OMMA Patient Laws You Need To Know
In June of 2018, the state of Oklahoma legalized the use of medical marijuana for licensed patients. Recent statistics indicate there are more than 384,000 registered patients across the state. That’s amazing! We’re so happy to see the growth of the industry as patients “Strike the Balance” statewide. While recreational use is still not legal in this state, patients get to enjoy the bountiful medicinal properties of nature’s miracle plant.
This article is your guide to the Oklahoma laws and regulations surrounding a patient’s use of the cannabis plant. There are possession limits, travel restrictions, and other rules that, as patients, it’s our responsibility to know. If you’re not familiar with these regulations, though, no worries. Keep reading to explore the OMMA patient laws you need to know about.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA)
In order to get a medical marijuana license, patients need a recommendation from a qualified physician. In our other blog posts, we talk about the science of the cannabis plant and how its cannabinoids affect our body’s natural processes. We know the plant brings us balance, harmony, and peace from a purely natural source. In particular, cannabis can be used to treat anxiety, stress, pain, or other ailments (and has historically been used to treat those ailments for millennia!).
We encourage you to stay in communication with your physician throughout every stage of your cannabis consumption journey. He or she will have great insight about your personal medical history and how cannabis might interact with your body. To start, though, you’ll talk with your physician about how you think you might thrive with the medicinal properties that cannabis is known to provide. Once you get his or her official recommendation, you can move onto applying for your OMMA license.
An Oklahoma resident over the age of 18 can pay a $100 fee to the state when applying for their medical card, which will be valid for two full years. While this is the most commonly issued category of medical marijuana license, did you know that other people could get their OMMA card, too? For example, in certain cases, an Oklahoma-based minor aged 17 or younger can use cannabis consumption as treatment if their parents or guardians and physician have approved it. These licenses are also valid for two full years or until 30 days past the minor’s 18th birthday. In addition, 30-day out-of-state licenses are available through OMMA if the patient has already received their medical marijuana card from their home state. (So, Missouri and Arkansas medical marijuana patients could qualify. Texas is out of luck.)
For more details about qualifying and applying for your OMMA card, check out their online licensing portal.
Purchasing Limits from a Dispensary
Once you have your OMMA card, it’s time to hit the only legal place in Oklahoma where you can purchase cannabis for consumption: a dispensary. Dispensaries work hard to curate their available products according to medicinal properties and affordability. Be willing to talk with your budtender about what strains or consumption types might be ideal for you. For example, you might do better with edibles as opposed to smoking the cannabis flower itself. It might take some trial and error, but you’ll find your optimal medicinal treatment in time.
Every time you visit your favorite dispensary, there are purchasing limits to keep in mind. This regulation is helpful in many ways: dispensaries can maintain a more stable inventory if a single patient doesn’t buy them out, patients won’t be as likely to consume “too much” cannabis for their medicinal needs, and OMMA can keep simpler records of the industry’s product movements.
Dispensary purchasing limits are determined by OMMA’s “Possession Limits.” In other words, these are all of the cannabis products you can have on your person at a single time:
3 oz. cannabis flower
1 oz. cannabis concentrate
72 oz. cannabis edibles
72 oz. cannabis topicals
6 seedling cannabis plants
6 mature cannabis plants
Whether you’re walking out of a dispensary or you’re driving in your car, these amounts are the maximum you're allowed to possess at any given time. When you’re at home, though, there’s a slight change. Possession limits are the same in your home except for the amount of cannabis flower allowed. While you can only purchase 3 oz. of flower from a dispensary at a time, you can hold up to 8 oz. of cannabis flower at home.
It's also worth noting that as of this time, Oklahoma doesn’t allow for the delivery of medicinal cannabis products directly to your home. Who knows what new laws might change that in the future, though? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Patient Rights in Oklahoma
As a licensed medical marijuana patient, you are covered by Oklahoma law when it comes to consuming cannabis. While it’s still important to know what patient laws you have to follow, you also do have certain rights as a medical marijuana patient.
One thing to note is that, in the state of Oklahoma, the public cannabis consumption laws are the same as for tobacco. In other words, any publicly protected area for smoking is open to you as a patient. For example, if there is a designated smoking area at a public park, you are allowed to consume cannabis there. The only thing to remember is that private businesses have their own rights when it comes to public consumption. If you are at a restaurant or other venue, the employees might ask you to not light up your pre-roll, and that’s something we all must respect.
It's understandable if you’re concerned that simply having a medical marijuana card could present problems in your daily life. OMMA has some protective laws for cannabis patients, though. If you have your OMMA license, it legally can’t be used against you to deny a concealed carry permit, child custody arrangements, housing, medical care, or even employment. Of course, the place you work for does have a legal right to drug test their employees. They simply can’t use the existence of your medical card to deny you employment in the first place.
Other Regulations to Remember
While it can be freeing to have access to nature’s miracle medicine, we must all do our part to keep the cannabis industry compliant. Another rule to remember is that you cannot travel with any cannabis products across state lines. On top of that, you cannot share your medicine with anyone else—friends, family, coworkers, etc—even if they have their own medical card.
Also, if you plan to grow your legal six seedling cannabis plants and six mature cannabis plants in your home, take care. If your plan to grow cannabis is in a home that you rent, you’re required to get written consent from your landlord. Even if you’re only growing the plants in pots indoors and not outside on the lawn, it’s important that you talk with your landlord ahead of time. Having any cannabis plants or products at home, by the way, means it’s your responsibility to keep all of it out of the reach of children or pets. Extraction equipment of any kind is also not allowed in private homes. If you want to make your own cannabis concentrates, you’ll have to get a full-blown processing license and business going.
While this is a pretty thorough guide to OMMA patient regulations, it’s every individual patient’s responsibility to keep up-to-date with the state’s cannabis laws. We’re doing our best to keep ourselves and other patients informed during their cannabis journey. For that reason, we encourage you to follow our Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch.
