OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE / From the desk of Sen. Jessica Garvin
As the third week gets underway, more than 300 bills have been considered and several passed off the floor. This week, the Senate will be considering many of my bills to address concerns about the medical marijuana industry.
Last year, the Legislature passed optional process validation for the marijuana industry, but I believe we should require this for testing laboratory licensees to establish higher quality processes for patient safety, which is why I’ve filed SB 264. Process validation is the establishment of guidelines for the testing of medical products, and the FDA requires such guidelines for all medications for human or animal consumption.
One area of concern is ensuring doctors who are recommending medical marijuana are registered to do so and adequately educated specifically on the health benefits and uses for these products. SB 437 would direct the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to create and maintain a registry of approved recommending physicians and also create rules for their required education and continuing education to get on and remain on the list. All recommending physicians would have to be listed on the registry beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
Employees at medical marijuana businesses would also have to comply with the same education requirements. This is a safety issue to ensure patients are getting products that can properly treat their specific medical condition. Currently, there are many physicians who have no knowledge of marijuana and proper treatments, who are approving licenses, which is not safe.
We’re also working to ensure that the process patients use to obtain medical marijuana licenses is legal and legitimate. SB 439 would ensure that minors who meet the special exception to receive this license have their application signed by two different doctors not located at the same physical address. One of those doctors must attest that the patient has been under their care, or another physician, for at least one year, or at least five years if the patient has only been seen through telemedicine. This is to ensure that a doctor who is truly knowledgeable of the minor’s medical conditions and history is recommending they utilize medical marijuana, not just a stranger signing their application.
The bill also would require physicians signing medical marijuana licenses to be located in Oklahoma and that exams for these licenses be conducted in-person, unless the patients are certified as home-bound. It’s too difficult to track out-of-state physicians and ensure they’re meeting our state regulations. Also, we’re going to allow OMMA to determine medical conditions that can appropriately be treated with marijuana and qualify patients for a license or for a recommendation. It’s our hope that these changes will ensure only those patients who truly have medical conditions can get a license.
SB 645 would require the pre-packaging of marijuana when it’s sold from growers to dispensaries. Each package could weigh between half a gram and three ounces. Marijuana could be pre-packaged in nonopaque materials as long as they’re placed in nontransparent packaging before leaving a dispensary. Pre-packaging helps ensure the freshness of products and helps prevent contamination, like mold or mildew but there have also been instances of products being laced with dangerous substances like fentanyl. Pre-packaging would help prevent this and also help eliminate black market products produced by illegal operations from being sold to dispensaries. This change would protect consumers and dispensaries from bad product.
You can contact me at the Capitol at Sen. Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, Jessica. [email protected] or 405-521-5522.
