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Oklahoma's Pot Proponents Gearing Up For 2018 Medical Marijuana Vote

Attorney Chad Moody specializes in criminal defense cases involving drug charges.
Brent Fuchs
/
The Journal Record
Attorney Chad Moody specializes in criminal defense cases involving drug charges.

Even though it'll likely be two years before Oklahoma voters can decide whether or not to legalize medical marijuana, supporters are already thinking about how to win.

Proponents will start trying to raise at least $500,000 after the presidential election. Chip Paul, the Tulsa-based chairman of Oklahomans for Health, said it could take three times that to make sure enough supporters get to the polls in support of the measure.

Paul also told The Journal Record’s Dale Denwalt he will consider raising money for the campaign to finance its own a statewide special election that would cost more than a million dollars. That way, it would be on a ballot before 2018.

The election campaign will need support from people interested in starting a pot business in Oklahoma, he said. He’s picky about his supporters, though. Paul said that the Marijuana Policy Project approached him offering to bankroll the next campaign. “They wanted to give us money and we said no, we don’t want your money,” he said, citing alleged ties to pharmaceutical companies. “(MPP offered) enough to fund what they wanted us to do, but then we’re dancing to their tune and we’re not going to do that.”

So far, there has been no organized opposition to the measure, but supporters expect pressure from law enforcement, private prisons and the pharmaceutical industry.

Paul says 2013 polling showed 71 percent of Oklahoma voters would support medical marijuana for seriously ill patients, and there’s growing support for changing the laws.

“The one demographic we were most concerned with was 55 and above, and it’s over 60-percent favorable even in that demographic,” said Paul. “We don’t really think we’re going to have to work that hard, but it depends on the ‘no’ effort, who’s behind it and how they present it.” Chad Moody, the self-styled drug lawyer whose office window across from the county courthouse is adorned with a massive pot leaf, said he doesn’t think there will be much opposition because the drug would be used to help sick people. “If there is, I would guess it would come from law enforcement because there’s so much revenue for law enforcement generated by marijuana prohibition,” he said. “As soon as medical passes, then recreational is going to be around the corner. If medical passes, the public’s going to learn it’s not the demon weed that’s going to make your daughter sleep with bad men and all the rest of that stuff.” Moody is not part of the campaign, but he ran for governor in 2014 with his own campaign against the drug’s status.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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