Oklahomans lost their shot at legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2026.
Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA), the group behind a proposed constitutional amendment for the 2026 ballot, failed to file petition pamphlets by the Nov. 3 deadline, according to Oklahoma Secretary of State Benjamin Lepak’s office.
The group needed to submit 172,993 valid signatures – 15% of the votes cast for governor – by Nov. 3 to place the initiated amendment on the November 2026 ballot.
As of Monday morning, the deadline day, ORCA organizers were still in the process of picking up packets.
“Wrapping up collections today with a focus on OKC,” the group wrote on Facebook. “We’ve got folks out on the road picking up the scraps across rural OK. Let us know!”
That message was posted at 10:22 a.m. on Nov. 3.
However, ORCA Campaign Director Jed Green had already emailed the secretary of state’s office earlier that morning to provide notice that he was withdrawing the petition. He sent the email at 8:46 a.m.
“While our effort has been extremely strong, it is apparent that we will fall short of numerical sufficiency for a constitutional question,” Green wrote in the email. “It would simply present an undue burden on your office and unnecessary cost to taxpayers to initiate a formal count. We sincerely appreciate the support and professionalism of your office during this process.”
Two days earlier, the group said it would announce a signature count on Nov. 3 and provide a summary of its effort, but that summary never came.
Instead, the secretary of state’s office posted on its website that the adult-use legalization proponents withdrew the initiative and that it was no longer active with the office.
The proposed initiative aimed to legalize up to 8 ounces of cannabis flower or 1 ounce of concentrate for adults 21 and older, allowing them to grow and harvest up to 12 plants at home for personal use.
It would also have established a taxed and regulated adult-use market for licensed businesses to cultivate, manufacture and sell cannabis products, placing a 10% excise tax on adult-use dispensary sales while eliminating Oklahoma’s 7% tax on medical cannabis.
While ORCA organizers submitted their proposal to the secretary of state’s office in late March, they couldn’t start collecting signatures until Aug. 6, leaving a three-month window to meet the deadline.
ORCA’s failed initiative comes 2 1/2 years after Oklahoma voters soundly defeated an adult-use legalization initiative in the state’s March 2023 special election, when 62% of ballots cast opposed the measure by a competing legalization group: Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (OSML).
At the time of that defeat, many cannabis reform proponents blamed the lack of voter support on the reputation of Oklahoma’s medical cannabis program as the “wild west” of legalization for its unlimited license structure and low cost of entry that led to “ghost owners,” organized crime, law enforcement eradication efforts and public safety concerns.
Green and fellow ORCA organizer Adam Johnson opposed OSML’s 2023 ballot measure because it was “bad language for industry, did not protect consumers and was backed by out-of-state interests,” they wrote earlier this year.
ORCA’s unsuccessful attempt to land a state question on the 2026 ballot comes after the group also failed to gather enough signatures for a proposed legalization measure in 2022, when they were also up against a three-month collection period.
