Marijuana business owners, advocates protest OMMA emergency closures

Several marijuana business owners and advocates gathered at the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority headquarters Thursday, protesting against emergency closures that they allege are unfair.

Ron Durbin, an attorney for Durbin Law Firm in Tulsa, was at the center of the protest. 

“I absolutely agree that there is a public health and safety emergency in the state of Oklahoma related to cannabis. But they pick to fight against the innocent; those who can’t fight back,” he said. 

Those comments came moments after Durbin got done sparring with a judge in a hearing for a client, fighting for their marijuana facility to stay open.

The facility is at risk of an emergency shutdown due to a new crackdown from OMMA. 

Dana Herrick, Owner of Dana’s Green Depot, said the authority is nitpicking on business owners. 

“They are taking a hard stance on grows, they’re taking a hard stance on processors, they’re being very nitpicky on things that are being closed,” he said. 

Business owners like Herrick claim within the last few months, OMMA has launched a crackdown on legal marijuana facilities, shutting businesses down for minor infractions.

“If some guy has a grow and he’s passed three inspections, and they go in for a fourth inspection and they got a metric tag on the ground, while that may not be right, I still don’t think it gives them any reason to close the grow and to stop the production,” he said. 

OMMA pushed back against the protestors claims in a statement released Thursday.

“The narrative that OMMA  is shutting down businesses for minor violations is simply untrue and is being used to unnecessarily spark fear among businesses acting within the law,” the authority said.

OMMA added examples of recent emergency actions include a grow in Pawnee county with more than 4,500 untagged and untraceable medical marijuana plants.

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