Oklahoma voters will resolve Tuesday whether or not to make the state some of the conservative to inexperienced mild hashish use for adults.
State Query 820, the results of a signature gathering drive final yr, is the one merchandise on the statewide poll. Different conservative states have legalized leisure hashish use, together with Montana in 2020 and Missouri final yr, however a number of have rejected it, together with Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The plan faces opposition from leaders of a number of religion teams, together with regulation enforcement and prosecutors, led by former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, an ex-FBI agent, and Terri White, the previous head of the state’s Division of Psychological Well being and Substance Abuse Companies.
“We don’t need a stoned society,” Keating mentioned Monday, flanked by district attorneys and regulation enforcement officers from throughout the state.
The proposal, if handed, would permit anybody over the age of 21 to buy and possess as much as 1 ounce of marijuana, plus concentrates and marijuana-infused merchandise. Individuals might additionally legally develop as much as 12 marijuana crops. Leisure gross sales could be subjected to a 15% excise tax on high of the usual gross sales tax. The excise tax could be used to assist fund native municipalities, the courtroom system, public colleges, substance abuse therapy and the state’s common income fund.
The proposal additionally outlines a judicial course of for folks to hunt expungement or dismissal of prior marijuana-related convictions.
Oklahoma voters already accepted medical marijuana in 2018 by 14 proportion factors and the state has some of the liberal applications within the nation, with roughly 10% of the state’s grownup inhabitants having a medical license.
The low boundaries for entry into the business has led to a flood of growers, processors and dispensary operators competing for a restricted variety of prospects. Supporters additionally say the state’s marijuana business could be buoyed by a rush of out-of-state prospects, significantly from Texas, which has shut to eight million folks within the Dallas-Fort Price space just a bit greater than an hour drive from the Oklahoma border.
“We do have some of the permissible (medical) applications within the nation, however the concept that you need to spend your money and time to go to a physician and principally purchase immunity from prison prosecution is a pay-to-play system that I simply don’t like,” mentioned Ryan Kiesel, a former state lawmaker and one of many organizers of the Sure on 820 marketing campaign.
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