At the 2024 American Farmers and Ranchers Convention in Oklahoma City, Associate Farm Editor Reagan Calk had the chance to visit with Attorney General Gentner Drummond about his latest battles with illegal marijuana grow operations in Oklahoma and the Environmental Protection Agency.
During his remarks at the convention, Drummond stated that the most impactful thing that has happened in Oklahoma since 2018 is the invasion of foreign nationals due to the marijuana industry.
“When we passed medical marijuana, we didn’t put good rules and laws in place,” Drummond said. “What happened is the bad guys figured that out, and they invaded Oklahoma.”
With over 12,000 marijuana grow operations in the state of Oklahoma, Drummond said over 11,000 of those operations were illegal. Drummond added that Chinese syndicated crime organizations and Sinaloa Mexican drug cartels populated these illegal operations.
At the convention, Drummond informed audience members that his “agents of 75 strong work every day to drive out illegal grow operations in the state of Oklahoma.” In fact, Drummond said they have been averaging shutdowns of 15 illegal operations per day for the last 12 months.
One interesting fact Drummond mentioned is that 60 percent of marijuana consumed in New York City is grown in Oklahoma.
“The Department of Justice called me and said, ‘Drummond, you are killing us,’” Drummond said.
Oklahoma is the number one exporter of marijuana, and the number one producer of fentanyl, Drummond added, but not for long.
“We have been shutting them down and pushing them out,” Drummond said. “We are down to just under 2800 grows in Oklahoma. We believe about 1800 of them are illegal.”
Drummond said Oklahomans can help the effort by anonymously reporting suspicious behavior they have seen or heard of at https://www.oag.ok.gov/illegal-marijuana-growbusiness-tipline.
“In 2021 we had 52 fentanyl overdoses,” Drummond said. “Last year we had over 800. To the listener, if you are consuming a pill that did not come from a pharmacy, you need to throw it away because every pill out there can kill. They are putting fentanyl in virtually everything. They have got presses now, the pill presses that make it look like an oxycontin, but it is instead laced with fentanyl.”
Regarding Drummond’s battles with the EPA over issues impacting rural Oklahoma, Drummond said the Fish and Wildlife Department has designated the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a threatened species.
“They want farmers and ranchers to report their grazing and stocking plans to the federal government, and I am fighting that,” Drummond said. “I am not going to let that happen under my watch. The farmer and the rancher know best how to stock and rotate his crops. We don’t need the federal government and the Biden Administration telling us.”
