John SchroyerOklahoma cannabis regulators are slimming down on staff headcount by 10%, as the licensed market shrinks during ongoing enforcement efforts targeting rulebreakers in the industry.
The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority is cutting between 25 and 30 staff positions that have been deemed unnecessary, Executive Director Adria Berry wrote in an email obtained by the Tulsa World.
“With commercial license numbers decreasing, it was imperative we find efficiencies in our operations,” Berry wrote in the email. “In the coming weeks, we will introduce the new organizational structure for our agency.”
The news is another sign that a push by Gov. Kevin Stitt to crack down on the industry is having a tangible effect. There are now just 6,615 licensed medical marijuana companies in the state, down from a peak of about 14,000 when the free-wheeling midwestern state’s cannabis industry was at its peak.
A libertarian approach and low barriers to entry for the state’s medical marijuana industry, which launched after a ballot measure victory in 2018, led to a boom in businesses and a registered patient count of more than 332,000.
The surge in the new marijuana trade led to a backlash, and voters last year killed a similar ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana.
State leaders took that as a mandate to crack down on the existing medical cannabis trade, and they have been steadily culling thousands of companies from the industry over the past year.
