Thread by @CathJSweeney

I'm at the joint working group on #SQ788. We'l be hearing from law enforcement today.

Rusty Rhoades, head of the Department of Public Safety. He is talking about whether employees should be allowed to use MMJ. He said troopers obviously can't. He said rules in his department will have to be black and white. "There's not a lot of grey area in law enforcement."

Sen. Paxton: Walk me through a traffic stop. No one is concerned about MMJ at home. But what about on the road? Rhoades: “Training has been in place for a number of years ... now, that’s expensive training.” “That’s where the lines get pretty blurry.”

Rhoades: Driving impaired is illegal, so it likely wouldn’t matter whether someone has a card.

DPS official (?): Field sobriety tests have shown to be about 50 percent accurate in detecting drugged drivers. They can offer a drug test, and if the resident refuses, they can be arrested. We’re in the process of developing a saliva test. It would be used for probable cause.

Rep. Fetgatter: There's a concern about lags on licensing. Could we use tag agencies to print our licenses? Rhoades: "I actually prefer that idea." We definitely don't want to make the drivers license lines any longer than they already are.

Paul Harris, director of DPS’ highway safety office: We have federal funding for education campaigns re: drunk driving, but we don’t for medical marijuana because that is still illegal federally. We don’t have state money either. There’s no way to get this info to the public.

Rep. Rosecrants: Do you think we should use field sobriety tests and something like the smell of burnt marijuana together to establish probable cause?
Rhoades: That’s the model we used now.

Rhoades explained that process, including those steps, already in this hearing.

Rhoades: Our standard training let’s us determine whether someone is impaired, but not necessarily to what extent. “The high or low is where it gets tricky.” That is what the training helps.

House Minority Leader Kouplen: There are several drugs that warn not to operate machinery when using one. “Even over the counter drugs.” There is just a lot of subjective material to judge here. “It’s a really fuzzy one to me.”

Sen. Brooks: If someone’s license is correctly revoked for impaired driving, could you require abstinence from the medication? Rhoades: We have few behavioral change requirements we can enforce, only airlock (to test alcohol). We have to put those on cars for late child support.

Rep. Bush: Do other states have impairment levels, like we do for DUI? Harris: They differentiate between THC residue in the system from latent use and current impairment based on nanograms in someone’s system.

McCortney, co-chairman: Is there any fear we can lose federal safety funding because we legalized medical marijuana? Harris: “No other state has lost funding.” But they have state funds going to marijuana education.

House floor leader Echols, co-chair: “This isn’t a loaded question.” But if an individual is found with 1.5 ounces of marijuana, it’s a $400 fine. 780 lowered simple marijuana possession punishment, but no amount limit. What will troopers do if someone has 1.5 oz?

Rhoades on which of the two new laws troopers will enforce after finding <1.5 oz of marijuana: “Quite honestly, we don’t know. There is conflict and confusion in that arena.”

John Scully, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is up next. He’s going over the new duties his agency has under SQ788.

Scully: Patients won’t have to come to us for registration, but all other parties involved do. We’ll do a background check, and if there are no issues issue their license for a fee.
Researcher: $140
Distributor: $300
Manufacturer: $500
The records are to prevent diversion.

Scully: The industry wants regulators to make sure these products are safe. If they aren’t, they can be volatile and harmful. We are also trying to prevent a black market.

Sen. Paxton: Theres been discussion about THC levels. What happens when it’s really high? Or low? Is high dangerous? Scully: I look at it like someone who has two beers a night and suddenly drinks whiskey. If a regular user doesn’t know the THC level and it’s high, could be bad

Paxton: Can they overdose? If there are no THC limits, can people get hurt?
Scully: In Colorado, “People have found themselves in emergency rooms.” I’m not sure how common that is. Now that we have legalized some, we could see those issues here.

We’re back

Hermanson: We are seeing more cities charge people in municipal court with marijuana possession and then just fining them. DAs are concerned because our courts require therapy, and these don't.

Hermanson: Drugged driving is becoming as dangerous as drunk driving, and we need to consider the smell of marijuana probable cause. Some states consider that PC alone, some allow that to be one of several factors.

Hermanson: "I think we all agree that people who use marijuana are subject to slower reactions." That can affect their driving. Oxycodone does the same. It's legal, but it can impair driving.

Hermanson: We are concerned about counterfeit marijuana licenses, so we are recommending licenses have security measures in place to prevent that.

Hermanson: I can't think of one reason under the sun that an edible should be shaped like a gummy bear. It shouldn't look appetizing to children. They need to also be in child resistant containers.

Hermanson: "We think our DUIs will double." We're expecting a lot more access to both alcohol and marijuana in the near future. (Alcohol modernization goes into effect Oct. 1. Full strength cold beer/wine in grocery/convenience stores, etc)

Brooks: Has the DA's council thought about how this cash industry would affect civil asset forfeiture?
Hermanson: Each DA runs their district differently. We're looking at best practices. You don't see the amount of forfeitures you did 10 years ago because of law changes.

Harmanson: We will be suspicious if we find someone with drugs and a lot of money because of trafficking.

Rosecrants: Why do you think DUIs will double after 788 passes? Hermanson: People will feel more comfortable using marijuana in general, and it will likely lead to people feeling safe to smoke before eventually driving. This has happened in other states.

Hermanson: We are seeing more children going to the emergency room because of marijuana in states that have legalized.

We're back on the gummy conversation. Jech voiced some concern about furhter limitations and whether rules (instead of a law change) can be legal. Hermanson says that the gummies' appearance and texture don't affect care. It only hampers marketing.

Kouplen: Are we placing restrictions on homemade edibles? Hermanson: If they're homemade, they're probably just brownies, which still need to be kept from children.

McCortney: This "let's no appeal to children" appears to be subjective. It seems attorneys would want black and white rules. Hermanson: You can draw it up in a way that's more specific, banning animal or superhero shapes, etc.

Echols: Could moving licenses over to tag agencies cut down on counterfeits? Hermanson: I’m not sure. As long as protections in place, we don’t care where they go.

Deputy Chief John Brooks, Tulsa Police Department and Wade Gourley, OKCPD

Brooks: Don’t mistake different opinions for disagreement. Law enforcement in difference areas face different issues. We are urban. Not suburban or rural.

Brooks: We’re going to raise our concerns. The first topic we want to cover is homegrows. We would recommend prohibiting them. Their products tend to end up on the black market, and their grows in neighborhoods. That brings mold, chemicals and pesticides.

Brooks: From the metropolitan perspective, we would grows to be restricted to indoor only or subject to local (City/municipality) regulations.

Brooks: This butane extraction method is extremely volatile and offers the threat of explosion. We’d like to see that restricted.

Brooks: We need lower possession limits. If you understand what 3 oz means, that’s about 85 doses. Our concern there is we don’t want, at any point, someone out in neighborhoods with 3 oz. That will contribute to the black market.

Brooks: There has been a lot of discussion about tag agencies and tracking systems. If we set limits on how many trips to a dispensary people can make, we’ll need tracking. Under current law, people can hop from dispensary to dispensary getting 3 oz at each.

Gourley: “When your product exceeds legal demand,” it’s going to end up on the black market.

Rep. Josh West: What is your top obstacle, and what can we do to mitigate? Brooks: “There has to be a significant amount of education, not only for law enforcement but for the medical community and the community at large.”

Brooks: This isn’t a scare tactic, but we asks other cities how their crime changed. They talked about robberies at dispensaries. We want patients to be able to get their meds and leave. Also, we already have a marijuana black market. We don’t want that to draw in legit patients.

Gourley: I’m not concerned for day shift officers who always have someone to call. I’m worried about night shift. “Those processes need to be very clear for them... when they’re out there by themselves in the middle of the night.”

Echols: supporters said they didn’t want qualifying conditions. We’ve heard law enforcement say we need them. How does that affect law enforcement?
Brooks: The law changes for residents if they have no card but have a condition that could get one. Who’s discretion is that?

Echols: We are trying to narrow down our focus. We have enough testimony requests to last five years. We need to think about emergency needs and long-term strategy.

With that, we’re adjourned.