Oklahoma Attorney General says fentanyl can be stopped by cracking down on illegal marijuana – FOX23 News

TULSA, Okla. — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond instructed FOX23 the rise of fentanyl can be stopped by stopping illegal marijuana on the root.

“It is coming up from Mexico, not that Mexicans are bringing it. It’s Chinese nationals,” Drummond defined.

He stated the individuals working lots of the illegal grows should not solely promoting and exporting illegally grown marijuana but in addition different medicine like fentanyl.

“You have this perfect storm where we created this mechanism. If lack of enforcement of illegal grows it is now blessed to all friends and family of illegal operators that have entered our state,” Drummond stated.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) stated it has shut down greater than 200 illegal grows. The state has round 8,000 registered business medical marijuana licenses. The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority stated since August of 2021 greater than 700 business medical marijuana licenses are now not lively.

Drummond stated that’s an ideal begin to getting fentanyl off the road and slowing down the document variety of fentanyl overdose deaths over the past two years.

“If we look at it [from] a macro perspective, fentanyl has been around but now, we have illegal grow operations of marijuana and then a distribution system that the illegal operators have set up. We have organized crime already breaking the law in Oklahoma…why not add fentanyl and other opioids, slave trafficking and sex trafficking? We have the distribution. Oklahoma is open for business. I intend to close it,” he stated.

OBN stated it suspects practically 2,000 develop operations statewide might be working illegally.

©2023 Cox Media Group