Reworked bill would let nurse practitioners recommend medical marijuana licenses; ‘pet shop’ bill stays alive in Oklahoma LegislatureBy Randy Krehbiel Tulsa World
April 10, 2019
OKLAHOMA CITY — Two bills that would modify who can recommend and issue medical marijuana licenses cruised through the Oklahoma House of Representatives’ Rules Committee on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 162, by Sen. Rob Standridge, R-Norman, would change current law, which says anyone issuing licenses must be “an Oklahoma board certified physician,” to any physician “licensed by and in good standing” with the state medical or osteopathic oversight agencies.
While all practicing physicians in Oklahoma are supposed to be licensed by one of those two boards, not all are certified by a specialty board, so the expectation is that more doctors would be eligible to issue medical marijuana licenses.
A few minutes earlier, the committee reworked SB 754, by Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada, to make it allow for nurse practitioners to recommend (but not issue) medical marijuana licenses. The bill originally dealt with allocation of medical marijuana taxes.
The House Rules Committee dealt with 10 medical marijuana bills on Tuesday and laid over eight others. It was unclear whether any of those would be heard before Thursday’s deadline for Senate bills to be heard in House committees.
Those making it through on Tuesday include measures on CBD labeling, medical marijuana waste disposal, short-term patient licenses, validating patient licenses at point of sale, and smoking and vaping marijuana products in public.
Those laid over deal with penalties for counterfeiting patient licenses, authorizing professional guidance to physicians and various conditions for issuing licenses.
The same committee, which has become a catchall for the House, also advanced a controversial “pet shop” bill, albeit with considerable reservations.
SB 950, by Sen. James Leewright, R-Sapulpa, would direct the state Department of Agriculture to regulate and license pet stores that sell dogs. It would preclude local governments from passing ordinances dealing with the sale of dogs.
The bill is backed by an advocacy group connected to Petland, a pet store chain with no locations in Oklahoma.
2 comments
Percy Christiansen
April 12, 2018 at 2:26 pm
Really! Show that it doesn’t really take much to get a lic in this state! let’s just legalize the whole damn thing and be done with it.
Ms. Adrianna Grady I
April 18, 2018 at 7:35 pm
Well I think that all doctors should be able to licensed in the state, what special qualities does this take that they would teach it in school. They didn’t teach the docs to handle pain meds and look at the mess they cause with that and this isn’t even close to how rampant drugs are across the nation. this is another attempt to keep the money in the drug companies hands and slow the process down. Look how well grass is helping people who are already on drugs and combating that issue today, I say, BRING IT ON!