Legislative session leaves seven OMA-related bills active as May deadline nears

Megan Hansen, chief of staff at the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, briefed the Executive Advisory Council on active legislation affecting the agency and said seven bills remain active with roughly one month left in the legislative session.

"With approximately one month remaining in the legislative session, seven bills impacting OMA are still active," Hansen said, and she noted six have cleared both chambers' committee stages and need to reach a third-reading floor vote by May 7.

Hansen summarized key measures: House Bill 4454 would require clear THC labeling on edible and drinkable medical marijuana products and bar packaging attractive to children. House Bills 3143 and 3144 would extend the moratorium on new medical-marijuana business licenses through August 2028 and cap the total number of commercial grower licenses at 2,550. Senate Bill 640 now addresses site-cleanup obligations for licensed businesses (including fines), cleanup requirements following license revocation or expiration, and repeals an existing bond requirement; it also adds a public-nuisance trigger for abandoned grow sites.

Hansen said Senate Bill 1242 covers employee credentialing and training requirements, third-party vendor standards, land reclamation fees and law-enforcement notification upon license revocation, and also repeals an existing bond requirement. Senate Bill 1501 would authorize the agency to approve third-party vendors to provide required employee training courses and standards. Hansen noted SB1242 and SB1501 include conflicting language on third-party vendor training and that authors pledged to reconcile that before the bills reach the governor.

She also said Senate Bill 3 is "in flux" but appears to aim at addressing THC products outside of dispensaries. Hansen framed the bills as operational changes the agency is tracking and said staff are supporting legislative communications and will continue to monitor committee activity.

Council members asked clarifying questions but no formal action was taken by the council during the meeting. Hansen encouraged stakeholders who seek statutory change to take their requests to legislators; agency staff repeatedly noted OMA's ability to act is constrained by statute.

The council will continue to monitor these bills as the May deadlines approach.