Stitt rejects medical marijuana bill that received near-unanimous support; veto override appears

Stitt rejects medical marijuana bill that received near-unanimous support; veto override appears unlikely


Efforts to amend laws for the state’s medical marijuana industry could be unsuccessful this year after the Oklahoma Legislature opted Friday not to override Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bipartisan bill containing program reforms.

House Bill 3228 from Rep. Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, would have allowed medical cannabis patients to receive deliveries from dispensaries within a 10-mile radius or — for rural residents — a dispensary in their county. It also would have barred the Oklahoma State Department of Health from sharing patient and caregiver records with other state agencies or political subdivisions, including law enforcement, without a court order.

Additionally, the bill permitted dispensaries to stay in the same location if a school is built within 1,000 feet after it opens. There were further amendments related to protocols for businesses that were requests of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.

Stitt, in his veto message, criticized what he viewed as a “not fully scrutinized” effort in the bill to make “substantial policy changes” to Oklahoma’s medical cannabis framework. The comment is an apparent acknowledgement of how multiple other bills related to the cannabis industry were consolidated into a single proposal in an attempt to ease passage amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/stitt-rejects-medical-marijuana-bill-that-received-near-unanimous-support-veto-override-appears-unlikely/article_ec04bfcc-8e22-5eb9-9ea3-6f060740cfc4.html