Collaboration is a core OMMA value. To that end, we use cross-department teamwork and interagency partnerships to address ghost ownership in Oklahoma’s diverse medical marijuana industry.
OMMA has a unique team to identify suspected ghost ownership. Dedicated staff from our Licensing and Compliance departments are trained to identify applications and businesses that need possible referral to OMMA’s Legal team. As of this publication, the ghost ownership team has referred around 100 cases for further legal review.
OMMA also conducts collaborative investigations with other state agencies, including the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. At the state Capitol, we continue to work with lawmakers regarding statutory changes to support addressing ghost ownership.
“Collaboration is one of OMMA’s most important values,” said OMMA Executive Director Adria Berry. “No one can accomplish anything alone, and everyone must work together and support one another to regulate this industry.”
OMMA Executive Director Adria Berry addresses licensees during the town hall event.
OMMA hosted four town halls Jan. 18-19 giving our commercial and patient licensees the opportunity to provide feedback before the upcoming legislative session. Recordings of each town hall are available on OMMA’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@ommaok:
There were several recurring themes throughout the town halls, including testing, expert consultation, licensing and more financial transparency:
- Testing: OMMA will address lab test result inconsistencies by working with the Legislature on establishing an internal QA lab.
- Expert consultation: OMMA will continue to engage with industry experts to ensure proper training and sound policies.
- Licensing: OMMA is working on digital patient licenses. We’re also going to reach out to legislators to discuss tying license expiration dates to application approval dates, and equalizing submission and processing windows.
- Financials: OMMA will be posting more detailed expenditure information to our website soon.
OMMA staff at all levels have been reflecting on takeaways from these first-ever engagement sessions, and we are grateful for the constructive and rewarding dialogue that took place. The next town halls will be in the fall, and OMMA will visit 12 counties across the state this year, including several in rural Oklahoma.
In case you missed it, OMMA Executive Director Adria Berry and staff took questions Jan. 11 from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. You can watch it here.
The OMMA Dashboard provides lawmakers, commercial licensees and the public with data and analytics for Oklahoma's medical marijuana industry — including the number of commercial licenses, licenses by county, reported sales and harvest/plant counts, just to name a few.
Powered by NCS Analytics, this tool actively monitors and analyzes data from multiple systems like the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system. OMMA uses this information to help guide compliance and enforcement activities. View this data-driven tool by visiting omma.ok.gov/data.
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