Most close market watchers believe that hundreds more businesses — and perhaps thousands — will raise the surrender flag in the coming months. Baker predicts that two-thirds of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana businesses will ultimately disappear.
Chris Moe, a medical marijuana patient and advocate widely known as “Uncle Grumpy,” thinks the bloodletting will be even more severe: 80 percent of businesses, he predicts, will be gone by the one-year anniversary of the failed referendum.
“The priority is crackdown. The priority is shrink the industry,” Moe said. “Who wants this? Everybody. The only people who don’t want the industry shrunk are those who know they’re going to lose everything.”
The next big shakeup of the weed industry is poised to land on Oct. 31. That’s when all businesses — there were 10,278 as of Oct. 2 — must renew their licenses with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. For the first time since the medical market launched five years ago, OBN is requiring that businesses provide proof that they have a valid Certificate of Occupancy for their facilities.
OBN officials say they were spurred to toughen enforcement due to at least 10 fires at marijuana manufacturing facilities since 2021. In one incident, 10,000 acres of land was set ablaze, prompting the mobilization of the National Guard to combat the fire. On two different occasions, OBN agents were present when fires ignited at marijuana grow facilities.
Even though the requirement to have a Certificate of Occupancy isn’t new, there’s widespread agreement that many weed businesses aren’t compliant and won’t be able to renew their licenses.
“Many people in the marijuana industry didn’t do their due diligence and they should have known better,” Fetgatter said. “If you start a business, you should know all the guidelines.”