As Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry booms, regulators struggle to keep up

Row by row, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs agents and Garvin County deputies cut down 2,500 marijuana plants and loaded them in a dump truck for destruction during an April 2021 raid near Pauls Valley.

The grow operation had a Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority license, but had not obtained an additional permit from the OBNDD, according to authorities. Both are required to legally grow marijuana in the state.

The grow’s two owners, a man who recently moved from Colorado named Dao Feng, and Tulsa resident Kathleen Windler, were later arrested.

The April 30 raid and arrests triggered a chain of events that led to millions of dollars in seized funds and hundreds of other medical marijuana farms and dispensaries losing their licenses. After the bust, Windler, a 68-year old paralegal who was listed as the majority in-state owner for hundreds of medical marijuana businesses in the state, voluntarily surrendered 300 licenses.

The Windler case marked a red flag for authorities and regulators, prompting state regulators to take a closer look at marijuana businesses with only tenuous links to the in-state residents they listed as majority owners. [Read more at KOSU]