Medical Marijuana growing operations are surging in this area and other parts of the state.
Because of concerns aired by citizens about some of these, Lincoln County commissioners and law enforcement have begun addressing those suspected of illegal activity.
During their meeting a couple of weeks ago, Lincoln County Commissioners authorized a position for the District Attorney Allan Grubb’s Office to focus on marijuana grow operations.
Commission Chairman Lee Doolen explained at the time, “We’re not interested in hindering any legal operations. We’re only wanting to stop illegal operations and illegal activities.”
He mentioned there are 740 grow operations in Lincoln County alone.
Grubb said last week he’s formed what he calls a Special Operations Team. Lincoln and Pottawatomie County commissioners each agreed to give him $40,000 to fund it.
With that, the first major operation by the team took place a little over a week ago in far northern Lincoln County.
There were 81 grow houses, about 320 plants in each of them. The marijuana’s reported value was about $1,200 a pound, there are around three plants to a pound and the team seized approximately 40,000 plants.
The DA estimated the total value of the plants at between $12 and $17 million and the operation spanned over 10 acres. It took crews from each of the three county commissioner districts working with team two days to destroy all the plants.
The nice thing about the money the commissioners from both counties authorized for this team is not coming from taxpayers.
It’s money from licensing fees from the marijuana growers, dispensers, processors and transporters. This is part of the money legal operations are paying with their licenses.
Lincoln County commissioners during their Monday meeting took another step to scrutinize these marijuana grow operations.
First they adopted a new policy requiring the Board of County Commissioners to review and approve or deny Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) Compliance Certificates during their opening meeting.
Then, listed on Monday’s agenda, was their consideration and action regarding OMMA certificates of compliance for 10 of these businesses. Three of them were in District 1, two were in District 2 and five were in District 3.
Following lengthy discussion and at the advice of an Assistant District Attorney, they agreed to take no action on any of these until their next regular meeting scheduled for July 6.
The fact they took no action signals they are serious about making sure these businesses are legal and will operate safely and not injure the environment.
That should assist the Special Operations team, allowing them to focus on those operating illegally. And that’s the way it should be done.