We're barely into 2019, which looks to be a landmark year for getting faded in Oklahoma. It'll be the first full year since Prohibition when we can legally smoke weed and buy high-point beer and wine everywhere. Most people in my metro-area bubble are like, 'Oh hell yeah bring it on!,' but there are still some sticklers out there.
Enter State Rep Casey Murdock. If you have any questions of his pedigree, just check out the absurdities he shares on Facebook. He introduced a bill to look out for all the Oklahomans out there who's main contextual knowledge of marijuana is their worn-down VHS copy of 'Reefer Madness.'
From KFOR:
OKLAHOMA CITY – Six months after Oklahoma voters approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana, an Oklahoma lawmaker has filed a bill that would allow counties to decide whether or not the measure applies to their area.
In June, over 891,000 voters cast their ballots in regards to State Question 788, which legalizes medical marijuana in Oklahoma. Ultimately, the measure passed by a majority vote...
Senate Bill 325, which was authored by Sen. Casey Murdock, would add restrictions to where medical marijuana can be consumed, sold or possessed.
“A county may, by vote of a majority of the registered voters in the county, restrict or prohibit the possession, consumption, transport, sale, cultivation or manufacture of marijuana or marijuana products, or any combination thereof,” the bill states.
Murdock told KJRH that his measure would give counties flexibility.
“The locals, whether it’s the municipalities or whether it is the local law enforcement, they’re the ones that are going to have to deal with this new law,” Sen. Casey Murdock (R-District 27) said.
Great idea, huh? Maybe we should also allow counties to opt out of the archaic legislation our rural conservative lawmakers pass each legislative session. I'm sure most of the people in Oklahoma county would be on board with that.
I'm feeling like a broken record over here, but does anyone else find it batshit insane that our lawmakers are constantly lecturing us on how the government should stay out of our lives in order to protect our freedom, and then anxious to roll back things like the legalization of marijuana?
Sometimes I also wonder if they're just scared of receiving state revenue, because then they'd have to spend it on useless functions like schools and roads. Reports are coming in that in December alone, Oklahoma posted almost $1,000,000 in marijuana sales, which roped in about $70,000 in state taxes. And that's all in a less-than-ideal scenario where there aren't nearly enough growers to meet the supply (Editor's Note: That's about to change dramatically), and there's a backlog of patients awaiting their $100 license to purchase.
Whether Casey Winkler likes it or not, the green rush is here, and the state can either embrace it for the sake of its own citizens and our collective coffers, or be dicks about the whole thing because of some kind of misplaced dedication to community morality.
