OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation that would create higher fees for medical marijuana business licenses and give cities and counties authority to vote on local restrictions for medical marijuana businesses motivated Braylie Goff to drive 250 miles to take part in a rally at the Oklahoma Capitol on Thursday.

Other bills being considered by Oklahoma lawmakers that could result in things like new mandates for $1 million insurance policies for medical marijuana businesses and prohibitions on billboard advertising of cannabis sparked the recent March the Capitol event.

Organizers at Viridian Legal Services and the Durbin Law Firm of Tulsa said hundreds of Oklahomans interested in protecting freedoms of medical marijuana users and businesses took part. One of them, Darrell Carnes, counted more than 30 bills that could alter the outcome of State Question 788, which passed in 2018 and mandated broad legal protections for Oklahomans who turn to cannabis for relief of medical conditions and others involved in the medical marijuana industry.

On Friday, state Sen. Marty Quinn, R-Claremore, defended bills he authored that would make getting into the medical marijuana business more expensive. He said many Oklahomans who supported SQ 788 probably didn’t realize how throwing the door open to the industry could lead to higher taxpayer costs for mental health and the general health care of people who become long-term users of marijuana. He predicted the state also will face higher bills for law enforcement and public safety related to new challenges posed by the medical marijuana industry.

“To me, it’s like cigarettes and alcohol. If your product comes with side effects or long-term problems that are going to cost taxpayers more, then your product should be charged extra to solve those problems,” Quinn said.

Other bills to be considered by lawmakers would address things like requirements and restrictions for medical marijuana license holders and caregivers, product labeling requirements, advertising restrictions and location requirements for businesses. One, for example, would ban medical marijuana businesses within 1,000 feet of a child care facility.

Goff and Crystal Dighton, her partner at Fireside Extracts in Poteau, said they felt so strongly that bills would infringe on their rights and the rights of other Oklahomans who favor medical marijuana that they drove several hours to take part in the rally at the Capitol.

“We’re very passionate about some of these laws (proposed),” Dighton said. “They would take away what we passed as voters.”

Goff and Dighton said they were concerned especially about how bills might make it more difficult or even impossible for some Oklahomans to legally use medical marijuana. They cited a measure that might allow school districts to prohibit medical marijuana use by teachers as an example of one that would be particularly discriminatory.

“They’re not in a high-risk occupation and shouldn’t lose their rights,” Dighton said.

Quinn said he would support a person’s legal use of marijuana to alleviate conditions that might trigger seizures or pain associated with cancer, but he criticized what he said has amounted to widespread recreational marijuana use in Oklahoma. As of Jan. 31, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority reported 255,642 applications received for licenses to use medical marijuana and 10,004 business license applications received.

“The law we have is much more broad and expansive than it should be,” Quinn said. “We don’t have medical marijuana. We have recreational marijuana, and we’re going to suffer the consequences of having broad access to basically smoking pot. … It is extremely unfair to charge the people who voted against (the state question) higher tax bills to pay the consequences of someone who just wants to get high.”

Quinn’s Senate Bill 1520 would quadruple the cost of applying for a medical marijuana dispensary license from $2,500 to $10,000. His Senate Bill 1519 would authorize municipalities or counties to vote for local restrictions or prohibitions related to the possession, consumption, transport, sale, cultivation or manufacture of marijuana or marijuana products. Elections could be called on a motion made by a local governing body, such as a board of county commissioners, or if registered voters numbering at least 15% of local votes cast in the last general sign a petition.

Quinn said people who live in towns and counties in Oklahoma should have the right to vote on what their towns and counties “look like” and whether or not to allow medical marijuana businesses.

“I’d rather not have to do this. There are other things like infrastructure and education that we should be concentrating on,” Quinn said, “but recreational marijuana is a degradation on our society and if we don’t get a hold on this we are going to suffer a lot of consequences.”