Whenever I talk to medical (and recreational) marijuana advocates about SQ 788, their concern isn't that it won't pass. Based on polling and election results in other states, most of them figure it will be approved by a 3% – 10% margin. That's even with the Oklahoma establishment firmly against it.
The concern advocates have is what our square, behind-the-times, authoritarian Oklahoma lawmakers will do to sabotage SQ 788 once it passes. Kind of like what Ralph Shortey and his buddies in the legislature attempted to do with SQ 780 and 781, there's a fear they'll gut the law and change its intended purpose. Thanks to a couple of bills recently introduced in the Oklahoma House and Senate, those fears seem very justified.
For example, SQ 788 puts the onus of licensing and regulating the medical marijuana trade under the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Yes, the Oklahoma Health Department is currently a shit show and perfect example of just how dysfunctional an agency can be when you elect conservative, anti-government ideologues to run things, but it's the logical choice. Although the word "medical" in SQ 788 is used very loosely, the health department should be in charge of licensing and regulating the dispensaries and grow operations that will supply to the public a legal, medicinal product.
State Rep Claudia Griffith – a Democrat – thinks differently. She's introduced HB 3214. If it becomes law, it would transfer oversight of medical marijuana to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics – the notoriously anti-marijuana state law enforcement agency that would prefer the devil's lettuce remain illegal forever.
Here's the text to her bill: