Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) has given insight into a recent regulation update. The update comes in hopes to reduce the illegal activities currently taking place in the market. These updates can be found below.
New Director
To begin, the OMMA appointed a new Executive Director to oversee the marijuana program on August 18, 2021. Adria G. Berry will oversee OMMA operations, focusing on policy, regulations and relationship building. Berry states the importance of hiring additional staff to compose compliance audits. Moreover, the department will hire 76 employees to aid the oversight of compliance on marijuana businesses.
Implementation of METRC
On September 18, 2020 Oklahoma MMA announced that it has awarded the state Seed To Sale tracking contract to METRC. METRC is an inventory tracking system which the state will require to further oversee products in the market. Berry hopes the implementation combined with additional staff for the department will help reduce the illegal activities currently taking place in the market.
Learn more about OK Medical Marijuana
Testing Labs
Further, the new rules prohibits a lab from testing product obtained from a business in which an employee, agent, or owner has any form of ownership or financial gain in the marijuana business. This behavior is certainly considered a conflict of interest under the new ruling.
Batch Size
Of course, growers and processors will now have a limitation on the amount of product included in a “batch”. For this reason, growers are now required to separate batches of flower into 10 pounds. As well as, plant matter to be sold or processed are restricted to 50 pounds per batch. In contrast, Processors will need to ensure batches of liquid marijuana do not exceed 4 liters or 9 pounds for non-liquid cannabis products. Lastly, final product batches may not exceed 1,000 grams.
Samples
In addition to compliance regulations, dispensaries will be able to provide customer “samples”. Not free product, however consumers will now be able to view product put on display as samples before a purchase. The consumer would be able to get a visual inspection of the product, and smell the product while on sample display. The sample must not be for resale, and has a limitation on the weight allowed for consumer sample purposes.
Kief
Kief, or the resinous trichomes or marijuana that have been separated from the marijuana plant is now available for resale and production however, will also have restrictions. Although legal, only growers and processors may collect kief which can be derived from multiple harvest batches. Homogenized Kief must be processed into a new batch. The batch may not exceed 15 pounds and is subject to testing requirements outlined in OAC 310:681-8-1(I).
Pre-rolls
Finally, the OMMA has implemented rules that allow the packaging of pre-rolls at the dispensary level. The rules also prohibit the manufacture and sale of “infused pre-rolls”. In other words, an infused pre-roll as defined by the rule means “pre-rolled medical marijuana into which cannabis concentrate, extracts, derivatives, or other ingredients have been incorporated.” In addition to the infusion stipulation, processors and dispensaries may not produce or sale pre-rolls that exceed 1 gram.
