This State Question Will Responsibly Legalize, Regulate, and Tax Adult Use Marijuana for Persons Aged 18 and Older Under State Law
Video Transcribed: This is medical marijuana attorney Isaiah Brydie, where we operate OK Cannabis Law Office. We do Oklahoma medical cannabis law.
We want to talk to you about how state question 813 came about. In December of 2019, we were asked to take lead on drafting a document. Actually, we volunteered to do it. We got ahold of activists and patients, as well as figures within the Oklahoma cannabis industry, and we set out to complete the job.
We knew where the problems were, at least in the business industry, and then the patients knew where the problems were and then the activists knew where the problems were, and then we talked to people on social media and in person.
We came up with state question 813. Oklahoma State Question 813 was filed on March 13th and 10 days later, someone filed a protest, which was their constitutional right. Now, we have been sitting in front of the Supreme court, Oklahoma Supreme Court, since the 23rd of March, and we have filed a couple of motions for dismissal because some things weren’t done properly by the person that did the protest.
The court ordered both parties, the proponents, as well as the petitioner or protestant, to argue in front of the referee of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on July 21st, which we did. We’re just waiting on a decision as to whether we can start collecting signatures or if we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board.
Needless to say, we’re prepared for both, but we want to read to you the ballot title for state question 813 and explain why we wrote what we wrote and how we came to write what we came to write.
Our proposed ballot title simply states this, “This measure adds a new article to the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma.
This article will heal state question 788, which the Oklahoma State Legislatures, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Oklahoma State Department of Health, and local governments have desecrated since 57% of Oklahoma voters passed state question 788 on the historic day of June 26, 2018.
This article will not only heal the damage created by those named above. It will responsibly legalize, regulate and tax adult-use marijuana for persons aged 18 and older under state law.”
Now, we realize that state question 807 and state question 808 have the adult age at being 21. However, we just couldn’t justify that.
We all know 18-year-olds that are sitting in jail, having been arrested for nothing more than a joint or a little bit of Oklahoma marijuana in their possession – why would we make a law that would continue to incarcerate and fine people that we know are going to use the product? We know that they medicate, even if they use it recreationally.
We don’t need to be making it illegal for someone that’s going to use the product, so we talked about it. If someone is able to contractually go into the army or the military, any branch of the military, and they’re considered an adult.
If someone is 18 and they can sign a contract and commit themselves to whatever, a lease or a new car or whatever, and they’re considered an adult by the courts because they’re able to contractually obligate themselves.
If they’re considered an adult at age 18, for those things, why wouldn’t they be considered an adult at age 18 for all things? We decided we were going to make the legal age for at least marijuana consumption, whether it’s medical or recreational, the age 18.
Now, we are currently waiting for the Oklahoma Supreme Court to give us the go-ahead to start collecting signatures, so continue watching our videos because we’re going to go through each section and have a free discussion about what’s in the bill. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for a low-cost consultation with a Tulsa medical marijuana attorney.