2,000 marijuana grow licenses ID'd as potentially illegal, Oklahoma agency says
About 2,000 medical marijuana licenses have been identified by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs as potentially unlawful, an agency spokesman says.
Mark Woodward of the OBNDD said those licenses are suspected of either having been obtained fraudulently or are being used to mask illegal operations selling most or all of their cannabis on the black market.
“We’ve got close to 2,000 under investigation,” said Woodward. “We’re working with our partners to identify the criminal networks involved.”
Woodward said the recent murders of four people on a marijuana farm in Kingfisher County can’t be considered an isolated incident.
“We are aware of other homicides that haven’t gotten the attention,” he said.
Woodward said he didn’t not know an exact number but that OBNDD has heard of such cases from other law enforcement agencies.
“What’s concerning is that we’ll never know the extent of them because nobody is missing them,” he said, a reference to the fact that those working at illegal grows, including the four in Kingfisher County, tend to be foreign nationals.
Woodward said the homicides and attention surrounding them have not really opened any new investigative avenues.
“The only thing it did was it shined a light on something we’ve been saying for the last four years,” he said. “It’s the same violent criminal organizations.”
Feb. 22, 2022 video. An estimated 100,000 marijuana plants and thousands of pounds of bulk-processed marijuana were seized from nine Oklahoma farms during a Tuesday operation, according to authorities.
Woodward said about 200 grow operations have been closed by law enforcement. Meanwhile, the agency and its partners are trying to trace the criminal enterprises behind them to their source.
“Something not talked about much is that the legitimate (medical marijuana) industry is bleeding to death” because of the illegal activity, Woodward said.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority’s Dec. 7 licensing report included 7,086 growers, down from about 9,400 grow licenses reported in December 2021. A moratorium on new licenses is currently in effect.
Low costs and minimal regulation turned the state into a center for marijuana activity shortly after voters legalized medicinal use in 2018. Many law enforcement agency officials say most of the marijuana being produced in the state is sold illegally, even if it is grown by licensed operators.
Criminal enterprises’ most common dodge is using Oklahoma residents as fronts to circumvent state ownership requirements for medical marijuana businesses. Two Oklahoma law firms have been charged with assisting out-of-state interests in setting up such operations.
