MMJ LEGISTLATION IN OKLAHOMA BY FELINA N. RIVERA

2022 Medical Marijuana Legislation in Oklahoma

What bills will become law & how will it change the industry?

By Felina N. Rivera, Cannabis Attorney

Every year, Oklahoma legislators propose bills for our state congress to consider in hopes of creating new laws. Since the passage of State Question 788 in 2018, hundreds of bills have been proposed pertaining to medical marijuana, but only those that pass both the House and Senate and are signed by the governor actually become law. The Second Regular Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislature is scheduled to convene on February 7, 2022. Legislators had a deadline of January 20th to introduce bills they want considered this session. This year over 100 bills proposed relate to regulation of medical marijuana. Next, they will be debated, voted on, amended, and could potentially change the landscape of the cannabis industry by the time the Legislature adjourns on May 27. Between now and the end of May, I will be following cannabis related legislation in Oklahoma as these bills make their way through congress and share my findings with you each month.

Most of the bills proposed this session come out of the House of Representatives. Representative Scott Fetgatter from District 16 is a regular contributor of cannabis legislation, and this year is no different. Some of the bills he has proposed include:

HB3019 – would do away with opaque product packaging requirements, instead requiring dispensaries to put products in opaque “exit packaging” upon purchase.

HB3347 – would allow medical marijuana businesses to take the normal business tax deductions generally disallowed by Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code on Oklahoma State Tax returns.

HB3634 – would create a new “Medical Marijuana Wholesaler” license, that would allow for the purchase and sale of products on behalf of other licensed businesses in the state. Wholesale licensees would also be subject to seed-to-sale tracking.

HB3734 – would create a temporary medical marijuana business license for dispensaries, grows, and processors, requiring all those seeking licensure to first apply for a temporary business license. The license would be valid for 180 days while applicants seek annual licensure. Applicants would also be expected to submit more information than previously required, including information about sources of funding, ownership of property, security, power sources, water diversion plans, cultivation plans, proof of insurance, and other information OMMA requests.

HB3742 – would penalize growers who abandon land used for harvesting marijuana crops without restoring it to its previous condition.

HB3754 – would create the “Oklahoma Adult Access to Marijuana Act” and outline regulations for the recreational purchase and use of marijuana by individuals over the age of 21.

Other popular topics covered by proposed legislation involve different ways the number of licenses issued can be capped (see HB2987, HB2989, HB3726, HB3727), limiting ownership of businesses to Oklahoma residents only (HB3268), or changing tax revenue allocations (HB3083, HB3037, HB3530).

Next month, I will share some of the bills proposed Oklahoma Senators and provide an update as to what bills look to be moving forward – and which ones will likely die before the end of the session. Between now and then, please feel free to reach out to me if you would like a complete list of proposed cannabis legislation or have any other medical marijuana legal questions!

Felina N. Rivera

Managing Attorney Renaissance Legal Solutions, PLLC Phone: (405) 247-0647 Felina@RLSLawyer.com Instagram @okclatinalawyer

The art of dialing in your mind and body to chase your thoughts to their inevitable ends. We meditate, we make art, we garden, we dance, we run… We run after the void, seeking the end of understanding or to quiet the noise so that we can feel the static of oblivion. La petit mort – or the little death – is the release of energy that untethers us from all that we know. These little deaths are the endorphin rush from a great work out, the high of closing a big deal, the crashing waves following an orgasm. All we are chasing is that burst of pent-up energy that allows us to bask in our afterglow or the silence of the expulsion.

As philosophical beings, we explore our comprehension of reality. Its heady work. Work that drives exceptional minds beyond the void, some driven to madness. Philosophers have influenced the evolution of the human consciousness for millennia by sharing their personal understanding of reality with any listeners who will receive them. Socratic philosophers believed the world was only as real as we universally believe. This gave birth to Western philosophy and innumerable philosophical disciplines. Over the two and half millennia, since Socrates spun his thoughts into the web of consciousness, Western philosophy has discovered and developed into countless iterations of reality, each tethered to one another through an invisible network of consciousness. As we outgrow our collective understanding, the energy that we have built for growth must be absorbed until the collective conscious achieves a reset. Every time we condense enough energy to affect change, we’ve progressed into a deeper collective understanding of who we are. The duality of being both The observer and the observed catalyzes many of us forward into the void. We are wanting to understand more of ourselves. This inevitably leads to a desire to understand those around us and how we are all connected.

The limit of understanding is set by our connection to our consciousness. Within the conscious mind exists ego, which brings awareness of self and within that knowledge we can only understand the world. In that regard, we can only understand our non-existence. We as individuals are nanoscopic in comparison to all that binds us. The dissolution of self, or ego death, as it has come to be known, is where we achieve the realization of everything and nothing. These realizations are fleeting because the conscious mind seeks constantly to understand beyond its own knowledge. At this juncture, gleaning knowledge becomes a compulsion, a subconscious fixation to find the next unknown and know it. To best tap the collective consciousness, our energy must be flowing in the correct direction and there must be no interruption to the flow of that energy, such as the limitation of our own consciousness. Being that individual consciousness is a mitigating factor to collective consciousness, we must first identify the channel of energy that we are seeking to join and then dissolve our ego into the ether. We must know how to achieve la petite mort. Preceding Western philosophy are the concepts of karma and balanced chakras. These provide a mission and a legend for Vedic philosophers. They are seeking to achieve ultimate knowledge through good intention, balance, and discipline. Vedic practices include Yoga, Tantra, and Ayuverda which prescribe routines for physical and mental fitness. These routines could direct followers to fast or meditate until they enter a state of altered consciousness. Somatic practices in the Vedic traditions included plantbased concoctions and relied heavily on cannabis in the development of Taoism, or so it is understood. Even earlier in human consciousness, at the dawn of civilization, Mesopotamian philosophy centered on living a life as laborers for the gods so that the world would not spin into chaos. Early human developments such as these relied heavily on the leadership of spiritually gifted individuals who were tasked with knowing, understanding, and responding to the needs of the people in their collectives. In an article titled “Psychedelics and the Ancient Near East”, author Diana L. Stein describes the plant-based medicinal practices of third and second Millenia Mesopotamians. Stein further explains that “the resulting concoctions were applied as salves, ingested as potions, powders, and pills, or inhaled as fumes in order to treat all manner of ailments, both real and imagined. Certain drugs were prescribed for their mind-altering effects. Some of these brought about sedation, anesthesia, or analgesia. Others were administered in order to relieve or overcome inhibition, fear, panic, and depression as well as, in the odd instance, to induce hallucinations.”

Heralded as sages, healers, and prophets, these guides would utilize plant medicine to journey beyond consciousness seeking communion with the gods, ancestors, or with trapped spirits. Many of these ancient philosophers understood that hallucinogens could remove the barrier of consciousness. In some civilizations, as evidenced by Mesopotamian anthropology, the guides would utilize hallucinogens to improve the health of a particular individual. Shamans in northern cultures administered mushrooms and mushroom teas to raise moral during brutal winter months. This evidence of plant-based medicine to induce hallucinations in the earliest known human civilizations indicates an innate understanding of en-