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It’s not quite worth its weight in gold, but there’s a cannabis rush going on in Oklahoma—for both patients and businesses—and there’s no sign of slowing down.

The number of active patients grew by more than 46,000 during the past year, representing a 14% increase to the current total of nearly 376,000 patients, according to a licensing report released by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) on Aug. 2. That means roughly 9.4% of the state’s population is actively registered in the medical cannabis program.

Also in the report, Oklahoma has 469 more licensed businesses than this time last year, bringing the active total to 12,598. That list includes 8,625 growers, 2,325 dispensaries and 1,523 processors, in addition to transporters, laboratories and other licensees.

“Oklahoma has one of the largest programs in the country,” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a policy update released May 3. “Despite the pandemic, the medical cannabis market has been booming, and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority reports that the state collected over $127 million in state and local taxes from medical cannabis in 2020.”

After voters approved State Question 788 to legalized medical cannabis on June 26, 2018, Oklahoma became the quickest state in the nation to implement an effective medical cannabis law.

Less than two months following S.Q. 788’s passage, Oklahoma opened its application process for businesses and patients—OMMA received 366 patient applications and 205 commercial applications in the first hour of opening its portal. In all, 23 people were approved for medical cannabis licenses on the first day. The first sales began about a month after that.

While the state’s program has continued to grow under unlimited licenses, the Oklahoma Legislature recently passed a bill that would direct the OMMA to conduct on-site compliance inspections with medical cannabis dispensary, processor and grower licensees beginning Sept. 1. The purpose of the compliance directive is to ensure business licensees are actively operating or working toward operational status, according to the bill’s text. Upon expiration of a grace period, the OMMA can terminate any licenses if certain standards are not met.

In addition, the legislation, which Gov. Kevin Stitt approved May 18, also requires medical cannabis businesses to complete an ownership attestation—disclosing the existence of any foreign financial interests and the identity of such ownership, if applicable—with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBNDD) by Aug. 30. New licensees have 60 days to comply. Failure to do so will result in the loss of OMMA licenses.

To apply for a license in Oklahoma, 75% of the ownership must be held by someone who has lived in the state for a minimum of two years; however, illicit operations have emerged through a loophole—companies are hiring “ghost owners” to obtain licenses. That’s one reason some state lawmakers have drafted new regulations for the industry.

RELATED: Struggles With Illicit Cannabis Operations Affecting Local Growers

The House sponsor for Senate Bill 1033, Republican Rep. Scott Fetgatter backed the legislation because it allows the OBNDD and the OMMA to enter into agreements to hire more agents, he said in a press release. The governor approved the bill on May 28.

“In 2018, we bought the ticket and took the ride when it came to medical marijuana in Oklahoma,” Fetgatter said. “There weren’t many regulations and stakeholders on all sides of the issue have been looking for structure. This industry has blossomed over the past three years, and we have been working to make sure there are structures in place to regulate and help give guidance to those working within it. I’m proud that this session we were able to pass so many important pieces of legislation that do just that.”

Despite illegal operations, Oklahoma collected $90.7 million in medical cannabis taxes during the first seven months of 2021, including $12.6 million in July, according to OMMA. At that pace, Oklahoma will surpass $155 million of medical cannabis taxes collected this year—a 22% increase from 2020.

While Oklahoma was the 30th state to legalize medical cannabis in 2018, it now has one of the largest programs in the country. And it’s still growing.

It’s not quite worth its weight in gold, but there’s a cannabis rush going on in Oklahoma—for both patients and businesses—and there’s no sign of slowing down.

The number of active patients grew by more than 46,000 during the past year, representing a 14% increase to the current total of nearly 376,000 patients, according to a licensing report released by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) on Aug. 2. That means roughly 9.4% of the state’s population is actively registered in the medical cannabis program.

Also in the report, Oklahoma has 469 more licensed businesses than this time last year, bringing the active total to 12,598. That list includes 8,625 growers, 2,325 dispensaries and 1,523 processors, in addition to transporters, laboratories and other licensees.

“Oklahoma has one of the largest programs in the country,” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a policy update released May 3. “Despite the pandemic, the medical cannabis market has been booming, and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority reports that the state collected over $127 million in state and local taxes from medical cannabis in 2020.”

After voters approved State Question 788 to legalized medical cannabis on June 26, 2018, Oklahoma became the quickest state in the nation to implement an effective medical cannabis law.

Less than two months following S.Q. 788’s passage, Oklahoma opened its application process for businesses and patients—OMMA received 366 patient applications and 205 commercial applications in the first hour of opening its portal. In all, 23 people were approved for medical cannabis licenses on the first day. The first sales began about a month after that.

While the state’s program has continued to grow under unlimited licenses, the Oklahoma Legislature recently passed a bill that would direct the OMMA to conduct on-site compliance inspections with medical cannabis dispensary, processor and grower licensees beginning Sept. 1. The purpose of the compliance directive is to ensure business licensees are actively operating or working toward operational status, according to the bill’s text. Upon expiration of a grace period, the OMMA can terminate any licenses if certain standards are not met.

In addition, the legislation, which Gov. Kevin Stitt approved May 18, also requires medical cannabis businesses to complete an ownership attestation—disclosing the existence of any foreign financial interests and the identity of such ownership, if applicable—with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBNDD) by Aug. 30. New licensees have 60 days to comply. Failure to do so will result in the loss of OMMA licenses.

To apply for a license in Oklahoma, 75% of the ownership must be held by someone who has lived in the state for a minimum of two years; however, illicit operations have emerged through a loophole—companies are hiring “ghost owners” to obtain licenses. That’s one reason some state lawmakers have drafted new regulations for the industry.

RELATED: Struggles With Illicit Cannabis Operations Affecting Local Growers

The House sponsor for Senate Bill 1033, Republican Rep. Scott Fetgatter backed the legislation because it allows the OBNDD and the OMMA to enter into agreements to hire more agents, he said in a press release. The governor approved the bill on May 28.

“In 2018, we bought the ticket and took the ride when it came to medical marijuana in Oklahoma,” Fetgatter said. “There weren’t many regulations and stakeholders on all sides of the issue have been looking for structure. This industry has blossomed over the past three years, and we have been working to make sure there are structures in place to regulate and help give guidance to those working within it. I’m proud that this session we were able to pass so many important pieces of legislation that do just that.”

Despite illegal operations, Oklahoma collected $90.7 million in medical cannabis taxes during the first seven months of 2021, including $12.6 million in July, according to OMMA. At that pace, Oklahoma will surpass $155 million of medical cannabis taxes collected this year—a 22% increase from 2020.

While Oklahoma was the 30th state to legalize medical cannabis in 2018, it now has one of the largest programs in the country. And it’s still growing.

It’s not quite worth its weight in gold, but there’s a cannabis rush going on in Oklahoma—for both patients and businesses—and there’s no sign of slowing down.

The number of active patients grew by more than 46,000 during the past year, representing a 14% increase to the current total of nearly 376,000 patients, according to a licensing report released by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) on Aug. 2. That means roughly 9.4% of the state’s population is actively registered in the medical cannabis program.

Also in the report, Oklahoma has 469 more licensed businesses than this time last year, bringing the active total to 12,598. That list includes 8,625 growers, 2,325 dispensaries and 1,523 processors, in addition to transporters, laboratories and other licensees.

“Oklahoma has one of the largest programs in the country,” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a policy update released May 3. “Despite the pandemic, the medical cannabis market has been booming, and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority reports that the state collected over $127 million in state and local taxes from medical cannabis in 2020.”

After voters approved State Question 788 to legalized medical cannabis on June 26, 2018, Oklahoma became the quickest state in the nation to implement an effective medical cannabis law.

Less than two months following S.Q. 788’s passage, Oklahoma opened its application process for businesses and patients—OMMA received 366 patient applications and 205 commercial applications in the first hour of opening its portal. In all, 23 people were approved for medical cannabis licenses on the first day. The first sales began about a month after that.

While the state’s program has continued to grow under unlimited licenses, the Oklahoma Legislature recently passed a bill that would direct the OMMA to conduct on-site compliance inspections with medical cannabis dispensary, processor and grower licensees beginning Sept. 1. The purpose of the compliance directive is to ensure business licensees are actively operating or working toward operational status, according to the bill’s text. Upon expiration of a grace period, the OMMA can terminate any licenses if certain standards are not met.

In addition, the legislation, which Gov. Kevin Stitt approved May 18, also requires medical cannabis businesses to complete an ownership attestation—disclosing the existence of any foreign financial interests and the identity of such ownership, if applicable—with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBNDD) by Aug. 30. New licensees have 60 days to comply. Failure to do so will result in the loss of OMMA licenses.

To apply for a license in Oklahoma, 75% of the ownership must be held by someone who has lived in the state for a minimum of two years; however, illicit operations have emerged through a loophole—companies are hiring “ghost owners” to obtain licenses. That’s one reason some state lawmakers have drafted new regulations for the industry.

RELATED: Struggles With Illicit Cannabis Operations Affecting Local Growers

The House sponsor for Senate Bill 1033, Republican Rep. Scott Fetgatter backed the legislation because it allows the OBNDD and the OMMA to enter into agreements to hire more agents, he said in a press release. The governor approved the bill on May 28.

“In 2018, we bought the ticket and took the ride when it came to medical marijuana in Oklahoma,” Fetgatter said. “There weren’t many regulations and stakeholders on all sides of the issue have been looking for structure. This industry has blossomed over the past three years, and we have been working to make sure there are structures in place to regulate and help give guidance to those working within it. I’m proud that this session we were able to pass so many important pieces of legislation that do just that.”

Despite illegal operations, Oklahoma collected $90.7 million in medical cannabis taxes during the first seven months of 2021, including $12.6 million in July, according to OMMA. At that pace, Oklahoma will surpass $155 million of medical cannabis taxes collected this year—a 22% increase from 2020.

While Oklahoma was the 30th state to legalize medical cannabis in 2018, it now has one of the largest programs in the country. And it’s still growing.

Glass House Farms recently launched a new 1:1 cultivar in partnership with FRB Genetics, providing the California cannabis market with a flower product that dials in the THC and CBD ratio pretty evenly. It’s called Tangelo Flo, and it’s finding its way to the market at a time when industry stakeholders and consumers are having in-depth conversations about potency, chemical profiles and minor cannabinoids.

Tangelo Flo offers a balanced cannabinoid profile (a “type-II” chemotype, in parlance that’s making its way into the commercial space, meaning one that features a mixed-ratio cannabinoid profile). Even as high-THC cultivars and products continue to top the sales charts, industry chatter is keen on a more balanced suite of chemicals. That’s where FRB Genetics’ R&D work has taken the team, led by Reggie Gaudino. 

A cross of Green Crack and Cherry Wine, the new cultivar boasts approximately 31% total cannabinoids and a rich, citrus-forward mango flavor. Green Crack is a THC heavyweight, and Cherry Wine is a popular hemp variety.

Courtesy of FRB Genetics

Front Range Biosciences runs a marker-assisted hemp breeding program, and the Cherry Wine options were fairly limitless for the FRB Genetics team. (FRB Genetics licenses the breeding technology from Front Range Biosciences, which is not a plant-touching company.) Gaudino’s wanted to showcase some of the good work being done on those hemp varieties—and perhaps usher those genetics into the broader adult-use cannabis space.

The Cherry Wine side of the equation posed an interesting challenge, because Gaudino’s team was looking for a high CBD producer that could also remain compliant as a hemp variety (clocking in under 0.3% THC content). That’s no small task. This process involved thousands of seeds and countless hours spent observing the different Cherry Wine plants. They landed on an ideal phenotype, one that brought a robust plant structure and healthy yield to the breeding process with Green Crack’s THC powerhouse lineage.

The parent plants here offered a vitality that would make growers’ jobs much easier—something that’s important when bringing commercial considerations into the breeding process.

“It finishes relatively quickly, so it’s good to work with in a commercial cannabis environment,” Gaudino says.

 

At Glass House Farms, that commercial cannabis environment spans more than 500,000 square feet of greenhouse space in southern California. Glass House Brands President and Chief Cannabis Officer Graham Farrar says that Tangelo Flo has been a  manageable cultivator—relatively simple to grow, easy on the eyes. More importantly, thought, Farrar is excited to get something like this onto store shelves. He says there’s a broad swath of consumers who are looking for products with this sort of chemical profile.

“Daily, everyday cannabis—I call it the ‘missing middle,’” he says. “We either have connoisseurs—people who have been here for 20 years and they jump through all the hoops and they go to the doctor to get their medical card—or we have the people who just walked in the door and they don’t know, in tequila parlance, 1942 from Jose Cuervo, right? My belief is that the middle is going to show up.”

Lower THC, higher CBD, a more even-keeled ensemble of effects: There’s a certain convenience and simplicity in a cultivar like that. Tangelo Flo is one of the early steps forward into that variation in the cannabis marketplace.

As for what’s next from FRB Genetics? This certainly won’t be the last 1:1 cultivar the team delivers. And Gaudino hints at more to come: “Besides this 1:1, we actually have a number of other 1:1s that are in the pipeline of development, which are based on trying to track down very specific terpene profiles that are very rare in the cannabis industry,” he says.

Glass House Farms recently launched a new 1:1 cultivar in partnership with FRB Genetics, providing the California cannabis market with a flower product that dials in the THC and CBD ratio pretty evenly. It’s called Tangelo Flo, and it’s finding its way to the market at a time when industry stakeholders and consumers are having in-depth conversations about potency, chemical profiles and minor cannabinoids.

Tangelo Flo offers a balanced cannabinoid profile (a “type-II” chemotype, in parlance that’s making its way into the commercial space, meaning one that features a mixed-ratio cannabinoid profile). Even as high-THC cultivars and products continue to top the sales charts, industry chatter is keen on a more balanced suite of chemicals. That’s where FRB Genetics’ R&D work has taken the team, led by Reggie Gaudino. 

A cross of Green Crack and Cherry Wine, the new cultivar boasts approximately 31% total cannabinoids and a rich, citrus-forward mango flavor. Green Crack is a THC heavyweight, and Cherry Wine is a popular hemp variety.

Courtesy of FRB Genetics

Front Range Biosciences runs a marker-assisted hemp breeding program, and the Cherry Wine options were fairly limitless for the FRB Genetics team. (FRB Genetics licenses the breeding technology from Front Range Biosciences, which is not a plant-touching company.) Gaudino’s wanted to showcase some of the good work being done on those hemp varieties—and perhaps usher those genetics into the broader adult-use cannabis space.

The Cherry Wine side of the equation posed an interesting challenge, because Gaudino’s team was looking for a high CBD producer that could also remain compliant as a hemp variety (clocking in under 0.3% THC content). That’s no small task. This process involved thousands of seeds and countless hours spent observing the different Cherry Wine plants. They landed on an ideal phenotype, one that brought a robust plant structure and healthy yield to the breeding process with Green Crack’s THC powerhouse lineage.

The parent plants here offered a vitality that would make growers’ jobs much easier—something that’s important when bringing commercial considerations into the breeding process.

“It finishes relatively quickly, so it’s good to work with in a commercial cannabis environment,” Gaudino says.

 

At Glass House Farms, that commercial cannabis environment spans more than 500,000 square feet of greenhouse space in southern California. Glass House Brands President and Chief Cannabis Officer Graham Farrar says that Tangelo Flo has been a  manageable cultivator—relatively simple to grow, easy on the eyes. More importantly, thought, Farrar is excited to get something like this onto store shelves. He says there’s a broad swath of consumers who are looking for products with this sort of chemical profile.

“Daily, everyday cannabis—I call it the ‘missing middle,’” he says. “We either have connoisseurs—people who have been here for 20 years and they jump through all the hoops and they go to the doctor to get their medical card—or we have the people who just walked in the door and they don’t know, in tequila parlance, 1942 from Jose Cuervo, right? My belief is that the middle is going to show up.”

Lower THC, higher CBD, a more even-keeled ensemble of effects: There’s a certain convenience and simplicity in a cultivar like that. Tangelo Flo is one of the early steps forward into that variation in the cannabis marketplace.

As for what’s next from FRB Genetics? This certainly won’t be the last 1:1 cultivar the team delivers. And Gaudino hints at more to come: “Besides this 1:1, we actually have a number of other 1:1s that are in the pipeline of development, which are based on trying to track down very specific terpene profiles that are very rare in the cannabis industry,” he says.

Glass House Farms recently launched a new 1:1 cultivar in partnership with FRB Genetics, providing the California cannabis market with a flower product that dials in the THC and CBD ratio pretty evenly. It’s called Tangelo Flo, and it’s finding its way to the market at a time when industry stakeholders and consumers are having in-depth conversations about potency, chemical profiles and minor cannabinoids.

Tangelo Flo offers a balanced cannabinoid profile (a “type-II” chemotype, in parlance that’s making its way into the commercial space, meaning one that features a mixed-ratio cannabinoid profile). Even as high-THC cultivars and products continue to top the sales charts, industry chatter is keen on a more balanced suite of chemicals. That’s where FRB Genetics’ R&D work has taken the team, led by Reggie Gaudino. 

A cross of Green Crack and Cherry Wine, the new cultivar boasts approximately 31% total cannabinoids and a rich, citrus-forward mango flavor. Green Crack is a THC heavyweight, and Cherry Wine is a popular hemp variety.

Courtesy of FRB Genetics

Front Range Biosciences runs a marker-assisted hemp breeding program, and the Cherry Wine options were fairly limitless for the FRB Genetics team. (FRB Genetics licenses the breeding technology from Front Range Biosciences, which is not a plant-touching company.) Gaudino’s wanted to showcase some of the good work being done on those hemp varieties—and perhaps usher those genetics into the broader adult-use cannabis space.

The Cherry Wine side of the equation posed an interesting challenge, because Gaudino’s team was looking for a high CBD producer that could also remain compliant as a hemp variety (clocking in under 0.3% THC content). That’s no small task. This process involved thousands of seeds and countless hours spent observing the different Cherry Wine plants. They landed on an ideal phenotype, one that brought a robust plant structure and healthy yield to the breeding process with Green Crack’s THC powerhouse lineage.

The parent plants here offered a vitality that would make growers’ jobs much easier—something that’s important when bringing commercial considerations into the breeding process.

“It finishes relatively quickly, so it’s good to work with in a commercial cannabis environment,” Gaudino says.

 

At Glass House Farms, that commercial cannabis environment spans more than 500,000 square feet of greenhouse space in southern California. Glass House Brands President and Chief Cannabis Officer Graham Farrar says that Tangelo Flo has been a  manageable cultivator—relatively simple to grow, easy on the eyes. More importantly, thought, Farrar is excited to get something like this onto store shelves. He says there’s a broad swath of consumers who are looking for products with this sort of chemical profile.

“Daily, everyday cannabis—I call it the ‘missing middle,’” he says. “We either have connoisseurs—people who have been here for 20 years and they jump through all the hoops and they go to the doctor to get their medical card—or we have the people who just walked in the door and they don’t know, in tequila parlance, 1942 from Jose Cuervo, right? My belief is that the middle is going to show up.”

Lower THC, higher CBD, a more even-keeled ensemble of effects: There’s a certain convenience and simplicity in a cultivar like that. Tangelo Flo is one of the early steps forward into that variation in the cannabis marketplace.

As for what’s next from FRB Genetics? This certainly won’t be the last 1:1 cultivar the team delivers. And Gaudino hints at more to come: “Besides this 1:1, we actually have a number of other 1:1s that are in the pipeline of development, which are based on trying to track down very specific terpene profiles that are very rare in the cannabis industry,” he says.

When Denver-based Lightshade and multi-state operator Holistic Industries made the switch from high pressure sodium (HPS) lighting to light-emitting diode (LED) technology in their cannabis cultivation facilities, each operation’s retrofit presented its own set of challenges and lessons learned, but both journeys started with similar reasons for the switch.

Dan Banks, the vice president of cultivation for Lightshade, says he analyzed the total amount of illumination needed at the company’s 20,000-square-foot greenhouse facility and determined that the 336 supplemental HPS lights in the space did not provide enough luminosity.

“You can get more illumination per watt of power used by the LEDs versus traditional HID/HPS lighting,” Banks says. “It’s more bang for your energy buck. For us, it was less about using less energy and more about using the energy more efficiently.”

In the spring of 2020, Lightshade installed roughly 200 of Fluence by OSRAM’s VYPR LED fixtures to complement its HPS lighting, and this past spring, the company commenced replacing all of its HPS lights with 440 additional LED fixtures.

“In terms of selecting the Fluence VYPR, my colleague, Nick [Drury], in his capacity working for MJardin in the past, had done a lot of different trials with LED lights, and he had liked what he had seen with Fluence,” Banks says. “… You know that they’re investing in the further development and R&D of their fixtures, and you know they’re going to support the lighting technology. That was big for us.”

Banks and his team were also impressed by the VYPR’s full spectrum white light, which allows them to increase the light intensity without photo bleaching. In addition, the low-profile VYPR fixture does not block the natural sunlight in Lightshade’s greenhouse.

Nick Denney, cultivation director for Holistic Industries, says energy efficiency also drove his company to make the switch from HPS to LED lighting, as did yield potential.

“The single biggest driver for yield in crops—not just cannabis, but any crop—would be light intensity, or the accumulation of light intensity over a single day,” Denney says. “With HPS bulbs, you can only get so much before you start having some pretty big issues inside your rooms, mainly with heat removal. With LEDs, you can stack them in closer together, you can get them closer to the canopy, and you have … a higher ceiling for light intensity, if that’s your only source of light.”

Safety also played a role in Holistic Industries’ decision to convert its indoor facilities to LEDs.

“HPS [lights] have gas inside of the lamps, so if one of those falls out of the fixture, we could have huge issues, not just for human health for the people inside of the rooms, but the flower that could be contaminated because of it,” Denney says.

In early 2020, Holistic Industries launched R&D on LED lighting in a few rooms of its Washington, D.C., facility, and later that year, the company began installing Fluence’s VYPR LED fixtures in its Pennsylvania and Massachusetts facilities. The company’s Maryland facilities are currently undergoing expansion, and all the new rooms—as well as the old cultivation spaces—will ultimately use the VYPR fixtures. In addition, Holistic Industries is currently building out new facilities in Michigan, Missouri and West Virginia, all of which will have LED lighting.

“Really what it came down to for us was the technical support and science … that [Fluence is] putting into the industry as a whole,” Denney says. “I’ve felt like that was really what set them apart from other lighting vendors. There are other great LEDs out there, but we were looking for a good partner to work with that would scale with us because we’ve been growing extremely fast.”

The Greenhouse Retrofit