Oklahoma Will Not Vote On Recreation Marijuana This November

Since the day Oklahoma voted to allow medical marijuana in 2018, there has been a movement to push forward toward legal recreational use.

I'm sure you've seen the various signature collecting booths scattered across Lawton since then, and even though enough signatures were collected, the Oklahoma Supreme Court decided yesterday (Wednesday) this particular matter will not be included on the November 8th ballot due to time constraints.

In the ruling, it was determined that there isn't enough time between now and then to add this question to the ballots due to the deadline for absentee mail-in voting. In other words, while the recreation marijuana issue, OK State Question 820 did receive the signatures to appear on a ballot, it won't happen until a later date.

Many people are calling foul since we're essentially talking about printing, but if you were an early absentee voter and you didn't get to vote on this measure at all, you'd probably feel a little slighted too.

Other groups are saying it's marijuana politics as usual in Oklahoma. The assumption is that Republican lawmakers think a vote on recreational marijuana will draw out record numbers of Democrat voters, so staving it off until an election of lesser importance somehow safeguards the expected 'Reddest State" results we're used to.

To be fair, I think every Oklahoman thought that when we voted on medical weed in 2018, and I honestly don't think lawmakers thought it would actually pass. I'll admit, I was hesitant to predict the outcome too.

Once again the state is involved in a great debate over marijuana. The conservative majority voted in favor of medicinal use because there seems to be a legitimate medical use for the country's most controversial plant... I honestly think this recreational hill is a higher climb.

Time will tell when this question will make a ballot, let's try to be civil to each other in the meantime.