Marijuana Moment: Oklahoma Governor Claims Lawmakers Support His Push To Roll Back State’s Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Law

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The governor of Oklahoma is repeating his call to roll back the state’s medical marijuana law, and he claims lawmakers are on board with putting the issue before voters again—despite recent comments from GOP leaders who’ve voiced skepticism about that possibility.

In an interview with Family Research Center President Tony Perkins that was released on Wednesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) was asked about his push to repeal Oklahoma’s medical cannabis program, which he’s described as necessary to combat youth use and the proliferation of unlicensed operators.

Oklahomans were “sold a bill of goods” when medical marijuana was on the ballot in 2018 before he became governor, Stitt claimed. “They thought they were passing something that was going to help someone with chronic pain, and that was the only thing that could help them. But what actually happened is we have more dispensaries now than we have pharmacies.”

“The industry is out of control. We grow 32 times more marijuana than actually is consumed legally, so we know it’s brought in cartel activity—Chinese influence, buying land,” he said. “It is not what Oklahomans thought that they were signing up for, and so I’m just asking the legislature, let’s send that back to a vote of the people.”

The governor said part of the problem with the initial passage of medical cannabis legalization is that it’s “super easy to get something on the ballot in Oklahoma,” so the state has taken steps to make that process “a little more challenging and a little more representative.” One simpler way to get an issue on the ballot is through an act of the legislature, which he says is a possibility that’s actively under consideration.

“We’ve got some great conversations with the House and the Senate. They know it’s a problem. Oklahomans all over are calling our offices saying it’s a problem,” Stitt said. “So I think we’ll get something back to the people. And, if we do, I think they’ll do the right thing and we’ll either remove it completely or we’ll actually regulate it properly.”

Despite Stitt’s confidence in the legislature, his push for a medical cannabis rollback has drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers, including those within his own party.

Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R), for example, initially expressed openness to the idea—but he ultimately determined it’d be “really hard to completely undo” legalization and unfair to licensed medical cannabis operators who “invested their life savings into this program” and are “trying to do this for the Oklahomans that need that product—not for recreational, but for actual medicinal purposes.”

“It’s hard to unring that bell,” he said. “What I’m going to suggest to the governor is that we don’t run a state question on that, but instead we continue to push the regulations [and] we continue to regulate the industry.”

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R) has also largely dismissed the prospect of upending the state’s medical cannabis program. He said Oklahomans have already drawn a clear distinction: They support medical marijuana and “resoundingly” oppose adult-use legalization, based on past election results.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) was asked last month about the governor’s call to have voters revisit the state’s medical marijuana program, and he said he’d “love” to see the state’s medical marijuana program wiped out.

However, he cautioned that doing so would mean reimbursing the hundreds of licensees participating in the market because the state would be “taking” a revenue source away from them.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt (D) said she’s “not into revisiting state questions,” and lawmakers should “trust the people, and we should actually implement them as well.”

“This legislature, before our time, could have made a decision to put guardrails in place before this state question passed,” the senator said. “Instead, they stuck their head in the sand and let that question pass and be mayhem.”

Chris Anoatubby, the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, aligned himself with Stitt’s position, stating that the medical marijuana program as currently implemented has “been a problem all over Oklahoma.”

He added that he’d “absolutely” support “reforming” the cannabis law.

Notably, the governor also said this week that part of his problem with the state medical marijuana legalization movement is that cannabis remains federally prohibited, and he takes issue with the “checkered board of jurisdictions from these different states” with differing marijuana laws.

The marijuana industry is out of control and harming our state.

More dispensaries than pharmacies
32x more grown than consumed legally
Staggering 73% rise in use among young people

This isn’t what Oklahoma wanted or expected. Send it back to the people. https://t.co/Ds9RqsrJhP

— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) March 5, 2026

“It just creates all kinds of black market problems, and so I think it’s just overall bad. It’s a bad look. And again, think about that: More marijuana dispensaries in Oklahoma right now than we have pharmacies,” he said. “It makes no sense, and so I’m asking Oklahomans to retake a look at that.”

“I’m just frightened by the amount of kids that are doing the gummies and doing these different things and the edibles,” he said. “We understand how harmful it is, and when you have legalized it, then young people think that it must be okay, but there’s just a lot of problems with this industry.”

The governor also accepted the premise of the gateway drug theory, saying it’s “pretty common sense” that people who use cannabis could transition to more dangerous drugs.

This has become a frequent talking point for Stitt, who similarly said this month that the state’s medical marijuana program has “failed,” and it’s “time to shut this broken system down” amid reports about youth cannabis use.

The governor also said during a State of the State address last month that he wants voters who approved medical marijuana legalization at the ballot to revisit the reform.

Back in 2022, Stitt similarly used his State of the State address as an opportunity to dig at the voter-approved medical marijuana law, arguing that residents were misled by proponents of the ballot initiative.

Meanwhile, in November, Oklahoma activists withdrew an adult-use marijuana legalization initiative that they’d hoped to place on the state’s 2026 ballot.

After a short but aggressive signature push to secure ballot placement, Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) ultimately did not turn in its petitions by the deadline, according to the secretary of state’s office.

ORCA said following the governor’s speech that the call for an end to the medical cannabis program is “simply an admission of his administration’s failure.”

“While we were busy advocating for common sense regulation, his appointees were busy importing thousands of illegal [Chinese Communist Party] grows,” the group said.”Fortunately, the Feds picked up prosecution.. because they weren’t getting held accountable by the State.”

“Fortunately, [Stitt] has no power here. It will take a vote of both the House and Senate to propose a vote to cancel SQ 788,” they said.”As we all move forward we must continue to be forward thinking, not backward acting. We look forward to talking and working with lawmakers, now and in the future.”

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Meanwhile, law enforcement leaders with the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have been raising concerns about cannabis.

Also in Oklahoma, lawmakers last March advanced a bill aimed at protecting gun rights of state-registered medical marijuana patients, although federal law still bars cannabis users from owning firearms regardless of their patient status.

Another state bill filed last year by a GOP legislator would criminalize the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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