“Today, the Health Department ignored the will of the people re: SQ788,” Bennett said in a tweet. “By banning many edible forms and now banning smokable products, they’re attacking the spirit of the law. I will do everything I can to correct this, and I’m sure many of my House colleagues feel the same.”
House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, an Oklahoma City Republican, said in a phone call he was blindsided by the amendments Tuesday, even though he had been in touch with medical marijuana groups, the business community and the Health Department. The ban on selling smokeable forms of marijuana and the pharmacist requirement had never come up before, he said.
“I called to find out what happened with those new regulations, to figure out if I was being negotiated with in bad faith or how did this happen?” he said. “What appears to have happened is the unelected board of health chose to amend those regulations on the spot, to things that had never been discussed.”
For many people, the first time they had heard of the proposed amendments was at a press conference at the Oklahoma State Medical Association on Monday. The association and a coalition of other medical groups had asked the board for the two amendments, and for a limit on the number of dispensary licenses available. The board discussed a limit, but didn’t take a vote on it.
Article source: https://newsok.com/article/5600886/dispensaries-must-hire-pharmacists