Oklahoma Activists Clear Hurdle To Put Marijuana Legalization Initiative On 2026 Ballot After Avoiding Legal Challenges

Oklahoma marijuana activists have cleared a key procedural hurdle, announcing on Tuesday that their legalization ballot initiative was not legally challenged during a designated window.

Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) said that they’re now set to begin signature gathering to put the cannabis measure on the state’s 2026 ballot starting on August 6 “at the latest.”

“There are still several moving parts as the Secretary of State finalizes a few new forms and our signature sheet,” ORCA said. “We’ll have more info soon!”

The group previously said that, if no legal challenge was submitted, “we will work with the Secretary of State this week to finalize the signature packet and get a start date.”

Meanwhile, just about two months after ORCA revived their push to end prohibition in the state, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) gave final approval to legislation that some advocates worry will inhibit future citizen-led policy changes, including cannabis reform.

The law puts additional requirements on initiative “gist” language that voters see on the ballot and also revise policies around signature gathering to make it so petitioners could only submit signatures from up to 11.5 percent of registered voters in a single county for statutory proposals and 20.8 percent for constitutional measures.

ORCA founder Jed Green said in May that the group wouldn’t be deterred by the policy change.

Green suggested that getting the ballot proposal filed ahead of the legislature’s vote and governor’s signing of the bill could help ORCA potentially avert challenges associated with the more stringent requirements for initiative summary language. He said that was a deliberate decision, as the group “wanted to go ahead and get in line and get filed before lawmakers made this error in judgment.”

That said, he recognized the hypothetical possibility that the state attorney general could move to contest the language, which has “the potential to get real messy.” But considering that the secretary of state approved the gist of an earlier, 2023 version of the legalization proposal that voters ultimately rejected, Green floated the possibility of bringing him in as a witness in any challenge to defend the legality of the summary.

Here’s what ORCA’s latest marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:

If the measure is cleared for signature gathering, ORCA will need to collect at least 172,993 valid signatures to secure ballot placement.

Green previously said that one of the key differences between the initiative his organization is pushing and the one that failed at the ballot in 2023 is that it accounts for concerns about licensing rules. Many have criticized the rollout of the state’s medical marijuana law, which led to a dramatic proliferation of dispensaries, and Green said the failed adult-use measure effectively duplicated that licensing scheme.

Meanwhile in Oklahoma, lawmakers in 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 in January by a GOP legislator would criminalize the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.