WELLSTON, Oklahoma—One day in the early fall of 2018, while scrutinizing the finances of his thriving Colorado garden supply business, Chip Baker noticed a curious development: transportation costs had spiked fivefold. The surge, he quickly determined, was due to huge shipments of cultivation supplies—potting soil, grow lights, dehumidifiers, fertilizer, water filters—to Oklahoma.
“This is exactly like Humboldt County was in the late 90s,” Baker says, as a trio of workers chop down marijuana plants that survived a recent ice storm. “The effect this is going to have on the cannabis nation is going to be incredible.” “Turns out rednecks love to smoke weed,” Baker laughs. “That’s the thing about cannabis: It really bridges socio-economic gaps. The only other thing that does it is handguns. All types of people are into firearms. All types of people are into cannabis.”
But lax as it might seem, Oklahoma’s program has generated a hefty amount of tax revenue while avoiding some of the pitfalls of more intensely regulated programs. “This is a perfect test in front of the world,” says Norma Sapp, who has been waging an often lonely campaign for marijuana legalization in Oklahoma for more than three decades. “How will this shake out?”
Sapp managed to cobble together enough funding to commission a poll gauging whether there was support for overhauling the state’s marijuana policies. The: 57 supported ending criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana, while 71 percent backed legalizing medical marijuana. At that time, voters in Colorado and Washington had just become the first in the country to back full legalization, but most red states in the Midwest and Great Plains hadn’t even authorized medical programs.
Oklahoma’s rank among states in the percentage of population enrolled in its medical marijuana program“I think it’s the largest quality of life state question that we’ll have to vote on in my lifetime,” Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton. “It just starts a whole other option that people have to destroy their life. We’ve got a problem right now with weed, especially the Colorado weed that is genetically engineered knock-you-on-your-butt weed.
In the end, the opposition by state officials had little effect: The legalization referendum passed with support from 57 percent of voters. “It only serves to enrich a small group of people who win a lottery ticket,” says Peter Barsoom, CEO of 1906, a Denver-based company that began distributing its line of cannabis “drops” to dispensaries in Oklahoma in September. “Patients never win on that. They pay higher prices, they have worse products and they have a worse customer experience. It really is just crony capitalism at its worst.”
“Typically, we get a small rush on Sunday after church lets out,” Hamilton says. The onset of the pandemic back in March also shook out some new customers: “As soon as the schools shut down, we had a huge flood of parents saying, ‘This is really stressful.’” Despite the robust competition, business at Hamilton’s Bud and Bloom is booming. Dixon says that sales have been climbing month after month. The Broken Arrow dispensary recently began staying open 24 hours a day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday—drive-thru sales only after midnight—and they’re thinking about opening a second shop in nearby Sapulpa.
“Out here, they’re letting talent shine. You don’t have to be one of these big players in the marijuana industry. It’s really an open market.”“It’s a lot harder to bust on the scene out there than it was out here,” Henderson says of the difference between Colorado and Oklahoma. “Out here, they’re letting talent shine. You don’t have to be one of these big players in the marijuana industry. It’s really an open market.
Jive can’t grow fast enough to meet the demand, Henderson says. Eventually, he and his partners will start thinking about expansion plans, but for now they’re content to just focus on continuing to develop their brand. “Everyone and their dog has some kind of marijuana license,” says Chip Paul, the libertarian legalization advocate. “You have just a stupid amount of grow licenses and process licenses.”
“We have a lot of elderly patients, people that at the beginning, they were afraid to park their car out here,” Malone says. “But now they’re comfortable.” Kelly Williams, who was named interim director of the OMMA in August, says the seed-to-sale system is a long-overdue tool to bolster accountability and transparency.
Is that why they support trump and Republicans? Does this explain Sarah Huckabee Sanders willing/purposeful sociopathic behavior? Her willingness to promote false lying information? How else can she live with herself and go into public places. Complete sociopathic denial
The president had traumatized all of us are we all going to smoke dope?
It's only the start .
He's probably right... In israel it said that 27% smoke weed, and it's really a traumatic country...
crissles
Try opium. Enjoy!
the real shithole country
FireWater
To many cookies can't read
That’s because they are traumatized being so close to Texas.
Lisajeanapple Have you ever been to the Tulsa gun show? The average Oklahoman spend a fortune on guns and ammo. It was an eye opener.
So 'bad decisions' is no longer a viable reason? Stop making excuses
The real reason God made Oaklahoma ain’t this
Oklahoma IS a trauma
The standards to be a professor at Oklahoma State must be shockingly low.
No testing standards for home schooled kids.
Yeah, that’s a good reason as any!
A generation of “tokers”.
Is it real trauma or the leftist ‘something happened that I don’t like so now I’m gonna claim ptsd’ trauma
“Boys from Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong”
You ain’t seen nothing yet wait until they start lacing those blunts
Hypocracy is the republicans best trait
The risk of harming marijuana use to the minds of people in society is greater than the use of morphine-based substances, but Some systems in the world intelligently and deliberately reduce it to the level of a small entertainment related to youth
🎶 where the wind blows..... 🎶
Marijuana has always been on of the biggest cash crops in Oklahoma. Just because it wasn't legal, didn't mean people didn't use it. Rumor has it that our state grows it very easily.
Marijuana is so much better than opioids
I’m proud to be an Oky who likes to smokey
They were against it when the criminals we're the ones making the money. That's that trump trait...greed.
AS DUAS TESTEMUNHAS DE APOCALIPSE 11 JÁ ESTÃO NA TERRA PARA PREPARAR A NOIVA, PARA A VINDA DO MESSIAS! MegaWordVigil
Oh no kidding, huh?
AS DUAS TESTEMUNHAS DE APOCALIPSE 11 JÁ ESTÃO NA TERRA PARA PREPARAR A NOIVA, PARA A VINDA DO MESSIAS! MegaWordVigil
Hypocrisy and Greed are the two words come to mind.
Surprise, surprise.
We moved to Oklahoma when I was a kid; I moved away after college; and I returned recently to take care of a parent. As a kid, my Baptist friends couldn’t even dance at parties. Now to see pot shops everywhere, it’s just shocking. NoJudgment BeWell
Weed is tight
How many Baptists are in the biz now? It reminded me of all the hundreds, of churches in the south surrounded by tobacco farms. Where there's money to be made, God can be found.
Trump he lives on weed
My college friend on Tulsa runs a grow operation.
Greedy repudlicans
Pot is only illegal because William hurst was afraid it would replace paper and bankrupt his timber companies.
Seems very progressive of Oklahoma.
MegaWordVigil
We need people to do critical thinking more. Legalization and regulation works much better than a war. The GOP has been failing you. Learn about it. =
Turns the whole 'Okie from Muskogee' sentiment on its head. Someone's going to have to re-edit the music in 'Platoon'.
Kinda like how Florida leads the nation in ACA enrollment. These 'conservative' states are only conservative in self awareness and critical thinking.
Not to seem insensitive but the US has named places that sell useful but harmless medication ‘drug stores’ for decades.
Sometimes millions in tax revenue and health benefits are just worth more than being a hard/dumbass.
We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee and we don't take our trips on LSD
All the ppl in jail for weed should be released now and paid from the profits of the weed selling
27/11/2020 | VIGÍLIA DE AVIVAMENTO | SÉRIE O ARREBATAMENTO DA IGREJA MegaWordVigil
Up in smoke