A very fascinating article came out on Politico that dives into the pretty dire situation happening in Oklahoma with their overabundance of marijuana products.
Oklahoma has a legal medical marijuana industry, but a push for recreational legalization was rejected in a March referendum from this year. Perhaps due to the potential of a recreational opening up of the market, a staggering amount of businesses got into the market, which has created way too much supply.
According to Politico there is 64 times the volume of marijuana needed to serve the demand in the state.
What’s more concerning for the industry is that the amount of medical patients is dwindling: down from 385,000 to 350,000 this year.
A weed entrepreneur in the state, Chip Baker, predicts that 2/3 of the businesses dealing with marijuana in Oklahoma will soon be gone. Another advocate, Chris Moe, thinks it’ll be closer to 80% by the time the one year anniversary of the failed referendum comes around.
Oklahoma has been extremely keen on eliminating the illicit market in the state. This culminated in a killing of four Chinese nationals at an illegal weed farm last year.
It’s difficult to discern whether or not the failed referendum was the true will of the citizens of Oklahoma, considering it wasn’t during a national election where turnout is usually much higher. But that will most likely be the moment pointed to where everything changed for the businesses in the state who were banking on legalization to garner more enthusiasm and customers.
Good luck to all the struggling marijuana businesses in Oklahoma, and read the original story at Politico.
