House lawmakers on Wednesday sent two bills to the Senate extending a moratorium on medical marijuana licenses and limiting the number of grow licenses.
House Bills 3143 and 3144 would extend an existing moratorium on all new marijuana business licenses to Aug. 1, 2028, and limit the number of grow licenses to 2,500, respectively.
The current moratorium on new licenses expires Aug. 1. There are currently 2,164 licensed grows in Oklahoma, according to a dashboard posted by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.
There are 686 processors, 1,421 dispensaries and 58 transporters licensed in Oklahoma.
Extending the moratorium
Rep. Tim Turner, R-Kinta, said the extended moratorium in House Bill 3143 is only for new licenses. Current medical marijuana businesses in good standing with OMMA could open new locations with their existing licenses, he said.
He said the moratorium will help control the black market side and keep the medical marijuana industry medical, not recreational.
Rep. Jared Deck, D-Norman, said one of his constituents was worried they wouldn’t be able to expand their existing business into new parts of the industry, like growing.
Businesses are able to sell their current licenses to other business owners who are interested in the industry or expansion, said Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee.
The bill heads to the Senate with a vote of 82-8.
Limiting medical marijuana grows
House Bill 3144 limits the number of licensed medical marijuana grows in the state to 2,500, more than currently exist.
Rep. Rusty Cornwell, R-Vinitia, said this bill goes “hand in hand” with House Bill 3143.
“We anticipate the moratorium to lift at some point,” he said. “When that happens we don’t want to go back to the Wild, Wild West and have 10,000 licenses out there. We wanna put a number on that so we can keep them in compliance.”
The House approved the measure with a vote of 82-15.
Medical marijuana was approved by voters in 2018 through a state question, and lawmakers have been attempting to regulate the industry in the years since.
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