POLITICAL ROUNDUP: Some seek clarity for medical marijuana law | News

After Oklahomans voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, the industry has exploded with dispensers, growers and processors setting up shop throughout the state.

Lawmakers have been eyeing stricter regulations on cannabis businesses, and State Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, held an interim study recently to examine the standards necessary to create a “true medical cannabis product” that can be dispensed through a pharmacy or medical doctor.

“When medical marijuana was first legalized, it was a bit like the land rush all over again,” McDugle said. “Dispensaries popped up all over our state and regulators were left playing catchup. Some of those issues have led to products on the market that don’t necessarily help people in the way a true medical cannabis product should.”

According to Hobart Biosciences Chairman and CEO Sheldon Robinson, who provided testimony during the study, many doctors are uncomfortable prescribing medical marijuana because they don’t know how to dose it. McDugle said the cannabis industry should be held to a higher standard by creating a new level of medical marijuana.

“When I am sick, I go to my doctor to make me feel better,” McDugle said. “When I am in pain, I should be able to go to my doctor and get natural substitutes in place of addictive narcotics. We need to do whatever we can to get doctors the knowledge, education and training they need to be able to understand and prescribe cannabis for things like pain management, anxiety, PTS, etc.”

Bud tenders in Oklahoma dispensaries don’t have much formal medical training. Most rely on feedback from customers and personal experience to make recommendations for which product to use. It can leave some license holders overwhelmed when trying to choose from 20 different strains of cannabis, which is why McDugle wants to give more clarity to certain products.

But not everyone believes creating a new level of medical marijuana requires government input. Cherokee County Libertarian Party Shannon Grimes said it’s unnecessary for the state to try standardizing medical cannabis.

“I think there’s absolutely a market for that type of standardization,” he said. “I think those business interests just need to move forward and do it. There are people looking for that, ‘When I buy this, I get exactly this.’ What [lawmakers are] looking to do, though, is shut down people not doing it their way – or at least, try to limit them, and we don’t need that.”

To get a medical marijuana card, Oklahomans must get a physician’s recommendation. But a large portion of the state’s doctors don’t aren’t involved in the cannabis industry, and State Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee, calls that a major problem.

“If you want to use the truest term of the [phrase] ‘medical marijuana,’ I’m not sure we have medical marijuana,” he said. “We have, basically, marijuana for just about anything that ails you, if you want to go through the process of getting a license. Anything that would restrict that a little bit more, I would sure be interested in looking at.”

Studies have shown that people can improve their health care by finding alternative medicine, like marijuana. The implementation of it has produced many success stories across the state. State Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah, said tightening rules on its usage won’t help, and pointed to standards used to prescribe opioids in the past. He’s more concerned with rules that have opened up a black market for the plant.

“You look at the opioid problem, and they were all dispensed through [pharmacies],” Culver said. “What we are looking at, and need to do, is get it regulated. The people that are doing it right, we need to support them. The bad actors, they need to be out of the business and done with it, because there are too many people trying to follow the rules, regulation and laws, and are running a good above-board business.”

With marijuana still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, it’s unclear whether pharmacists would even be able to dispense marijuana. When the law was passed in the state, legislators learned any pharmacist licensed with the Drug Enforcement Administration would be in violation of federal law for filling a prescription for marijuana. So it could require pharmacist to set up a separate, independent entity to distribute the drug. Many doctors have set up businesses separate from their medical practices as well.

Some people have expressed concern, though, that a new type of medical marijuana supplier could hurt the dispensaries that are already in place. Cherokee County Democratic Party Chair Yolette Ross said she wouldn’t want to see businesses negatively impacted.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” she said. “A lot of people get medical marijuana and have talked about how their health has improved. They’re sleeping better, their headaches are gone, and whatever ailment they went in there for initially is resolving itself. So I say leave it alone.”

Calls to Josh Owen, chair of the Cherokee County Republican Party, did not return phone calls by press time.