Over 18,000 medical marijuana cardholders in Arkansas as of today! Wow!
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma — where there are no requirements that patients meet certain qualifying conditions, only that they get a referral from a physician — there were 162,273 registered medical marijuana cardholders as of last Monday, a number which has been increasing by 8,000-10,000 per month for over a year. The Sooner State is closing in on 4 percent of the state’s total population with a medical marijuana card in their pocket or purse.
Under Oklahoma’s law, which voters approved by ballot measure, cardholders can smoke anywhere you can smoke a cigarette, including in bars, clubs and the great outdoors. There’s a cannabis-infused ice cream company in Oklahoma that sells in 70 dispensaries (a fraction of the 1,708 total licensed dispensaries in the state). There’s a THC-infused beef jerky company that employs six people.
High Times Magazine will be holding one of its famous “Cannabis Cup” events at a convention center in Oklahoma City at the end of this month, and ticket holders who have a valid Oklahoma medical marijuana card, along with cardholders from any state in the Union willing to fill out a simple form and pay $100 for a guest license, can smoke cannabis on the premises until they begin to float away.
The license to grow on a commercial scale or open a dispensary in Oklahoma is a flat $2,500 and a fare thee well, open to any Oklahoma resident who hasn’t had a felony in the past five years. Their law allows cardholders to possess up to a HALF POUND of marijuana, and grow up to six plants at a time. Their law also made possession of up to 1.5 ounces by noncardholders a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $400 fine, if the person caught illegally holding cannabis — and I’m quoting here — “state a medical condition,” which they have. When the Oklahoma Health Department tried to kill the Oklahoma law by passing a bunch of anti-marijuana rules — including making it illegal to smoke legally-purchased cannabis anywhere in the state — the people rose up and protested until the Health Department rescinded the rules. They’re currently estimating that Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana industry will be worth $250 million per year by 2025.
No, I’m not kidding about any of this.
I’m glad we have medical marijuana in Arkansas for the people who need it. That said, when it came down to it, Arkansas chose monopoly for the few instead of prosperity for everyone. Kinda sad we have to stare over the neighbor’s fence to see what a fully-realized cannabis market looks like. From here, it looks like they might as well be breeding ducks that shit gold doubloons.
