Oklahoma’s regulatory agency for medical marijuana denies any widespread issuesOKLAHOMA CITY — Kyle King said he’s invested $100,000 into Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry, hoping to become a licensed grower. After over a year of waiting on the state’s regulatory agency to approve his ownership, he’s now considering taking his business to another state.With a legislatively-imposed moratorium on issuing new licenses, King has to buy an existing license from a business owner looking to sell. He invested in a growing business called GreenSight 2020 in May 2023, but said his ownership and the transfer of the license still has not been made official by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, or OMMA. In the meantime, King cannot earn any money from the business he’s invested in.King said he’s been checking in with OMMA on a weekly basis, but has been told he’ll need to continue to wait. While King said he’s been able to work other jobs to support himself, others have poured their entire retirement savings into this industry.“I’m tired of waiting for Oklahoma,” he said. “Multiple other states have looser residency restrictions, they’re a little cheaper and they’re a lot more supportive than Oklahoma has been.”King, along with others within the medical marijuana industry, blame a massive license renewal backlog at OMMA.While state law requires OMMA to approve renewals within 90 business days, cannabis advocates say hundreds of licenses are in limbo, creating a harmful situation for proprietors and prompting concerns that allowing unlicensed operations could put consumers’ public safety at risk.Tasked with licensing and regulating growers, processors and dispensaries, OMMA pushed back against assertions that it is failing to renew licenses on time and is out of compliance with state law. But the agency was unable to provide Oklahoma Voice with any documentation showing how many licenses are out of date and waiting for renewal.Licensing process at a ‘standstill’State law allows businesses to continue to operate while waiting for their licenses to be renewed, but Jed Green, director of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, said allowing the dispensaries, growers and processors to essentially operate without up-to-date licenses while under review has become a “crutch” for OMMA.Growers have faced the most licensing delays because the state is hoping to reduce the number of marijuana grows, he said. Green said that licensing process has come to a “complete standstill.”He said that if OMMA cannot keep up with licensing, it won’t be ...
