Oklahoma State Department of Health Names Twelve Member Medical Marijuana Food Safety Standards Board

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OKLAHOMA: As required by SQ788, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has appointed all 12 Oklahoma residents to the Medical Marijuana Food Safety Standards Board. Those members will provide recommendations for food safety standards for processing and handling medical marijuana.

The members include a number of representatives from state, county and tribal government, the scientific community, marijuana industry experts, and patient advocates. They will be tasked to create the food safety standards by the prescribed deadlines outlined in SQ788. These standards will be adopted by the agency and enforced by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) for medical marijuana processors.

“We tried to identify people with expertise in food handling and inspection, science and patient advocacy,” said OSDH Interim Commissioner Tom Bates. “To make sure we had a variety of different voices at the table, we took a multi-disciplinary approach in the selection process.”

 Members selected include:

  • Becky Johnson, Pharmacist
  • Dr. Ravirajsinh Jadeja, Asst. Professor of Food Safety, Oklahoma State University
  • Scott Yates, Supervisor of Meat and Poultry Inspection, Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
  • Scott Schaeffer, Managing Director, Oklahoma Poison Control
  • Fenton Rood, Asst. Director of Land Protection, Oklahoma Dept. of Environmental Quality
  • Mark Woodward, Public Information/Education Officer and Legislative Liaison, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
  • Bud Scott, Executive Director, New Health Solutions Oklahoma
  • Ray Jennings, Patient Advocate
  • Kara Burst, Executive Officer, Business Sustainability and Auxiliary Services, Department of Commerce, Chickasaw Nation
  • Dr. Edd Rhoades, Medical Director, Oklahoma State Department of Health
  • Troy Skow, Consumer Protection Administrator, OKC-County Health Department
  • Travis Splawn, Field Supervisor, Tulsa Health Department

Informational forms are currently online at OMMA.ok.gov and have been updated to reflect revised emergency rules approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Health and Governor Fallin. Any forms previously completed will be accepted when applications for all medical marijuana licenses can be submitted online on August 25.

Tempe AZ Weighs Changes To Medical-Marijuana Rules

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ARIZONA:  Eighteen-year-olds could soon be allowed in Tempe medical-marijuana dispensaries, and stores may be allowed to lengthen their hours.

The changes would be part of a series of tweaks the city could make to its medical-marijuana rules.  Dispensary operator Steve White is asking the city for some of the changes. He believes the current rules hurt his customers.

For one, Tempe is the only city in the Valley that requires dispensaries to close at 6 p.m.

No, Legalizing Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Lead To Crime, According To Actual Crime Stats

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Opponents of medical marijuana envision all kinds of insidious ways that legalizing the drug might lead to crime. Make marijuana more accessible, and more people will use it. If more people use it, more will tumble through the weed “gateway” to cocaine, or worse. Those people will then engage in crime to fund their hard-drug habits, or violence in the service of getting the stuff.

Furthermore: Once word gets out about medical dispensaries, those locations will become hotspots for criminals who now know exactly where to find prey carrying cash and drugs. Same goes for grow houses, which just invite property crime.

Pondering all of these dark possibilities, it’s no wonder anyone suspects mayhem in medical marijuana laws. Actual historic crime data, however, suggest there’s no evidence that legalizing the drug leads to an increase in crime. In fact, states that have legalized it appear to have seen some reductions in the rates of homicide and assault.

How An Ordinary Midwestern Dad Got Into The Pot Business: CNBC

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OHIO: Andy Joseph received a welding engineering degree from Ohio State University. This clean-shaven, buttoned-down Midwestern father of five likes making things, but he never expected to be selling those things to the medical marijuana industry. How did it happen?

“The cannabis industry came to me,” he said.

One of the things Joseph’s 12-year-old company, Apeks Supercritical, sells us a $63,500 piece of equipment that uses CO2 to extract oil from plants, including marijuana. Medical pot patients sometimes prefer consuming oils over smoking the plant. [Read more…]

US Policy Clouds Approvals Of Medical Marijuana in Massachusetts

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MASSACHUSETTS: Doctors at Massachusetts community health centers have been advised not to authorize any of their more than 638,000 patients to obtain marijuana for medical purposes because the centers fear they would lose their federal funding. [Read more…]