The New York Times Has Discovered Oklahoma!

First, there was this front-page story about Enid, Oklahoma, which experienced the phenomenon of a red-shirt-wearing crowd that came to dominate the city’s politics, starting with their joint opposition to mask mandates.  Today, the New York Times was shocked, SHOCKED to learn that people are growing, buying, selling, and consuming marijuana in Oklahoma.  

As it turns out, my fair state is basically one very large dispensary these days.  This fact is obvious from the moment you arrive in the state.  Dispensaries are on every corner, and law students are well-advised to learn marijuana law, because there are a lot of businesses sprouting that need help navigating the layers of local, state, and federal laws that touch on the pot business.  Some of the ripple effects of the development of the marijuana industry are on display in Episode 3 of the outstanding Oklahoma series Reservation Dogs.

Medical marijuana has only been legal in Oklahoma for three years, but already the market is super saturated.  As the New York Times reports, that over-saturation may not be a problem for growers, if they are willing to sell their weed in other states for a far higher profit margin.  Staid Oklahoma does not seem like fertile territory for this industry, but the state is already addicted to the tax revenues from the pot trade, and so a legalization of recreational use is far more likely than any rollback of the medical marijuana industry.  Moreover, the state’s conservatism is shot-through with libertarianism these days, and libertarians don’t have a problem with pot-smoking.  When you combine light regulation with low barriers to entry and a weak state economy that can use a new crash crop, it turns out it only takes three years before 10% of the population has prescriptions for medical marijuana.