Oklahoma cannabis regulators are preparing to enforce a new ban on marijuana product packaging or labeling that’s deemed “attractive to children,” a standard that also applies in many other markets across the country.
But Oklahoma marijuana operators and medical cannabis patients say the new rules, which go into effect Nov. 1, are ambiguous and broad – and could ban 90% of the products now on store shelves, KOSU reported.
It’s widely acknowledged that accidental cannabis poisoning in children has increased significantly since adult-use legalization.
In New York, cannabis intoxication-related visits to hospital emergency rooms doubled from 1,200 in 2016 to 2,400 in 2024, according to a recent state report, with the sharpest increase in children younger than 5. And last year in California, a state auditor found that cannabis regulators there make “subjective and sometimes inconsistent determinations” as to what’s child-friendly or not.
What are Oklahoma’s new medical marijuana edibles rules?
In May, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law HB 4454, which imposed packaging as well as dosage limits on cannabis products.
Under the law, cannabis edibles cannot “be attractive to children.” And the law defines that as:
- Using “any image or words designed or likely to appeal to persons” younger than 18
- Manufactured “in the shape of humans, cartoons, or animals”
- Containing any color additives
- “Bear(ing) any resemblance” to “commercially available candy”
Violations are punishable with a $500 fine per product and removal from shelves.
But according to KOSU, attendees at a recent Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) Advisory Council meeting complained that standards are ambiguous and erratically enforced.
“Basically they’re saying that (cannabis edibles) you can eat can’t look like anything that anybody else has ever eaten,” cannabis patient Nancy Wallace complained to OMMA, according to KOSU.
Who decides if marijuana products are ‘attractive to children’?
“One (OMMA) inspector can say, oh, your packaging looks good,” said John Koumbis, owner of JKJ Processing, an Oklahoma City-based manufacturer and extractor that produces gummies, THC-infused freeze-dried fruit and baked goods, according to KOSU.
“The other inspector can say, no, I don’t think it looks good,” he said, KOSU reported, adding “it’s all subjective.”
One solution would be to have OMMA approve packaging before it’s later deemed to be attractive to children, triggering a recall.
According to OMMA Chair Adria Berry, at least “11 states with legal cannabis programs” require regulators to pre-approve packaging before it hits store shelves.
But doing that in Oklahoma would require lawmakers to take further action, Berry said.
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And that would be in an environment that remains hostile.
Despite signing the edibles restrictions into law, Stitt, the Republican governor, has called on voters to undo medical cannabis legalization.
“This industry is plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in,” he said during his annual State of the State speech in February.
A moratorium on new permits in the state runs until August.
