No Dice in Oklahoma: Voters Shoot Down Adult-Use Legalization Question

Oklahoma voters said "no" to adult-use cannabis legalization Tuesday, during a special election devoted solely to State Question 820. 

The margin was never really close; from early votes onward, electoral returns showed a wide gulf between those who supported the measure and those who opposed it. With 91% of precincts reporting as of 9 p.m. CT, SQ 820 was being shot down by a 63-37 margin. (Editor's note: As of Wednesday morning, with 100% of precincts in, the margin landed at 62-38).

“We didn’t get State Question 820 across the finish line tonight, but the fact remains that marijuana legalization is not a question of 'if,' it’s a question of 'when,'" Yes on 820 campaign director Michelle Tilley said in a public statement Tuesday night. "There are almost 400,000 Oklahomans—that’s almost ten percent of our population—using marijuana legally; there are many thousands more using marijuana acquired off the illicit market. A two-tiered system, where one group of Oklahomans is free to use this product and the other is treated like criminals does not make logical sense. Furthermore, the cost in lost revenue and lives disrupted by senseless arrests hurts all of us. We will continue to advocate for change and we are confident that, sooner rather than later, change will come, as it has in 21 other states."

This effort marks the fourth legalization measure rejected by U.S. voters in as many months. In November, voters in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota nixed adult-use initiatives (while voters in Missouri and Maryland approved the same). 

By and large, the campaign efforts around SQ 820 hadn't been particularly aggressive over the winter. Only in recent weeks, when former Gov. Frank Keating (ca. 1995-2003) stepped in to chair the opposition campaign, did the media market trade any barbs over the issue. “We don’t want a stoned society,” he said Monday at a widely publicized press event.

In the meantime, however, some 369,000 medical cannabis patients continue to support the current market infrastructure. 

According to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA), the state's medical cannabis market presently boasts 6,939 cultivation licenses (second only to California in sheer volume) and 2,887 dispensary licenses. In August 2022, the OMMA instituted a two-year moratorium on new medical cannabis licenses.

On one hand, an adult-use cannabis law would have prompted the OMMA to begin accepting new cannabis business license applications by June 5 of this year; this might have contributed to more cannabis supply in Oklahoma and more demand, maintaining some of the current economic uncertainties in the state. On the other hand, a continued moratorium on the extant marketplace may help alleviate the general oversupply issue in a tight season like 2023.

As for what's next in Oklahoma's adult-use legalization efforts, that's unclear. Increasingly, however, adult-use legalization has succeeded in state legislatures, rather than on statewide ballots.

Executive teams at companies of all stripes were bracing to one degree or another for change. Medical operators needed to wrap their heads around the possibility of a surge in demand from adult-use customers and the likelihood of new regulations that might force a pivot on business strategies.

Resonant Cultivation CEO Reid Colley said, "This industry has a way of teaching you the ups and downs of life. The cannabis industry has made me much more flexible." 

Nirvana Group CEO Arshad Lasi told CBT that his team had nearly purchased a bulk order of new packaging supplies but decided to hold off, figuring that an incoming adult-use law might throw unknown regulatory hurdles at them. But business may resume as normal, for now, as normal as can be in cannabis.

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