Supporters of an Oklahoma campaign to legalize marijuana for people over 21 will soon start gathering signatures.
Under the proposal, which would be State Question 837, the state and local taxes would apply to cannabis purchases. It does a handful of things including removing the current excise tax on medical marijuana and adds a 10% tax on recreational marijuana purchases.
If it became law, it would be a constitutional amendment. Jed Green, director of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, said the proposal is a clean-up bill.
In 2023, Oklahoma voters turned down State Question 820, which would have legalized recreational marijuana. Green said the industry was divided during the past effort, but the recent proposal has a broad amount of support from the community and within the marijuana industry.
"We've been working to communicate with our industry and community across the state the last couple of months and expect to have a presence in at least a simple majority of Oklahoma counties when we begin on August 6," Green said.
Supporters will have to gather almost 173,000 signatures from that through Nov. 3. The proposal was filed this spring.
This comes as Senate Bill 1087 was signed into law this year. Through the law, state lawmakers made changes to Oklahoma's rules regarding initiative petitions, including capping the number of signatures required for a state constitutional amendment at 20.8% of the number of votes cast during the most recent general election for governor.
The bill has been challenged in the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Green said although it might impact other organizations, it does not change a lot in the campaign's approach to gathering signatures because it's a grassroots effort. He said the biggest difference has been the increased paperwork.
"What is really encouraging, to us, is that we have broad consensus of support within our industry and community, which if you go by patient car licenses directly, you know, is a good thermometer on about 330,000 Oklahomans," Green said.
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