If passed, current standing medical marijuana businesses could also sell to recreational consumers.
Video Transcribed: Tulsa Attorney Isaiah Brydie coming at you with another video. And this video is going to be my third video on State Question 807 and going through it. (Watch video one here and video two here.) I’m trying to keep my video short so you guys can get little bites here and there. I don’t want to do a whole 35 minute long video. And I just want to keep it short and sweet so, you guys, stick in there with me.
All right, so going back to the state question, page five, we see a very interesting provision. Page five, number six, a person shall not be subject to any additional fines, fees, or other penalties for violations addressed in this section other than those set forth in this section.
So, in my last video, I covered a lot of the fines and fees that someone can face if they’re in possession of marijuana that’s in excess of the lawful amount. And here this is basically laying out that no state ordinance or any other subsequent law can pass out any fines or fees or anything like that that apply to marijuana that are not outlined here in the state question, which is a really, really peculiar provision to add into here.
Going on from page five to page six to section six of licensing, here we see that the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority has its name changed to the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority, that the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority has all the powers to issue licenses for the cultivation, processing, and manufacturing, testing, etc., etc. of marijuana.
That any entity here on page six section six number five, and it’s any entity may hold both a medical marijuana business license and a license under this article for recreational cannabis sales in the same type to operate at the same locations consistent with authority regulations under this article.
So, that’s basically meaning that any current standing medical marijuana business can also sell to recreational consumers, as well. Going on from page six to page seven down to number M, we see another interesting provision, and here we have… these are the provisions where the rules and regulations of the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority, and we see here that the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority needs to have a plan to promote and encourage small businesses in ownership and employment in the marijuana industry by people from economically distressed areas and to positively affect those areas.
So here, this is a provision to try to give back to economically depressed areas or areas that may have been adversely affected by the criminality of cannabis in the past. There don’t seem to be any incentives or anything like that laid out here in this provision.
So the assumption would be that the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority would give out those own incentives at a later date, but again, an interesting provision. And again, staying with the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority, we go to page eight and the application process for a marijuana business license has changed a little bit.
So you still would go in and do the license application on the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority website, but instead of doing things like getting a certificate of compliance from the local municipality and then giving that to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, here, the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority gives your application to the local municipality for them to review and for them to approve and deny on their level. And then you are subsequently approved or denied on the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority level subsequent to that.
So, there is a little bit of a switch here. We’re going to see how this plays out with local municipalities having a little bit more of a say so in the licensing process. So, we’ll see how that plays out. And here we see another interesting provision on page eight number five. I’ll read directly from the State Question. 
“The authority shall begin accepting applications for licenses within 12 months after the effective date of this article. For the first 24 months after the authority begins receiving applications, the authority shall only accept applications from and issue licenses to existing medical marijuana business licenses.”
So, here we see an interesting thing going on where marijuana businesses for the sale of marijuana for recreational use, the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority will only start accepting those licenses, or those applications for those licenses, within 12 months after the effective date of the State Question being voted and approved.
And then after that, for the following 24 months, the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority will only issue licenses for the sale of recreational cannabis to those businesses that already have a medical marijuana license.
So, here we see that the industry is going to be limited as far as what marijuana businesses can be opened and licensed to those businesses that are already medical marijuana businesses. That’s an interesting provision here.
This is an ongoing video of my review of State Question 807. My phone number is (918) 932-2800. Be free to leave your comments down below, and I look forward to seeing you guys next time. (Watch video four here.)