Oklahoma MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY LAWS

You have to be 18 or older and an Oklahoma resident to apply for a medical marijuana patient license. The application must include written documentation of approval by an Oklahoma board certified physician. All applications will be approved or denied with 14 days.

There are exceptions for those under 18 years old and non-residents. For younger patients, their application must be signed off by two Oklahoma board-certified physicians and a parent or legal guardian. A parent or legal guardian has to pick up any medical marijuana from the dispensary for younger patients.

Non-residents with a medical marijuana card from another state can apply for a 30-day temporary patient license.

No, there are no qualifying conditions for medical marijuana patients in Oklahoma. All that is required is a recommendation from an Oklahoma board certified physician.

Each patient license costs $100 (or $20 for those on medicaid, medicare or SoonerCare) and lasts for two years. Temporary patient licenses last for 30 days and cost $100.

While local governments can increase limits for medical marijuana patients, state law says it is legal for medical marijuana patients to possess:

• 3 ounces of marijuana on their person

• 8 ounces in their residence

• 6 mature plants

• 6 seedlings

• 1 ounce of concentrates

• 72 ounces of edibles

There are three types of commercial cannabis licenses available in Oklahoma: grower, processor and dispensary.

Yes, the application process opened on August 25, 2018.

The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) will be in charge of reviewing and approving licenses. Once a license is granted, it must be registered with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control (OBNDD) as well.

There is no stated limit for the amount of licenses one entity or individual can apply for and receive. Each dispensary location must have a separate license. If multiple licenses are owned by one entity, it has to be registered under a special status with the OBNDD.

Applicants for commercial licenses must be at least 25 years old; an Oklahoma resident with proof of residency; and have a certificate of good standing from the state. Any medical marijuana operation must be 75% owned by an Oklahoma resident.

The application fee for a medical marijuana license in Oklahoma is $2,500 plus any credit card fees. These fees are nonrefundable, even if the application is ultimately rejected.

You can find robust application information on OMMA’s website and their application checklist.

Only medical patients (or their caregiver) with a valid medical marijuana patient license can purchase goods from an Oklahoma dispensary. Dispensaries can verify a patient or caregiver by a physical medical marijuana ID card or through the state’s database..

Dispensaries in Oklahoma must be at least 1,000 feet from a public or private school. This is measured by a straight line (shortest distance) from the property line of the dispensary to any entrance of the school.

Medical cannabis dispensaries in Oklahoma can sell mature plants, seedlings, concentrates, flower and edibles.

In a single transaction, a dispensary cannot sell more than three ounces of usable cannabis, one ounce of marijuana concentrate and 72 ounces of medical marijuana products. These all fall in line with possession limits for patients.

Oklahoma law states that packaging for medical marijuana cannot be attractive to minors, must contain proper warnings to keep out of reach of minors and child-resistant packaging.

There is a 7% gross receipts tax on all cannabis, plus sales tax, that must be collected upon sale. A sales tax permit has to be obtained after a license is granted by OMMA.

The OMMA developed a monthly reporting template that must be submitted on the 15th day of every month. The monthly reporting template includes:

• Weight of cannabis purchased at wholesale, tracked by batch numbers

• Weight of cannabis sold to patients, tracked by batch numbers

• Accounting for any waste or destroyed products

• Total sales in dollars

• Tax collected in dollars

• Tax due in dollars

All records must be maintained for at least seven years after the date of recording. These records must be accessible to auditors within 15 days of being requested..

The Oklahoma Department of Health will have oversight and auditing powers over all of Oklahoma’s commercial medical marijuana operations.

A dispensary will be subjected to penalties for non-patient sales and/or gross discrepancies in inventory tracking that cannot be explained. The first offence will come with a fee of $5,000 and a second offense (in a two-year period) will result in a revocation of license.  

Yes, the Cova dispensary POS software suite will allow you to generate required reports in one click and submit them to OMMA, virtually eliminating the risk of compliance errors due to human error. Cova’s system will automate compliance in other ways too, by offering instant age verification and monitoring purchasing limits.

Metrc is a cannabis track and trace reporting system that allows state governments to monitor commercial cannabis activity. Metrc, which stands for Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance, was originally developed by software manufacturer Franwell for the state of Colorado; it is now used by the majority of states with adult-use cannabis markets.

Once you have a temporary or annual retail operator license, have created your account in Metrc and completed the required training, you may begin working with Metrc.

No, temporary licensees are not required to report in Metrc. However, temporary licensees are required to keep records of all track and trace information from the time they begin retail operations. Once an annual license has been approved, you must backlog all the track and trace information that you’ve recorded and begin daily reporting in Metrc.

Once you’ve set up your account in Metrc, you’ll be able to enter your daily track and trace reports. There are two ways to do this.

The first way is manual reporting. This method requires logging in to your Metrc account at the end of every single business day and manually entering all the data from every transaction and other activity that occurred. Along with being time-consuming and cumbersome, manual reporting puts you at great risk of mistakenly recording incorrect information—which can lead to a serious compliance issue.

The second way is to utilize a retail-specific cannabis dispensary software that can integrate with Metrc and automatically sync reportable data from your store’s transactions and activities as they occur in real time.

In the event that you lose connectivity to Metrc or experience an internet outage that prevents you from daily reporting, you must record all reportable information and upload it to the system within three days of restored connectivity.

The state mandates that retailers maintain accurate inventory records. Physical inventory must be reconciled with records at least once every 14 days. You must also reconcile physical inventory with the counts you’ve reported in Metrc at least every 14 days.

Cova POS software provides complete seed-to-sale tracking functionality and has a number of built-in features designed to help you automatically comply with the legal regulations in your state/province. For example, the Cova POS system automatically monitors:

• Purchase Limits – The POS system automatically calculates the correct THC amounts for all products, including concentrates and edibles. By relieving your staff of this complex task, the POS prevents mistakes in calculation and allows your budtenders to focus on customer service—and not on mathematical conversions. The system also enforces purchase limits by alerting staff when a limit has been reached and preventing budtenders from executing a sale that would place you over the legal limit.
• Hours of Operation – The system can be easily configured to comply with local laws. Once the operational hours are set up, the POS will not allow sales to be executed outside the legal hours of operation, preventing potential violations before they occur.
• Customer Identification Requirements – Customer IDs are easily scanned and recorded, ensuring your staff double checks IDs and virtually eliminating potential sales to minors or other individuals lacking the requisite documentation.
• Accurate Real-Time Reporting – Operational visibility is also very important for your team. Cova POS software generates management reports in real time. These reports can be easily distributed across the organization to ensure the correct data is in the hands of the correct personnel.
• Fully Compliant Product Labelling & Receipts – Cova Software enables the complete customization of all printed materials, product labels, and receipts, enabling you to comply with all local regulations related to labeling and packaging quickly and easily.

To ensure that you always maintain an expedient transaction pace and keep lines moving, Cova comes with a built-in offline sales processing mode that enables continuous access to critical functions even when your Wi-Fi or internet connection is unavailable. Once connectivity is restored, all transactions performed in offline mode are synchronized with the state’s reporting system, data is backed up, and reports and inventory records are adjusted accordingly.

By choosing a POS system with built-in tax reporting functionality, you’ll always know exactly how much tax you need to pay.

There are several reasons why a cannabis-specific POS is ideal for your operation—but the most important one is compliance management. Because traditional retail operations and pharmacies don’t have the same government-mandated compliance requirements, their POS systems aren’t built to manage the complexities involved with track and trace reporting and the other aspects of state compliance.

With the industry still in its infancy, regulations are bound to change. At Cova, our team keeps up with industry-wide and state-specific changes so that our developers can quickly made necessary software updates—and so you never have to worry about remaining compliant with the latest regulations.

Currently, Metrc is not yet live in California since the state's regulations have not yet been officially adopted. However, Cova is working closely with Metrc and has already begun the process of integration, and we plan to be ready when the system goes live.

Absolutely! Cova software is built on technology that has the ability to dynamically scale with your needs. Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform, Azure, automatically detects instances of heavy traffic (such as sales on 4/20) and assigns further servers and computing power as necessary to compensate—allowing you to process sales without interruption, even during the busiest retail periods.

Although technically you are not mandated to comply with the new law and regulations until July, it’s a good idea to implement a compliant POS now so you don’t have to switch later.

With Cova, you can easily stay compliant with California’s inventory reconciliation requirement by printing the Inventory-on-hand report and checking it against your physical inventory. You can make any necessary adjustments directly into the POS, which will then sync the data across your network.