Oklahoma Court Ruled Recreational Marijuana Headed To Ballot

If you can remember back to 2018 when Oklahoma voters cast their support to legalize medical marijuana in the Sooner State, it only took days before organizers started working the political process to start pushing another vote for fully-legal, recreational-type marijuana legalization.

If you're like the average Oklahoman, you probably grew deaf to this particular story. Medical marijuana was such a slug-fest in the media, we were overwhelmingly tired of talking about it.

Clearly, our state government officials never thought Oklahomans would have voted in favor of the country's most liberated and loose medical marijuana program back then. It caught them so off-guard that they have spent much of the last four years fighting off this new push for recreational use so far, but amid roadblock after roadblock in the process, Oklahoma's Supreme Court just ruled the efforts are clear to go forward.

The ruling has approved State Question 818 and State Question 819 to move forward in the balloting process. Because these measures will change the state constitution, the signatures needed to process are higher than normal. Each will require nearly 180,000 signatures within the next 90 days if they hope to end up on the November 2022 ballot... but even if it makes the ballot, it's not clear if Oklahoma voters will be as liberal as they were in 2018.

The biggest problem recreational marijuana faces in this state is the perception that it's already a free-for-all. Just like Lawton's mayor and city council sold citizens the 2020 CIP with the promise of new roads but started acquiring real estate like the local mall, medical marijuana was sold to the public as a medical necessity and serious individual responsibility, but the industry almost immediately became a parodied cliche of tie-dyed, burned out, "we get you higher, cheaper," legalized and licensed so-called drug pushing.

It's important to realize I'm not saying the medical marijuana industry is shenanigans. I actually don't care what another adult chooses to do in their own free time... I'm just saying that's the perception the majority public has of it these days. It's honestly like nobody stopped to think naming "medicines" after kids' cartoons, childhood cereal, and opulent deep stoner cultural references might not be the best idea...

As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on you... I'm not convinced the public majority will get behind a push for recreational, fully-legal marijuana use in Oklahoma seeing as what the medical industry looks like these days. After all, insulin doesn't have an annual day of celebration where people gather to recreationally over-indulge with on-sale and discounted insulin...

We've talked before about how the medical marijuana industry in Oklahoma has become a caricature of what it said it would be, and the 90% of Oklahomans that don't imbibe this treatment for what ails them have taken notice.

After winning the legal battle to pave the way for the process, pro-recreational marijuana use organizers still have quite the uphill battle beyond landing on a ballot. It's once again a fight to win hearts and minds in Oklahoma.