UPDATE 5/22/2020: GOV. STITT VETOED HB 3228 LATE YESTERDAY
Breaking News! The Legislative branch of our state government isn’t completely filled with evil, mustache-twiddling villains! If you told me a decade ago when I was buying dime bags of ditch weed that Oklahoma lawmakers would pass bills to do anything other than increase fines and jail time for marijuana possession, I’d have shat a brick weed.
Via Marijuana Moment:
The Oklahoma legislature sent a bill to the governor’s desk on Friday that allows out-of-state residents to obtain temporary medical marijuana licenses that last for up to three months and also provides for legal cannabis delivery services.
Move over Colorado! With this part of the bill, there’s no doubt in my mind that our great state would see a dramatic increase in marijuana tourist activity. Services that help you obtain your license and product…all while pampering you at some fancy spa or bed and breakfast.
It will become one of those things we are accustomed to seeing. And these won’t be your typical hipster Colorado weed tourist looking for a cheap deal and quick high. I envision a flood of upper crust people from neighboring states that I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with.
Strangely, our legislators are not trying to sneak some civil rights fuckery into the language. In fact, it’s quite the opposite:
Another provision celebrated by reform advocates makes it so that medical marijuana patient and caregiver records cannot be “shared with any other state agency or political subdivision without a warrant issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.”
But wait, there’s more!
Separate legislation that would prohibit the state’s firearms department from denying applications to purchase handguns due to a person’s participation in the state medical cannabis program is also set to be taken up by the House after unanimously passing the Senate in February. That bill stipulates that people can’t possess firearms while under the influence of marijuana.
Woah, did someone pass out special brownies at the capitol on vote day? These cats at the capitol are protecting my privacy and ability to buy a firearm…just a few sessions removed from deciding teachers were bad guys? Seriously, they even gave people who missed their renewal date a break! It’s almost as if they actually care about us.
The downside of OMMA not releasing patient data without a warrant is that I’ll never know for sure which local news personalities are high right now. But I value my anonymity and right to buy stuff like every other Okie.
But don’t get too excited, boss, there is one big hitch in this whole situation:
The fate of this whole miracle of law rests upon the bushy brows of our Governor (Joe Exotic help us ?!) Although this seems right up Stitt’s alley and something his constituents would be all in favor for (let’s say it together: revenue failure), something doesn’t feel right. Kind of like when this whole medical marijuana thing started and Gov. Fallin and her cronies, were trying to flim flam and bullshit us out of our meds.
No one we’ve talked to has a strong feeling on whether the governor will sign the bill into law…or veto it…or when. It’s been sitting on his desk since Friday. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but Señor Stitt is a businessman, and hopefully he will see the cents $EN$E in it and pass this joint to out-of-state-stoners (and people too stoned to drive to the dispensary).
—Uncle Skunk bought a gun before he got his license.
