A group of Oklahoma activists are preparing to put a pair of marijuana initiatives on the state ballot next year.
The ballots would overhaul Oklahoma’s massive medical marijuana system and would legalize cannabis for all adults 21 and older.
According to Lawrence Pasternack, an advocate and Oklahoma State University professor who helped write the draft initiatives, the medical and adult-use measures would appear on the ballot separately but are designed to work together and even overlap to some degree.
“There’s a robust statewide, grassroots effort to develop both a constitutional medical petition and a constitutional full-access petition,” Pasternack told Marijuana Moment. “They’re designed, if they both pass, to function in parallel to one another.”
The medical proposal would create a new state agency to regulate all types of legal cannabis, including hemp and high-THC marijuana, and would establish funding for programs including research, environmental remediation and mental health services.
The adult-use proposal would allow any adult 21 and older to purchase marijuana products from existing dispensaries. As part of the proposal, individuals would also be able to grow up to 12 cannabis plants at home and keep or give away the marijuana it produces.
“Unlike states that have a small medical program, we have a program that effectively is like a full-access program already,” Pasternack said.
Oklahoma has more operating dispensaries than any other U.S. state currently.
“From the perspective of many people in the state, they see it as a full-access program with a hoop to jump through,” he added.
Drafts of both ballot measures are available at the website of nonprofit advocacy group Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA).
