OKLAHOMA CITY – Information and instructions for medical marijuana licenses are now available online.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health released the information Thursday afternoon for anyone wishing to apply for a license, such as adult and minor patients. There are also instructions for caregivers, growers, processors, dispensaries and physicians.
Application information and instructions were made available July 26th.
No applications will be accepted until August 25.
OSDH will have 14 days to review submitted applications.
Tony Sellars with OSDH described it as a checklist for people to review, leading up to the date of when the license application will be available.
“The main thing for them [patients] is the form they will need to take to their doctor to get authorization to become a medical marijuana patient,” Sellars said. “That has to be a doctor that they already have and an existing relationship with, so they will take that form that’s available today to get the authorization and that will help them when the application process actually begins.”
The application process will be online through omma.ok.gov.
“If their application is complete, they’ll get an email verifying their application has been submitted. It will be reviewed to make sure all of the supporting documents and information are included,” Sellars said.
After the application is complete, OSDH will have 14 days to either approve or deny it.
“There will be some instances, more than likely, where additional information will be needed. People will be notified of that and, when they provide that information, their application will then be considered complete and the 14-day window for them would start at that time,” Sellars said.
According to Sellars, the earliest someone can possess a license would be sometime in September under the process. It’s a day Hector Najar, the CEO of Herban Mother, said can’t come soon enough.
Najar said he was prescribed medication for stress and anxiety.
“I was a project manager for AT&T for 27 years. The stress and anxiety was through the roof. My days consisted of no less than 15-hour days, 7 days a week and working all over the United States. I’m management, managing anywhere from 50 to 150 people,” he said. “I started having heart palpitations, I started having crushing chest pains, anxiety chest pains in the middle of the night.”
However, he said the prescriptions were not helpful.
“It totally disconnected me from my reality of life. I basically told the doctor I feel like an ‘it’,” Najar said.
He said the only thing that helped him was cannabis.
“I felt that I could actually do my job. It calmed my nerves,” he told News 4. “Anybody that says cannabis makes you dumb, stupid, lazy – that’s just the individual.”
Sellars notes there is a caveat even with the information released Thursday.
“All of the information provided today is subject to change pending the action of the state board of health on their special meeting,” he said. “There may be some things that will change but, prior to the time, the application process becomes available.”
The next meeting at OSDH is August 1.
For more on the newly released information, click here.
