WATONGA – A spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics was in Watonga last week for a presentation on illegal marijuana operations in the state and how law enforcement will combat them.
OBN’s Mark Woodward told the 90-plus attendees at Watonga High School that his agency is working with local law enforcement to dismantle the illegal growers, but he’ll need one thing from the public: patience.
“We are not going to be able to stop this as quickly as people want us to stop it,” Woodward admitted. “If we just shut down the farm, arrest those workers and seize the plants, within 48 hours there will be 40 new workers and every one of the grow houses full of 2-foot plants from semitrucks that are being brought in here. “We’d be wasting our
“We’d be wasting our time,” he said. “You’ve got to bring down the entire criminal organization.”
That requires time, making connections, and working up the chain of command. Woodward said recent marijuana busts that have been featured on the news, like those in Marietta, Rush Springs and Fairview, are small parts “of a much larger investigation that’s going on, tying multiple farms together.”
Medical marijuana became legal in Oklahoma with the passage of State Question 788 by voters in 2018. Because of the language of the state question and a free-market attitude among lawmakers, the medical marijuana program that resulted had among the least restrictive rules in the United States.
Despite that lack of oversight, Woodward said, the program worked well for the first couple of years. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suddenly, Oklahoma wasn’t just attractive because of its lax marijuana laws – it also had a largely open economy and an abundance of inexpensive land. Among the many legitimate businesses, shadowy operators backed by foreign dollars began flooding the state.
Woodward singled out Mexican and Chinese backers as the most common foreign interests in the state. Under the state’s marijuana rules, 75% of company owners must be Oklahoma residents. But foreigners work around this by paying Oklahomans to put their name on the company, paying a percentage of profits for the legitimacy this brings.
Foreign interests are also paying landowners cash for their properties, often many times more than the land is worth. And Woodward said the buyers are preparing for the winter months by buying out vacant buildings around the state, like old schools and warehouses, where they can grow year-round.
Because of workarounds like these, Woodward said, most marijuana growing operations in Oklahoma have legitimate paperwork and appear to be following the rules, despite the shadowy money behind them. He said there are projects in the works that will target Oklahomans who’ve aided these foreign agents, like lawyers.
Woodward told the crowd to contact the OBN with any tips they have. “I get 150 tips a day,” Woodward said. “Every single one will remain anonymous, and every single tip will be looked at.”
In attendance for Woodward’s presentation were many local politicians, officials and law enforcement officers. Some of those guests included Watonga’s delegation to the state Legislature: Sen. Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, and Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene.
Other attendees included Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daugherty, Watonga Mayor Bill Seitter, Watonga city councilmembers Ladina Willis and Travis Bradt, Blaine County emergency manager Jim Shelton, Assistant District Attorney Erik Roscom, and state Rep. Dick Lowe, R-Amber.
After Woodward spoke, Dobrinski told the crowd that the Legislature passed several measures this year to tighten state marijuana laws and will consider more in the future. “We get it, folks,” Dobrinski said. “We are well aware that it’s the Wild West right now, and something needs to happen. As Mark said, help is on the way.”
Daugherty said his office has “taken steps to try to stop what’s going on in our county” since he assumed office.
“We have reached out to OBN, and their analysts are looking into the grows that we have in Blaine County. … We hope that before long, we will be able to take some action and shut some of these places down,” he said.
Woodward can be contacted at his office at 405-521-2885, and his email address is mwoodward@obn.state.ok.us. Tipsters can also contact OBN by visiting obndd.ok.gov and filling out a form by scrolling to the “How Do I…?” section at the top of the page and selecting “Report a confidential drug tip?” Oklahomans can also report suspected foreign financial interests in drug activity and report suspected human trafficking at the OBN site.