RALEIGH, N.C. — As the state weighs legislation to legalize cannabis, a senior Oklahoma narcotics officer warned a governor-appointed advisory panel on Thursday, Nov. 12, that his state is still cleaning up after it opened medical marijuana with few limits, and urged North Carolina law to keep licenses tightly restricted.
Lt. Col. Mitch Smith, head of marijuana enforcement for Oklahoma’s state narcotics bureau, spoke to the council’s public safety subcommittee during an online session held from 1 to 3 p.m.
Smith said Oklahoma required that Oklahoma residents hold 75% of each medical marijuana business, but outside operators paid locals to serve as front owners while they ran the companies. The state set no ceiling on grow volume or on how many business licenses it issued, and by 2021 it had 8,400 commercial growers, with surplus product flowing to the illegal market.
He told the panel his agency knows of 27 groups from at least 16 countries operating illegally in Oklahoma. Agents have faced abandoned grow houses, heaps of garbage and prohibited pesticides that threaten well water. Oklahoma spends about $10 million a year on 48 agents and analysts devoted to marijuana enforcement, and courts had to find interpreters and write jury instructions in new languages.
A RAND drug policy researcher said the state could spend more on enforcement in the early years after legalization, though research shows a legal market can cut deeply into illegal sales.
Gov. Josh Stein created the advisory council in June 2025, noting that intoxicating THC products are sold across the state to buyers of every age. He asked it to design a regulated adult market that protects children, supports North Carolina agriculture, clears past convictions for simple THC possession and puts the tax money into addiction and mental health services and spotting impaired drivers.
The full council meets Tuesday, Nov. 17, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Department of Health and Human Services headquarters, 1915 Health Services Way in Raleigh. That is expected to be its final meeting before it sends recommendations to the governor in December, and any change in law would need approval from the General Assembly.
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