OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) revealed startling statistics about the trafficking of illegal marijuana from Oklahoma to other states.
“Just about every other state in the United States, at some point, was receiving large amounts, semi-trucks of black-market marijuana that was grown in Oklahoma,” said Mark Woodward with the OBN.
Since Oklahoma voters made medical marijuana legal in 2018, the OBN says law enforcement agencies in other states have alleged that at one point, 40% of America’s black market marijuana comes from here.
However, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) says it doesn’t have the data to back up the OBN’s claims.
The OBN says they use their own data from investigations, and their numbers do not always match what the OMMA has.
Woodward noted the recent shift in trafficking trends, saying, “20 years ago and 30 years ago, the majority of the marijuana was coming across the Mexican border by the cartels in Mexico that were growing it down there. But as states legalized it, these criminal groups from Mexico and now China moved their operations into the U.S.”
Woodward added that the state’s medical marijuana laws made it easy for criminal organizations to fly under the radar and appear to operate legally.
“The laws show that at least on the surface, there’s no red flags. So that’s why it can be very complex to find out for sure what they’re doing, because these criminal groups are very good at hiding what they do, and they’re not just involved in medical marijuana,” said Woodward.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond also weighed in on the issue.
The trafficking of illegal marijuana from Oklahoma into Texas represents a serious threat to public safety in both states. Oklahoma has been a prime target for criminal organizations seeking to exploit our lax medical marijuana laws and flood the black market across state lines.
Texas has been a primary destination for this illicit activity. We’ve witnessed a significant influx of Texas gang members committing armed robberies at marijuana facilities in Oklahoma, then transporting the product back across state lines. Another factor is Oklahoma’s location at the crossroads of I-35 and I-40, which makes our state a hub for drug trafficking activity.
This cross-border criminal activity endangers communities on both sides of the Red River. But we aren’t standing idle. Since I established in 2023 the Organized Crime Task Force, the first of its kind in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, we have been instrumental in shutting down more than 7,000 illegal operations, seized over 329,000 marijuana plants and 152,000 pounds of processed marijuana, made 79 arrests and filed 153 criminal cases.
We will not allow Oklahoma to be used as a distribution hub for black-market marijuana. We will continue our aggressive enforcement until every illegal operation is eliminated, and our communities are safe.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond
The OMMA has also tried to reduce licensing illegal operations on their end, saying in a statement:
Since 2021, OMMA has implemented multiple measures to combat straw ownership and significantly strengthen the licensing review process; every application submitted undergoes a thorough evaluation to ensure compliance with state law. Through administrative actions and partnerships with local law enforcement, licensed operators who attempt to skirt the law and undermine Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program are held accountable.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority
Woodward says the OBN has successfully reduced marijuana grows in the state from 8,400 to about 1,500, and many of those remaining grow operations are still being investigated.
“There’s also a lot of these farms that half of their plants are not tagged, and we’ll never know exactly how much millions of pounds is leaving this state untaxed, untraceable, onto the black market at the peak of this,” Woodward added.
Sean Hocking
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