Oklahomans will head to the polls this March and will decide whether marijuana will be legal for recreational use across the state.
Garry McDevitt, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Prue, has been rallying church members and the people of Prue to write letters and sign petitions to get State Question 820 removed from the ballot.
McDevitt says the increasing use of marijuana in Oklahoma has worried him.
“Marijuana is falling into the hands of kids at an alarming rate,” said McDevitt. “They have multiple ways they can use it, some of them are so covert that you can’t catch it.”
He says the usage of marijuana is a problem he’s seeing in Prue, both in the schools and in his church.
“In our little small school, it’s impacting our school multiple ways,” said McDevitt. “Because kids are doing that every day or being caught doing that every day at our school.”
State Question 820, if passed, would legalize using marijuana for Oklahoma adults 21 years and older.
Groups in support of marijuana legalization say it can help people who are in jail for marijuana possession charges and save law enforcement dollars.
“Putting people in jail for simple marijuana use is an outdated idea,” said Michelle Tilley, with Yes On 820. “You can go to the corner store and buy a bottle of wine, yet you can have your life completely ruined for having just a little bit of marijuana.”
Tilley says if marijuana is legalized, it will bring in millions to the state economy.
“The most immediate and easy thing to see is the tax revenue coming in,” said Tilley. “Again, we’ve got projections showing tens of millions of dollars in the first year of new tax dollars coming in, and over five years hundreds of millions of dollars because it’s going to ramp up.”
But McDevitt says the tax revenue isn’t worth, what he says, are the risks of marijuana being in schools.
“There are no amount of tax dollars worth the dangers that marijuana poses to our culture, to the development of our state, to our workplace, and to our schools and children,” said McDevitt.
He hopes people will take the time to educate themselves about the question and marijuana legalization before they make their decision.
“Do the research, find out for yourself,” McDevitt said. “But evaluate it based on what is said, and not what you think.”
State Question 820 will be voted on by Oklahomans on March 7.
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