Sen. Markwayne Mullin called Oklahoma a perfect storm in terms of illegal marijuana grows. He also said that it is a state issue and the federal government can only step in when asked.
Mullin spoke for almost an hour on Aug. 8 to a group of Lincoln County residents at the Route 66 Interpretive Center, one stop on a tour of the state.
A resident concerned about Chinese nationalists buying land for marijuana grows asked Mullin if the federal government was concerned about how these operations were being financed and where the money was going.
Mullin said it was a state issue, and the federal government could not step in unless asked by the state, which would usually involve the FBI. However, he explained that they do have a system for monitoring these cells, though they could not step in to prevent landowners from selling their land.
Mullin then spoke about the illegal activity taking place in Oklahoma with the cartels and Triad, which is putting legal grows and dispensaries out of business. He later said it was a perfect storm between that and the Mc-Girt decision that redrew reservation lines.
“Criminals know there’s a loophole there and will jump into it… it even gives them another barrier to protect them. So, it’s this perfect storm that happened in Oklahoma in a matter of five years that’s created this illegal activity.”
Mullin expressed his belief that medical marijuana should be put back to a vote by the people, but what is currently going on is not what people were promised. However, he did point out that it’s not Chinese nationalists buying the land but corporations and hedge funds. The leads will go to a billionaire who has ties to the Chinese Community Party but is not the actual Chinese government.
The senator also spoke about foreign policy, particularly Ukraine, the Middle East, China and Russia.
“Our allies are saying that we’re no longer there because of the way that we walked away from Afghanistan, because of our wavering support of Isreal and because we’re not standing behind our promise to Ukraine by the Budapest memorandum when we said, if you gave up your nuclear weapons, we would be there for you to protect you, specifically from Russia,” Mullin said. “Our allies are looking at us and saying does America’s word mean anything anymore?”
He elaborated that he thinks President Xi Jinping of China is the only person keeping the U.S. from WWIII - he will be the one making decisions when he goes into Taiwan, and the U.S. will be making decisions if we defend them or not.