by Chip Paul
Wow! Has the world changed! As of this writing it is late July of 2020. Tulsa has a mandatory mask order and OKC just instituted one. We have no idea if our kids will be back in school. No idea if there will even be “school”. How do you conduct a meeting? Plan an event? Roll out a new trade organization? Ask for a hug?
New challenges. New world. We are very lucky in the cannabis industry. The fact that our businesses have been declared “essential” means alot now and even more in the future. You see, that is a LEGAL CLASSIFICATION, and we intend to leverage that in the future. By (we) I mean OK4UApproved which is the new trade association (go join right now!!! www.ok4uapproved.com ). If you are not following the trade association please do. We have two weekly shows now on Facebook. One called Wrap Up Wednesday where we discuss current medical marijuana topics in Oklahoma. Latest subjects have been on labs and the overall state of lab testing. Upcoming topics will be of high interest! The trade organization is also hosting Medical Mondays and these have been hosted by Dr. Bailey and will feature other medical professionals as the show develops.
How and what (you) support as the medical marijuana community will tell us a lot about how and what to provide (you) as to education and information. We intend to listen first…so, join the organization! If you are a patient you will get numerous benefits and in particular a 10% discount at all member dispensaries. More benefits on the patient side and we will officially launch the patient piece in August. We intend to lobby for both patient and commercial rights at the Capital. We will also hire a patient advocate attorney for patient issues.
We are weak as an industry now. In fact we have some things going on where our industry is being called out for workers comp insufficiencies. Without a mechanism such as a trade organization, it is very difficult to fight these State initiatives. We intend to make 2021 a landmark year for medical marijuana here in Oklahoma, please help us do just that!