{"id":35286,"date":"2022-10-18T17:24:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T22:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=35286"},"modified":"2022-10-18T17:24:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T22:24:36","slug":"oklahoma-to-vote-on-legalizing-recreational-cannabis-sales-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/10\/18\/oklahoma-to-vote-on-legalizing-recreational-cannabis-sales-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma to vote on legalizing recreational cannabis sales, use"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kevin Stitt <\/span>announced Tuesday<\/span><\/a> Oklahomans can vote on the legalization of recreational cannabis in a special election on March 7, 2023.<\/span><\/p>

State Question 820 would legalize cannabis for adults over 21, and it would allow some people with drug convictions the opportunity to have their cannabis convictions reversed and criminal records expunged.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The question specifies for the first two years, recreational cannabis business licenses are available only to businesses that have already been in operation for at least a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Compounded with an <\/span>existing moratorium<\/span><\/a> on new grower, processor and dispensary licenses the legislature passed this spring, new business owners looking to break into the recreational cannabis business may be waiting awhile. The moratorium will expire Aug. 1, 2024 or earlier if the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority\u2019s executive director determines the agency has caught up on pending reviews, inspections and investigations.<\/span><\/p>

Earlier this year, 820\u2019s backers turned in 69,000 more signatures than needed. But an outside vendor <\/span>took so long to verify signatures<\/span><\/a> that the state Supreme Court ruled between that and <\/span>four legal challenges<\/span><\/a>, it was too late for the initiative to be included on this November\u2019s ballot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That vendor, Western Petition Systems LLC, received a $300,000 contract for the work, according to an <\/span>Open Records Request<\/span><\/a> by Oklahoma Watch.<\/span><\/p>

Critics say the lack of a cannabis question on the November ballot is a <\/span>win for Oklahoma\u2019s GOP<\/span><\/a>, whose candidates may have been affected negatively by a larger \u2014 and potentially more progressive \u2014 voter turnout.<\/span><\/p>

In addition to helping implement the law, tax revenues from the new industry would go toward public schools to address substance abuse and student retention, drug addiction treatment programs, courts, local governments and the General Revenue Fund.<\/span><\/p>

Gov. Stitt told the Associated Press in September he opposes the proposal. However, due to the U.S.\u2019s \u201cpatchwork\u201d of state cannabis laws, Stitt said he supports nationwide legalization of cannabis. That\u2019s in line with other recent national pushes to ease marijuana laws \u2014 <\/span>such as President Joe Biden\u2019s proposal<\/span><\/a> to initiate a review on the drug\u2019s federal classification.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cDo I wish that the feds would pass legalized marijuana? Yes. I think that would solve a lot of issues from all these different states,\u201d Stitt <\/span>told the AP<\/span><\/a>. \u201cBut in our state, just trying to protect our state right now, I don\u2019t think it would be good for Oklahoma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Tuesday Oklahomans can vote on the legalization of recreational cannabis in a special election on March 7, 2023.State Question 820 would legalize cannabis for adults over 21, and it would allow some people with drug convictions the opportunity to have their cannabis convictions reversed and criminal records expunged.\u00a0The question specifies for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":34752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,16],"tags":[1392,1470,751,1467,1468,1469],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35286"}],"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\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35291,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35286\/revisions\/35291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}