Oklahoma Senator Rob Standridge’s Senate Bill 162 is meant to accomplish two things, limit test size and clarify language concerning physician qualifications. The bill won Senate approval on Wednesday.
If the measure makes it through the process, it would limit batch size of medical marijuana for testing to ten pounds. Standridge says it is a pretty common standard in other states which have legalized cannabis.
“SB 162 will limit the batch size for testing to ten pounds, which is the industry standard in other states with medical marijuana,” said Standridge. “Limiting the batch size is a quality control measure that will result in more accurate results, better ensuring the safety of the product for patients. It also helps our small, local producers. Keeping the batch size small keeps their costs lower.”
Standridge also wants to address an issue that surfaced as the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority continues to work through the patient applications. The OMMA announced that in January it required 450 patients to resubmit the physician recommendation letter because they were from doctors who were not “board-certified,” which is the language of State Question 788. However, Standridge said the term “board-certified” means a physician has to be a specialist. SB 162 would make it so that all licensed physicians could make patient recommendations.
“A board-certified doctor is someone who is a specialist, like a plastic surgeon or gastroenterologist. It has nothing to do with their ability to recommend a person for medical marijuana—but those two words mean many qualified physicians cannot make recommendations, forcing patients to use expensive specialists,” said Standridge. “It’s my understanding that’s really not what backers intended. They just wanted to make sure people were going to doctors who were properly licensed to practice in Oklahoma. This bill simply clarifies the statute.”
