Viewpoint: For Oklahoma marijuana industry to keep growing, illegal activity must be stopped

Oklahoma's marijuana industry has the entire country on watch. — Oklahoma’s marijuana industry has the entire country on watch.

It’s absolutely understandable we are having so many illegal medical marijuana grow operation busts in Oklahoma. Illegal growing not only hurts local tax income and the community, it also strains power and water resources. What completely baffles the mind is when people who can obtain a license to have a grow farm operation for under $7,000 continue to break the law in such egregious ways as transporting across state lines or selling products illegally for personal gain. It’s pure ignorance and a spit in the face to local government to think that there are not concerns over how this whole new industry is being formed.

With today’s technology, to operate illegally and sell illegally is lacking foresight in a brand-new industry that has the entire country on watch, naming Oklahoma the “Wild West of pot.” The local governments who are only trying to regulate and correctly tax this new revenue stream are being shorted by people trying to make money both through legal and illegal revenue streams.

In most counties, nearly 50% of this additional source of income will go to local schools. Early public education being the biggest complaint of most areas of Oklahoma, residents should be overjoyed with regulation, zoning and permitting for anyone growing, producing or dispensing. There is an influx of taxes for the community. This also brings the opportunity for new industrial businesses in more rural communities, as well.

When someone is looking at a potential company setup that costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would appear moronic to sell your product illegally. Yet people are still trying to get away with it all over the state.

Legit business is the way of the future for the medical marijuana industry. People operating in a state with vast amounts of land to farm on are being watched carefully. When massive amounts of power and water are being utilized in a rural area, it is of the utmost concern to local municipalities to have the health, safety and welfare of their residents at the forefront of their decisions. In a drought, a water shortage is dangerous, overutilization of electricity could shut a power plant offline for a period, a lack of power is also dangerous. This new business can be dangerous because it is not federally legal, and while the rest of the states are left to fend for themselves in legalizing and figuring out how to tax/zone for the new potential income, illegal operations are also being prepared and planned. Local law enforcement must be one step ahead if we want to have this income stay in Oklahoma.