Earlier today, Oklahoma Voice took an inside look at one of the more puzzling issues Governor Kevin Stitt is pushing in his final year in office – repealing medical marijuana in Oklahoma.
During his State of the State address, he called for the issue to be placed on the Oklahoma ballot and has repeatedly doubled down via the press and on social media.
For example…
Oklahoma’s marijuana “experiment” has failed.
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) March 3, 2026
Youth use of marijuana is up. ER visits are up. Cartel crime is up. Massive amounts of oversupply are flooding the black market.
We don’t need more weed shops than pharmacies.
It’s time to shut this broken system down and protect…
First of all, I wonder what it’s like to be such an authoritarian do-gooder that you want to take away someone’s hard-earned medical right to get high in the privacy of their own home. I sure would hate to be one of those people, huh?
Second, as I wrote back in February, bring it on!
Despite the botched and loosely regulated medical marijuana rollout that turned Oklahoma into the Wild West of weed – and a place ripe for crime and exploitation – I bet the Oklahoma people would still support someone’s “medicinal” right to get high for vaguely defined medical reasons and not go to jail for it.
Still, Stitt’s comments left many of Oklahoma’s 300,000+ medical marijuana patients – and the industry that serves them – clutching their prepackaged flower. Could the freedoms that Oklahomans voted for just seven years ago really be snatched away that quickly?
I wouldn’t bet on it.
Based on comments lawmakers gave to Oklahoma Voice, medical marijuana – seeds and stems and all – doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said he doesn’t see a joint resolution on medical marijuana moving forward because there’s not enough legislative support to make it happen.
“I don’t think we need a state question,” he said. “And plus, going back to the original intent … it was the will of the people that said they wanted the medical marijuana program. … We don’t need to repeal the program. We just need to continue the enforcement.”
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said Oklahomans voted for medical marijuana but rejected recreational use, so the Legislature should follow that distinction to ensure it’s used for medicinal purposes.
Whew. Just like smoking a joint after a long day of work, that’s a relief.
It’s good to know lawmakers still at least pretend to care about the will of voters they’ve spent the past few years neutering.
In addition to that whole issue, another reason lawmakers may scoff at repealing medical marijuana would be the cost. According to Attorney General Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma would likely have to compensate people in the industry:
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said as a lawyer he’s concerned closing the industry could amount to “the taking” of businesses, which occurs when a government implements laws so restrictive they significantly impact a person’s ability to economically benefit from their business.
He said it would be better for the state if there wasn’t marijuana, but acknowledged that if Oklahoma were to eliminate the medical marijuana industry, leaders would likely have to reimburse business owners.
Yikes. I don’t know about you, but if I were running Gentner’s campaign, I’d probably ask him to slow down on giving honest responses that are practical and based in reason. He’ll never win the Republican nomination for governor if he keeps that up!
Anyway, you can read the full Oklahoma Voice article for the complete breakdown on Stitt’s bizarre effort, but at least for now it looks like Oklahoma marijuana users can exhale a bit and return to their regularly scheduled “medical treatment.”
