Oklahoma Election 2023: March 2023 Archives

More warnings from professionals who work with teenagers about the dangers of legalizing recreational marijuana by passing Oklahoma State Question 820 and the damage already caused by the dysfunctional medical marijuana regime approved through SQ 788 in 2018.

School Administrators Urge NO Vote on SQ 820

OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel: "Legalizing recreational marijuana for adults will lead to more children having access and trying it"

School administrators from across the state gathered at the state capitol today to encourage a NO vote on SQ 820, the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. All speakers iterated they were making these statements as individuals with experience in our schools and were not speaking on behalf of the entities where they are employed.

Muskogee Superintendent Dr. Jarod Mendenhall led off the event. "Under the cover of the state's medical marijuana program, we have seen an increase in students using marijuana. SQ 820 will increase that access and puts our schools in a very difficult situation because marijuana's use is so difficult to detect. As educators our goal is to maximize a student's ability to achieve, but marijuana strikes at that very core. Ingesting THC as the adolescent brain is actively developing has horrible consequences. Marijuana use among those under 25 harms brain development including difficulty in thinking, problem solving, and memory loss," Mendenhall stated.

Dr. Matt Posey, Superintendent of Bethel Public Schools a rural school district in Pottawatomie County serving approximately 400 students, was among the speakers.

"Speaking as an Oklahoma citizen, I'm deeply concerned about the possibility of legalizing recreational marijuana and its potential impact on Oklahoma students and education. Teen marijuana use is already a major concern, and I anticipate that recreational legalization will only exacerbate the current problems by dramatically increasing accessibility," Posey stated.

"Bethel Public Schools does not take a position for, or against, SQ820. However, I urge voters to further consider the potential impacts that legalizing recreational marijuana may have on Oklahoma students and the school environment. We must take steps to ensure that our students have access to safe and healthy academic environments with an emphasis on their overall health and well-being," Posey concluded.

Guthrie High School principal Chris LeGrande also expressed his concerns. "As a school administrator speaking as a private citizen, the legalization of recreational marijuana is very concerning. Marijuana in its simplest form is a gateway drug that leads to more serious drug addictions. Marijuana's use creates a carefree persona that is detrimental to learning and subsequent academic achievement," state LeGrande.

A few school leaders who could not attend also issued statements in opposition to State Question 820. One of these was Dr. Joe Siano who served as Superintendent for Norman Public Schools for 17 years.

"Schools across our state have seen an increase in marijuana usage under the medical marijuana system. Moving to legalizing recreational marijuana will make this worse. Our school leaders want the focus to be on academic achievement, but the proliferation of marijuana in our communities and the consequential increase in its usage among our students and in our schools takes us away from that central mission. Not only does recreational legalization lead to more individual lives being sidetracked by addiction, but it diverts the resources of our schools, ultimately hurting all of our children, our families, and our communities," stated Siano.

Oklahoma City Public Schools District 89 serves more student than any other in the state. Their leader, Superintendent Sean McDaniel also provided a statement.

"During my more than 30 years working to improve the lives of young people, it is still heart-breaking to see a child damage, or even destroy, a promising future by starting down the road of substance abuse which often begins with marijuana. The record is clear, legalizing recreational marijuana for adults will lead to more children having access and trying it out. With today's high THC, that means the more of our youth and young adults will have their addiction circuitry activated.. No amount of tax dollars is worth putting one life, one family, one community, through the pain that can cause.

The school administrators were joined and supported by state legislators and members of the law enforcement community as well as Protect Our Kids NO 820 Co-Chairs, former Governor Frank Keating and former Commissioner of the Dept. of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Terri White.

Earlier coverage of SQ 820:

• NO on Oklahoma SQ 820 recreational marijuana legalization
• No on SQ 820 marijuana: More voices

More commentary opposed to SQ 820, on the ballot this Tuesday, March 7, 2023. (My earlier SQ 820 blog post covers campaign finances, the actual text of the proposition, and more voices against the proposition.)

Twitter user Chels (@ChesterTweet) has a link-rich thread "explaining why every Oklahoman should vote NO on SQ820." Chels is a returned Oklahoma who lived in Colorado during the vote on marijuana legalization there and its aftermath. You can find the full thread captured on ThreadReader and here as a PDF. Among the concerns:

3:In CO, we witnessed many ppl who relied on pot to function have to switch to hard drugs b/c they could no longer afford it legally or illegally. Many died. Legalizing will harm children who can no longer afford to experiment. They will also turn to hard drugs as an alternative.

8: Every state that has legalized marijuana deteriorated rapidly following legalization. This includes but certainly isn't limited to increased homelessness, increased crime, legalizing other drugs, fentanyl overdoses...etc. (Oregon, CA, Washington, MA, NY, Colorado, etc.)

9: Colorado got comfortable with cannabis, the stakes raised and now it's onto psilocybin and currently discussing safe places to do heroin. No end in sight.

10: In CO, there are numerous reports of violence at cannabis shops. Several security guards have been shot, one killed. Armed robberies are common b/c of the amount of cash on hand. Unfortunately, marijuana has proven to be a breeding ground for other illegal activities.

Chels backs those statements up with a long list of links to crime rates and criminal activity following the legalization of marijuana in Colorado. Dispensaries themselves are significant targets for burglary and armed robbery because of the amounts of cash typically available. Chels then adds a string of links and screenshots from studies on the mental health effects of marijuana.

Jamison Faught at Muskogee Politico has several recent reports on state leaders and elected officials opposing SQ 820, including U. S. Sen. James Lankford, Muskogee police chief Johnny Teehee, 39 of 48 members of the Oklahoma Senate, former Mental Health Commissioner Terri White, and the Oklahoma Sheriffs' Association, Oklahoma District Attorneys' Association and the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police.

You can click the links above for full statements, but here are a few key points:

Sen. Lankford writes:

Drug cartels--from not just south of the border, but also Asia--are now deeply ingrained across Oklahoma, operating grow facilities that ship marijuana across the country. Oklahomans often now wake up to read the news about the latest execution-style murder, human trafficking, or prostitution at a grow facility in rural Oklahoma.... Oklahoma is now the top source for black market marijuana in the nation. So much for the argument that widening legal access to a drug gets rid of the illicit market.

Thousands of acres of land and buildings are being purchased across Oklahoma by foreign nationals and perhaps even governments to grow marijuana. In fact, two years after medical marijuana passed in Oklahoma, people in the state sold more land to foreign entities than any other state in America.

Chief Teehee:

When my father returned from serving in Vietnam, he turned to alcohol to cope. Marijuana was the gateway drug that entrapped my mother and held her until she finally got clean in prison. If not for my grandparents and the small town of Vian, there is no telling where I would be today. But they stuck with me, shepherded me, and led me on a better path. That was tough. I don't know that it would have been successful in a world with legal weed. It is already tough enough to evade the world of substance abuse, but if recreational marijuana is given legal status, it will be even more difficult....

Legalizing recreational marijuana tells Oklahomans - including those under the age of 21 - that marijuana must not be that bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today's marijuana has much higher concentration of THC, the component that creates the "high" and that is addictive. Consumption has been correlated with increased prevalence of suicidal ideation, psychoses, and schizophrenia. Addiction leads to poor decision-making as an addict looks to feed a habit.

The state senators echoed the above concerns about the health impacts of marijuana and the growth of organized crime and also pointed out that:

• The maximum $25 penalty for violating laws related to smoking marijuana in public is not a deterrent and will lead to more Oklahomans being exposed to second-hand marijuana smoke.
• This state question permits smoking and use of marijuana around toddlers and infants.
• This state question makes it more difficult for courts to address marijuana issues in custody and visitation cases.
• Our state's medical marijuana system is slowly improving and adding recreational will make it even more difficult to get that system to where Oklahomans think it should be.
• Because of the passage of SQ 780 in 2016, minor marijuana possession charges are no longer punishable by imprisonment, so SQ 820 is not needed for this purpose.

(The nine senators that did not sign the statement opposing SQ 820 are Kevin Matthews (D-11), Mary Boren (D-16), Julia Kirt (D-30), Nathan Dahm (R-33), Jo Anna Dossett (D-35) Carri Hicks (D-40), Michael Brooks (D-44), Kay Floyd (D-46), George Young (D-48) -- all 8 Democrat state senators, plus Republican Nathan Dahm.)

Sheriffs, DAs, and police chiefs have spoken out against Yes on 820's dishonest ads:

The Yes on 820 campaign commercials claim passage will "make our communities safer".

"SQ 820 throws a match into the middle of what already is a powder keg in rural Oklahoma," said Sheriff Damon Devereaux of Logan County who also serves as President of the Oklahoma Sheriffs' Association. "Illegal grows, black market operations, organized crime, even execution style killings were all spawned by the poorly drafted initiative petition known as 788, and 820 builds on that flawed process," Devereaux continued.

Former Commissioner White, who is CEO of the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, writes:

White has been a longtime advocate for strong brain health. Her opposition to 820 is based in science. Marijuana, particularly the high content THC marijuana of today, has health risks for all brains - particularly developing brains in youth and young adults and those vulnerable to addiction. "Oklahoma already has high rates of mental health and substance use issues and the door to get into treatment is too narrow. We cannot in good conscience exacerbate this problem; we must protect our youth and young adults," White said.

The science is clear that high content THC marijuana has been associated with an increase in suicidal ideation, the onset of psychosis, and the activation of addiction circuitry especially in brains under the age of 25 where the prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed.