OMMA asks for flat $37.6M budget, reports licensing turnaround improvement and pledges leniency for portal errors

Director Berry told the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Health that the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority is requesting a flat FY27 appropriation of $37,600,000 and described operational gains since OMMA became an independent agency in 2022.

Berry outlined enforcement and regulatory milestones: OMMA inspected licensees about 5,500 times last year, filed roughly 360 administrative cases, certified inspectors through a national program, launched a patient services/public‑health unit and hired an epidemiologist, and opened a QA laboratory that is moving toward ISO accreditation. The agency also launched a licensing and inspection portal (the OMMA Med portal) in October 2025; Berry said the build‑out took about a year, the portal is processing applications and has handled more than 30,000 patient license applications since launch, and licensing turnaround has improved markedly. "We're at 13 days right now," Berry said of business license turnaround.

Committee members raised concerns about lingering portal bugs and long call‑center waits; Representative Ransom said call wait times had been as long as six hours recently. Berry acknowledged the problems, said OMMA had added call‑center staff and temporarily shifted employees to help credentialing, and pledged that the agency would not penalize applicants for delays caused by OMMA system errors. "They will not be penalized for anything because of a technical error on our side," Berry said.

Berry provided industry counts as of Jan. 2, 2026: 2,261 licensed growers, 1,453 dispensaries, 710 processors, 19 labs, and 8 waste disposal facilities. She defended use of the Metrc seed‑to‑veil tracking system as necessary for enforcement and recalls and estimated state Metrc costs at about $50,000 per year. OMMA also described upcoming education campaigns on youth prevention and cannabis‑impaired driving and plans to scale QA lab testing to about 100 samples per week.

The subcommittee did not take a vote; Berry said OMMA would continue to refine the portal and work with OMES to address residual issues.