic communications for the Trump 2020 campaign. “They need to be kept illegal. That is the federal policy.”
Bill Weld
Bill Weld is on the board of directors for the Cannabis investment firm Acreage Holdings, so it is fair to say he has a personal stake in the legalization of Cannabis. Recently, Weld endorsed the STATES Act, calling the bill to end federal prohibition, “his favorite piece of legislation that is on the Hill right now.”
Democratic Candidates
Joe Biden
Joe Biden’s opposition to the legalization of Marijuana has been made very well known even before his bid for the race. Biden recently gave an interview to the New York Times editorial board where he stated that Cannabis should not be legalized without more studies.
” I think science matters,” he stated. ” I mean one of the reasons I’m running against the guy I’m running against is science matters, not fiction.”
Michael Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg does not support the federal legalization of Cannabis, in fact, history has shown him to tout quite an anti-marijuana rhetoric. On the topic of Marijuana law reform, he had this to say,
“We have a different kind of problem in America, for example. Last year, in 2017, 72,000 Americans [overdosed] on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD’d on drugs. And today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done. “
Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard is very much for Cannabis legalization on a federal level. In a statement made in her formal campaign launch speech, she made this clear by criticizing a criminal justice system that,
“puts people in prison for smoking marijuana while allowing corporations like Purdue Pharma, who are responsible for the opioid-related deaths of thousands of people, to walk away scot-free with their coffers full.”
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders is on the side on Cannabis legalization so much that he has promised legal Marijuana to all 50 states on day 1 of his presidency if he were to be elected.
“We will end the destructive war on drugs,” Sander said at a rally in Ceder Rapids “On my first day in office through executive order we will legalize marijuana in every state in this country.”
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren is very much for the legalization of Cannabis. Her campaign website has a lengthy page dedicated to all of her beliefs on why Marijuana needs to be federally legal. She even states,”
“For four decades, we’ve subscribed to a “War on Drugs” theory of crime, which has criminalized addiction, ripped apart families—and failed to curb drug use. Legalizing marijuana and erasing past convictions won’t fully end the War on Drugs or address its painful legacy, but it’s a needed step in the right direction.”
From the Front Lines – February 2020
WHAT WASTE DISPOSAL LICENSES MEAN FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES
by Sarah Lee Gossett Parrish, Cannabis Lawyer1
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (“OMMA”) is encouraging qualified
Oklahomans to apply for one of up to ten waste disposal licenses. To date, no licenses have been
granted, but expect to see medical marijuana waste disposal businesses coming to a community
near you by spring. What exactly does this mean for medical marijuana businesses? In short, the
appropriate method for medical marijuana waste disposal will cease to be an arguably gray area.2
Senate Bill 882, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Waste Management Act, provides for
the issuance of ten waste disposal licenses at a cost of $5,000 each and contemplates the option for
more licenses to be authorized after the first year, if necessary. These licensees will become the
third-party companies authorized to dispose of “medical marijuana waste”. Medical marijuana
waste disposal facility permits will also be issued, at a cost of five hundred dollars ($500.00) each.
Similar to ownership requirements for Oklahoma medical marijuana commercial licensees,
at least 75% of the ownership interests in the entities that apply for a medical marijuana waste
disposal license must be owned by Oklahoma residents. License applications must also be
supported by proof of sufficient liability insurance and financial responsibility, with minimum
coverage amounts of $5,000,000.00 each occurrence, in Commercial General Liability and also in
Pollution Liability insurance. Additionally, applicants must have a current permit from the
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
The holder of a medical marijuana waste disposal license is not required to obtain a medical
marijuana transporter license to transport medical marijuana waste. OMMA’s current rules provide that the “waste disposal facility license” authorizes the licensee “to possess, transport, and dispose
of medical marijuana waste. The waste disposal facility license shall be issued to the location
submitted by the applicant that is first approved by the Department.” The current rules also address
the “waste disposal facility permit”, stating that it is “a permit issued by the Department [OMMA]
to a waste disposal licensee to possess, transport, and dispose of medical marijuana waste at the
location submitted on the permit application.” Waste disposal facility permits are required for each
approved waste disposal facility operated by a waste disposal facility licensee.
So, what does this mean for medical marijuana businesses? OMMA’s current rules and
Oklahoma’s Waste Management Act require all commercial licensees to utilize a licensed medical
marijuana waste disposal service to process all medical marijuana waste they generate. Thus, any
arguably gray areas concerning appropriate waste disposal will vanish when OMMA licenses the
first waste disposal service.
Significantly for Oklahoma’s medical marijuana businesses, “root balls, stems, fan leaves,
seeds, and the mature stalks or fiber produced from such stalks at the license premises” are not
considered “medical marijuana waste”. Therefore, OMMA’s rules allow licensees to dispose of
these plant parts by open burning, incineration, burying, mulching, composting or any other
technique approved by the Department of Environmental Quality. However, all other medical
marijuana plant parts and products are considered “medical marijuana waste” and OMMA
licensees must utilize a licensed medical marijuana waste disposal service to process all such waste
they generate.
Notably, OMMA has yet to license a waste disposal facility or issue a waste disposal
facility permit. Until that first license is granted, the appropriate means to dispose of medical
3 For details concerning Waste Disposal Facilities, licenses and permits in OMMA’s current rules, see SUBCHAPTER 9.
WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITIES, 310: 681-9-1, et seq. marijuana waste continues to present, arguably, a gray area.
But this will change overnight, so stay alert and as always…Stay tuned!