LAWTON — Oklahoma’s medical marijuana laws, the federal McGirt decision and federal vaccine mandates will continue to be issues for the state, Attorney General John O’Connor said recently.
O’Connor, appointed as the state’s nineteenth attorney general by Gov. Kevin Stitt on July 23, said voters were ‘tricked’ by the state question which authorized the use of medical marijuana.
“We voted for medical marijuana because we were told there were kids having seizures who could be treated with the chemicals there, and people who had chronic back pain or something, and so a lot of people like me voted in favor of that,” he said. “But it turns out that what people were really going for was recreational.”
In 2018 voters approved State Question 788, which legalized the use and sale of cannabis to licensed patients. Legislation passed after the state question was adopted sets a seven percent tax on medical marijuana.
Oklahoma, O’Connor said, has seen “huge problems with people who come in with illegal marijuana operations.” He said the state has suddenly become one of the leading producers and exporters of marijuana. The program’s success has also led to attention from other countries which, he said, could prove to be a problem.
“We’ve invited Russian and Chinese and Colombian and Mexican organized crime into our state,” he said. “And Oklahoma, again, is not safer. It’s less safe because of these criminal elements in our state and it’s also brought an increase in human trafficking.”
Records from the Oklahoma Tax Commission show medical cannabis retailers reported more than $803 million in sales in 2020, generating $71,593,772 in state and local tax revenue. Those figures were up from 2019, which saw more than $54 million in taxes.
That success, O’Connor said, has sparked the attention of outside, criminal elements who are pushing up the price of property in Oklahoma. He said outside interests are purchasing property in Oklahoma with “cash-wrapped bills that they pull out of a plastic bag in their trunk.
“We’ve got to get a handle on that,” O’Connor said. “That’s number one. We’ve got to get a handle on regulation and law enforcement with respect to marijuana.”
O’Connor said he sup- ports growers and producers who are honest but added that problems with marijuana continue to increase. “We’ve got to correct that situation,” he said. “Now we know we are going to be facing a petition to approve recreational marijuana and I’m told there are already around 400,000 prescription cards out there. So, I’m told that we have 10 percent of our population that already has some kind of card for the use of it and we know that’s not the medical use of it that we were sold.”
As of Dec. 5, 2021, the Medical Marijuana Authority had 384,500 active patient licenses. O’Connor said Oklahoma has more marijuana dispensaries than California.
Still, Oklahoma’s marijuana policy and its regulation aren’t the only issues the attorney general loses sleep over. He said the McGirt decision and federal vaccine mandates will continue to be serious challenges for the state.
“The Supreme Court, basically, in my judgement, or in our judgement, made a recklessly over-broad decision,” he said. “And so, how long will it take to sort it out? What that Supreme Court decision did was throw criminal law enforcement in eastern Oklahoma into chaos. We would be talking for weeks if I reviewed every case with you where justice has not occurred in eastern Oklahoma on some kind of violent activity or property crimes.”
The McGirt decision was “like a get-out-of-jail free card” to even serious offenders, he added, saying the civil side of the decision was even more potentially devastating to the state. “We’re fighting all that right now,” he said. “I think we have 43 appellate petitions pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as a result of the injustices that McGirt has caused.”
In addition to medical marijuana and lawsuits over the McGirt ruling, O’Connor said he would continue to push back against the Biden administration’s efforts to require vaccines against COVID-19.
In Oklahoma 686,000 residents have tested positive for COVID-19. State officials have also reported 12,155 as of Thursday COVID-related deaths. So far, more than 52 percent of all Oklahomans (out of a population of 3.932 million) are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. O’Connor said he believes the Biden administration has targeted Oklahoma.
“Perhaps because it’s a red state,” he said. “(They are) challenging our regulations of our surface mining. Some challenges with respect to the EPA (and) with challenges with respect to the vaccine mandates.”
The goal, O’Connor said, was simple.
“The Legislature and the governor saw this coming as well,” he said. “And so, we’re fighting to really keep the federal government as far away from our state governance as we can.”