As Oklahomans wait for the voted medical marijuana laws to go into effect on July 26 under State Question 788, questions as to what is and isn’t allowed under the program’s rules are tricky to navigate. Here are some basic do’s and don’ts of Oklahoma medical cannabis.
The “Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority” is under the state health department’s umbrella and thusly the rules that are set forth are pretty much written in stone.
Any licenses – excluding patient and entity – must have applicants 25 years or older. This means growers, dispensary owners, edibles makers and other entrepreneurs will have to be at least 25 to ride. If you’re not 25 yet and have a great idea, yesterday was the time to start, so get on it so that you have a fleshed out plan as your birthday present to yourself.
Criminal history background checks will be conducted on any dispensary, grower, processor, transportation or researcher applying for a license to do so in the cannabis sphere.
Board registered physicians must file a registration with the department and be in good standing with the licensing board. There must be an, “Establishment of a bona fide physician-patient relationship in which physician has ongoing responsibility for the assessment, care and treatment of a patient’s medical condition or an aspect of the patient’s medical condition,” as well as other provisions laid out in SQ788.
Patients under 18 must have recommendations from two doctors, both of whom must either be pediatricians or pediatric subspecialists. The recommendations must be for the same diagnosis and be within 30 days of each other. The physicians cannot work together in any capacity.
All smoked or vaped cannabis falls under the same restrictions as tobacco, the rules of which are commonly referred to as “Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act.” So no smoking in public places or around minors.
Here’s the doozy: “Medical marijuana product may not be dispensed to a patient or a caregiver in flower, dry leaf or plant form.”
Being able to make one’s own edibles, tinctures, oils, salves, rubs and other infusions should not be illegal, nor should smoking the cannabis flower, which in its long existence has never killed a single person. Maybe it’s a sign of the times, that flower is getting to be a less profitable commodity and only craft growers will exist at some point in the future.
