NO on Oklahoma SQ 820 recreational marijuana legalization

All of Oklahoma's voters have an election on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. The only thing on the ballot is State Question 820, which would enact a law to legalize marijuana for any purpose, over and above the "medical" marijuana law, SQ 788, approved by voters in June 2018.

I will be voting NO - AGAINST THE PROPOSITION, and I hope you will join me in turning out to cast a no vote and encouraging friends and family to do the same. Polls will be open on election day, Tuesday, March 7, 2023, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Early voting will be available on Thursday, March 2, and Friday, March 3, 2023, from 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. at at least one location in each county; Tulsa County will have early voting at the election board downtown and at the Hardesty Regional Library in south Tulsa.

In 2018, Oklahoma voters approved "medical" marijuana, perhaps imagining pharmacists in white coats measuring carefully calibrated doses of THC to relieve the pain of terminal cancer patients. Instead, dispensaries with punny names (e.g. "Dank of Oklahoma," "Oklahoma Natural Grass") filled every vacant storefront selling varieties with names that evoke lost weekends and Cheech and Chong albums, rather than pharmaceutical precision: "Maui Wowie," "Acapulco Gold," "Bad Parent," "Gary Satan," "Kingpin Kush OG," and "Terdz," which reportedly smells of "sweet diesel, fruit, and candy." According to an LA Times video report, Oklahoma has 2,301 dispensaries compared to 913 in California, and nearly as many licensed cultivators as the Golden State -- 8,014 in Oklahoma and 8,757 in California.

What SQ 788 made bad, SQ 820 would make worse. Among other provisions, SQ 820 would forbid taking marijuana use into consideration in child custody decisions. This goes beyond removing criminal sanctions for low-level use and treats the use of a mind-altering drug as inconsequential.

Unlike most state questions, SQ 820 is not a constitutional amendment. If approved by a majority of voters statewide, a new piece of legislation, 16 pages in length, will be enacted into law, adding Sections 431 through 446 to Title 63, Public Health & Safety, the same as if the legislature had passed a bill. The actual legislation is contained in pages 3-18 of the PDF for State Question 820 on the Oklahoma Secretary of State website. (The PDF also includes legal challenges concerning the validity of the proposal, petition tallies, and the legal battle over the summary that will appear on the ballot.) Because SQ 820 is statutory, the legislature could subsequently amend the law contained in this state question, but political considerations would deter a legislator from making changes to a question approved by a majority of voters in his own district.

Eighteen Oklahoma state questions legalizing marijuana in some form have been filed with the Secretary of State, beginning with SQ 501 in 1973, a single-page proposition that would have removed all "civil or criminal penalties for the use, possession, cultivation, distribution, or possession with intent to distribute, of marihuana by persons eighteen years of age or older." Distributing to a minor would have been a misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $100. The petition failed for an insufficient number of signatures, and that was the last attempt for until SQ 768 in 2014, a medical marijuana proposal which garnered less than half the signatures required. Of the 18 proposed state questions, six were withdrawn by their proponents, five failed to garner sufficient signatures, four were abandoned (no signatures ever filed), one (SQ 813) was stricken from the ballot by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2020 for lack of an accurate and sufficient gist to advise petition signers of the full scope of the proposed constitutional amendment; the remaining two are SQ 788 and SQ 820, both statutory proposals. The proponents of SQ 820 also proposed SQ 821 as a backup if the State Supreme Court had held that SQ 820 violated the single-subject requirement of the Oklahoma Constitution.

Yes on 820 - Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws raised $3,229,547.76 as of December 31, 2022, the last date they had to file a full contributions and expenditures report. They have spent $4,183,920.28 as of Friday, February 24, 2003. Major individual pro-pot contributors include Stacy Schusterman ($250,000), Harold Hamm's ex-wife Sue Ann Arnall ($100,000), and George Krumme ($25,000). The Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies gave $50,000, and the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union donated $30,000.

Most of the financial support for the "vote yes" cause has come from out-of-state leftist organizations. The Just Trust for Action of Asheville, NC, which is targeting Oklahoma for "criminal justice reform" (aka releasing dangerous criminals from prison) has contributed $1,171,400.00. The New Approach Advocacy Fund of Washington DC has contributed $750,319.95 some of which was in-kind "campaign advising." The ACLU has donated $570,476.00, including "staff time." Drug Policy Action of New York City gave $218,000.01.

It is disappointing to see the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs on the list of Just Trust for Action grant recipients, along with the ACLU of Oklahoma, the Terence Crutcher Foundation, the leftist Oklahoma Policy Institute, and the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma. OCPA is conservative on most issues but has been outspoken in support of "criminal justice reform" measures that have turned criminals loose to continue to prey on law-abiding Oklahomans. While OCPA published an critical article by Mike Brake on the impact of medical marijuana in 2021, I was unable to find any commentary on ocpathink.org regarding SQ 820.

Protect Our Kids No 820, chaired by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, has spent $158,150.00 as of Friday. They have not yet been required to file a full campaign and expenditures report, which is due on a quarterly basis.

Organizational opponents of SQ 820 include the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the Oklahoma Sheriff's Association, the Oklahoma State Chamber, and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. The Farm Bureau's press release cites "the effects the marijuana industry has on rural Oklahoma, including placing significant strain on rural utility providers and making common land management practices like herbicide application a greater challenge." The State Chamber states:

Oklahoma passed SQ 788 in 2018, making medical marijuana legal, but it failed to create a regulatory system needed for a true medical marijuana program. SQ 820 also lacks a sufficient regulatory scheme and implementation plan, both of which are essential for introducing recreational marijuana into the state.

SQ 820 adversely affects the state in a variety of ways, including its impact on children, workforce reliability and limited regulatory environment, as well as law enforcement concerns.

"Oklahoma is still trying to sort out the aftereffects of our hastily approved medical marijuana program. To this day, our state is suffering from serious regulatory and enforcement issues," said Chad Warmington, president and CEO of The State Chamber. "SQ 820 has many unforeseen consequences that will no doubt add to the overall marijuana crisis in Oklahoma. Approving SQ 820 makes the situation worse without solving the problems that persist. We encourage Oklahomans to say 'No' to SQ 820."

Even some pro-cannabis forces are opposed to SQ 820. Jed Green, director of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, and proponent of two proposals that failed to reach the ballot, filed petitions with the Oklahoma Supreme Court challenging the legal sufficiency and constitutionallity of SQ 820. A Reddit post raises concerns that SQ 820 will drive mom-and-pop dispensaries and growers out of business, in favor of big corporate growers and retailers.

MORE:

Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, a pro-pot group that has not endorsed SQ 820, has a matter-of-fact SQ 820 FAQ sheet.

Parents Opposed to Pot: Bursting the Bubble of Marijuana Hype (poppot.org) is a cornucopia of information on the medical and social damage done by marijuana use. This article on the upcoming Oklahoma vote reports on 10 marijuana-related deaths last year -- 6 due to a teen driver who tested positive for cannabis, 4 involving a farm operated by Chinese nationals under an illegally obtained grow license.

Tulsa constitutional attorney Leah Farish has done two interviews on marijuana, health, and the law on her Conversation Balloons podcast:

• Ken Finn, MD, a board-certified pain management physician in Colorado
• Jordan Davidson, a former teen marijuana addict who now, at age 22, works for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization but advocates for treatment, rather than incarceration, for low-level users.

League of Women Voters forum on SQ 820 features Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler and Tulsa Health Department director Bruce Dart speaking in opposition to the proposal and speaking of the dangers in terms of public health and law enforcement. Paid proponent Michelle Tilley's rebuttal avoided the issues raised by Kunzweiler and Dart with vague claims of "scare tactics" and by saying that the legislature could fix problems later. We are still trying to fix problems caused by SQ 788. While there is value in the initiative and referendum process, as a bypass for a legislature that has lost its way, it is a lousy way to enact complex legislation, which needs the scrutiny that the legislative process can provide.

Marijuana Moment coverage of Oklahoma propositions

Above: 75 years ago today, a newspaper advertisement from the February 27, 1948, Washington Countian of Dewey, Oklahoma, for the movie "Marihuana: The Weed with Its Roots in Hell"