Lawsuit Filed Against Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority For Having Secret Meetings About Cannabis Licensing

Since Oklahoma legalized marijuana three years ago it has financially exploded, but it hasn’t come without its feuds and challenges between business owners and industry regulators. Tulsa attorney Ron Durbin told supporters during a rally held at the state capitol on Friday, July 30, “One of the main reasons I’m here today is we filed a new lawsuit against the OMMA, against Director Williams, against her secretary, against a lot of new members of the board of health and food safety standard board.” The lawsuit claims that the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Durbin said, “Ultimately, what they did after is they formed this new board in secret, held a secret meeting to approve some regulations, and then sent those off to the governor as emergency regulations.” His co-counsel to the case, Rachel Bussett, noted that, “They did it in a sneaky and underhanded way, intentionally or unintentionally I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.” Both attorneys said no agenda was posted, no one in the cannabis community was informed of the meeting, and those deciding on the rules weren’t given ample time to read and understand what was in front of them.

Bussett told Fox 25 that, “These were sent to individuals who were not attorneys, who are not normally a part of the rule-making process less than 24 hours before they were supposed to appear and vote on them.” The new emergency bill that went into effect as of July 1, 2021, consists of a plethora of different rules concerning licensees.

Overall, Durbin would like the Authority to no longer be under the umbrella of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Instead, he wants the operating hands of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Durbin said he wanted to, “Create some new, clear rules on what’s going on and run from there. But we’ve got to get it out from the department of health.” It seems although marijuana reform is making its way throughout the U.S., there are still a few intentional and unintentional roadblocks in the way.