Oklahoma Crackdown Shuts Down Five Medical Cannabis Businesses for Alleged Diversion

A crackdown by authorities in Kay County, Oklahoma led to the confiscation of 4,800 pounds of cannabis and five businesses shut down, KOCO reports. The operation was led by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) and was prompted by both routine inspections of licensed medical cannabis businesses and civilian complaints.  

 Mel Woodrow, chief of enforcement and compliance at OMMA, told KOCO that the action was the first time the agency had conducted such an operation.  

“Large quantities that are not in the seed-to-sale tracking system, the METRC system. It’s not tagged. In no way could they account for where that marijuana should be going, or where it came from. Large amounts of marijuana were being diverted, it was pretty common knowledge.” — Woodrow to KOCO 

The crackdown comes as Oklahoma officials try to reign in the state’s medical cannabis program. A study by Cannabis Public Policy Consulting commissioned by OMMA found that growers in the state were producing 64 times more cannabis than needed for the state’s patient population while data from Oklahoma’s Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs estimates that about 2,000 medical cannabis licensees in the state are obtained fraudulently or are masking illicit sales. Last month, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) said that over the last two years, it has shut down more than 800 unlawful cannabis farms operating under the guise of the state’s medical cannabis law, leading to the confiscation of nearly 7,000 pounds of cannabis and more than 200 arrests.  

Officials said the action in Kay County would serve as a blueprint to uncover illegal operators throughout the state.