The Oklahoma attorney general’s office announced earlier this month that the state will temporarily suspend the enforcement of certain cannabis business regulations that threatened to close some medical cannabis dispensaries, according to The Oklahoman.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) will temporarily halt the enforcement of certain residency and location requirements for cannabis businesses after some operators sued the state over the legality of the rules, the news outlet reported.
The class-action lawsuit asks an Oklahoma County district court judge to permanently block the state from enforcing the residency and location regulations, which mandate that cannabis business owners must be Oklahoma residents for at least two years and that dispensaries must be positioned more than 1,000 feet from schools, according to The Oklahoman. Both regulations took effect Aug. 29, 2019.
Now, as the lawsuit makes its way through court, the OMMA has agreed not to consider the residency or location requirements while reviewing business license renewal applications if a business owner initially applied for the license before the new law took effect, the news outlet reported.
Regulators will also reconsider any license renewal applications that were previously rejected due to these regulations, according to The Oklahoman, as long as the businesses applied for the licenses before the new laws were implemented.
