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Oklahoma Narcotics Bureau Investigating 2,000 Potentially Illegal Grow Licenses
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs is investigating illegal cannabis licenses in the state.
A recent report from Tulsa World states that according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBNDD), there are a couple thousand unlicensed medical cannabis businesses in the state. “We’ve got close to 2,000 under investigation,” said Mark Woodward, with the Public Information Office at OBNDD. “We’re working with our partners to identify the criminal networks involved.”
Woodward also commented that many of these licenses have been linked to illegal activity. Recently in December 2022, four people were killed “execution style” at a cannabis cultivation facility in Kingfisher County, which is located northwest of Oklahoma City. According to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, the owners of the facility had a medical cultivation license, but OBNDD agents believe that the license was obtained illegally.
Woodward said that those working at illegal cultivation sites are often foreign nationals. “The only thing it did was it shined a light on something we’ve been saying for the last four years,” Woodward said. “It’s the same violent criminal organizations.”
He added that 200 operations have been closed by local law enforcement so far, but the OBNDD is trying to track the source of criminal activity. But until that investigation yields results, Woodward believes that Oklahoma’s medical cannabis industry will continue to suffer. “Something not talked about much is that the legitimate industry is bleeding to death,” Woodward added.
Last year in March, people impersonating police officers performed fake search warrants at numerous cannabis cultivation sites, stealing 100 pounds of cannabis, as well as machines, cash, and cell phones. At the time, Woodward commented on the attacks on cannabis businesses due to the fact that cannabis is still federally illegal, and are forced to mainly deal in cash.
“These farms where there are oftentimes Chinese workers who don’t speak English—they won’t recognize traditional law enforcement,” Woodward told High Times. “They’re not familiar with what Oklahoma law enforcement or what uniforms might look like or what a fraudulent warrant looks like compared to legitimate ones. And so these criminals count on that. That’s why they targeted these specific farms. They saw it as an easy opportunity to take advantage of these workers and hit the farm and take product.”
Tulsa World shared that some people, such as 3rd District Congressman Frank Lucas, along with 20 other congress members, sent a letter in July 2022 to U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding the purchase of Oklahoma land by foreign parties. According to the letter, foreign land ownership increased “from 13,720 to 352,140 acres between 2010 and 2020.”
“We are alarmed by the pace at which Chinese companies have been purchasing U.S. agricultural land in recent years. Given this trend, we want to ensure the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has the reporting tools necessary to provide Americans with the fullest possible picture of all foreign purchases of United States land,” the letter stated.
In December 2021, there were 9,400 licensed medical cannabis cultivators. One year later in December 2022 revealed a reduction to 7,086 licenses. Currently, there is a moratorium on new licenses, which went into effect in August 2022 and will end sometime around August 2024.
Medical cannabis was legalized through a voter initiative in 2018, but the state’s low cost of entry (only $2,500 annually) for a cannabis license opened the doors to out-of-state parties. A newer bill, House Bill 2179, was later passed by the governor in May 2022 to increase the annual fees based on the size of a facility or a dispensary’s sales. According to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, this doesn’t go into effect until June 1, 2023.
Although there have been numerous attempts to reign in illegal cannabis activity in Oklahoma, advocates are looking at March to legalize recreational cannabis. Gov. Kevin Stitt set March 7 as the date for a special election where the voter initiative will appear. If passed, State Question 820 would legalize adult-use cannabis and allow cannabis cultivation and sales.
“After all the delays caused by the new signature count process, we are excited to finally be on the ballot on March 7, 2023, so that Oklahomans can experience the benefits of the State Question without further delay,” said Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Law Campaign Director Michelle Tilley. “We are grateful the voices of over 164,000 Oklahomans who signed the petition and want to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana for adults in Oklahoma have been heard.”
Originally it was set to appear in the November 2022 ballot, but the submitted signatures were not certified in time.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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