{"id":29124,"date":"2018-01-08T19:47:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T01:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29124"},"modified":"2018-12-14T10:36:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T16:36:43","slug":"if-voters-ok-medical-marijuana-health-boss-says-another-agency-should-regulate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/01\/08\/if-voters-ok-medical-marijuana-health-boss-says-another-agency-should-regulate-it\/","title":{"rendered":"If Voters OK Medical Marijuana, Health Boss Says Another Agency Should Regulate It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29125\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Interim Health Commissioner Preston Doerflinger, left.\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-29125\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-620x392.jpg\" alt=\"Interim Health Commissioner Preston Doerflinger, left.\" width=\"620\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-620x392.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-500x316.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-1920x1215.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-150x95.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/Doreflinger-1707x1080.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Interim Health Commissioner Preston Doerflinger, left.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>On June 26, voters will decide if Oklahoma will become the 30th state to legalize marijuana for medical use.\u00a0But regulating the new industry could prove difficult.<!--more--><\/p><p>If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.ok.gov\/documents\/questions\/788.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state question 788<\/a> passes, licenses will be required for each stage of marijuana cultivation, including dispensaries, commercial growers, processors, and individual medical marijuana cards.<\/p><p>The measure\u2019s language says the state health department will handle all the new oversight \u00a0\u2014 but with <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/12\/19\/feds-now-investigating-oklahoma-state-department-of-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigations<\/a> into financial mismanagement and a fundamental restructuring of the agency \u00a0health officials don\u2019t want the responsibility.<\/p><p>\u201cThere are certain things that the agency is charged with that might be better placed at the tax commission, or the state board of pharmacy might be a better place for this work to occur,\u201d said Preston Doerflinger, acting commissioner of health.<\/p><p>The ballot language states that if medical marijuana passes in June, the health department will have to start issuing licenses in August.<\/p><p>\u201cI am encouraging the governor and legislators to realize that there are problems with the way that it\u2019s currently designed and there are going to have to be changes. This agency cannot take that on, it can\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 26, voters will decide if Oklahoma will become the 30th state to legalize marijuana for medical use.\u00a0But regulating the new industry could prove difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":29125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[751],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29124"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31060,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29124\/revisions\/31060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}