The director of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) said the agency is going through a “hard reset,” News On 6 reports.
Adria Berry, the agency’s fourth director in three years, told News On 6 that compliance checks and public safety will be the priority going forward.
“We can’t change where we came from, but we can definitely change where we’re going. So, from this point on, it is a hard reset.” — Berry, via News On 6
Less than 40% of Oklahoma’s 8,857 growers and 2,415 processors have been inspected since Oklahoma passed Question 788 in 2018.
“We absolutely do not have enough compliance inspectors on staff to keep up with the growth of the license numbers we’ve seen,” Berry said. “We’ve had a 25% increase in industry license applications in the last year.”
The agency is looking to hire an additional 40 inspectors to add to the roughly two dozen currently on staff. Additionally, agricultural groups are proposing increased licensing fees to slow down medical cannabis growth in rural Oklahoma. However, OMMA Deputy Director Barrett Brown indicated that officials do not necessarily want to make it harder for cannabis start-ups.
“We are a very business-friendly state, always have been, and will continue to be,” he said. “What we do want to ensure is that those businesses who do start are doing it the right way and are following the right regulations, and that’s what we’re staffing up to ensure.”
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